Eight Years Later . . .

Eight years ago – January 2001 – Mistah Schleckah and I started our Grand Adventure. We quit our jobs, rented out our house, bought a 1987 VW “Westy” camper, and hit the road. We left Connecticut on January 11 and arrived in the Florida Keys 5 days later.
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And a few days after that, on January 20, 2001, George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd U.S. President.

We were not happy about that development.

That’s the Miami Herald, January 21, 2001, with the headline: “Bush Sworn In”.

We weren’t the only ones feeling despair that day. Ol’ Long Neck, who tormented us constantly for food scraps, he was feeling despondent too.

It was the very, very beginning, the first few days, of what we thought might be a year or so on the road, and turned into, well, into eight. Two terms. Bush’s entire presidency.

Interesting, isn’t it?

But after the inauguration, we tried not to let the fact that a guy we both thought was completely incapable of being President – never mind the means by which he got to office – get us down too much.

We were, after all, in the Keys. At Bahia Honda State Park, our own little slice of heaven.

We had a killer campsite,

we became acquainted with the local Key Deer (which, by the way, it is a federal offense to feed),

and with the iconic Bahia Honda Bridge – this time from the water, in a friend’s fishing boat.

Oh, we went fishing . . .

. . . and caught our first fishies ever.

But it was a nagging, disturbing feeling, those first few weeks, and, increasingly, obviously, in the years since then, that something was wrong. That something was awry. That things were out of whack and out of sorts and fully out of kilter.

We’ve driven 7 or 8 loops around the country and 125,000 miles during Bush’s two terms in office. While the rest of the country was suffering through bad decisions, and declarations of war, and either hubris or stupidity – depending on your point of view – we were traveling through deserts and seashores and mountains, living a pretty great existence, slightly apart from everyone else.

And reading newspapers religiously, of course. And listening to NPR nonstop, and ranting with our friends from Fort Davis, Texas to Moraga, California; from Chicago, Illinois to Asheville, North Carolina.

And now it’s over. Bush’s administration and, weirdly, our travels. At least for now.

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Eight years ago, I was in a campground and had no TV – although I wouldn’t have watched a moment of the proceedings, if I had. And now, 8 years later . . . I still don’t have a TV. I do, however, work in a Tavern. And I watched TV on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. And was riveted. Full of hope and emotion and excitement.

And yes, of course I ignored my customers.

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Okay, okay, I realize this is the newspaper from the day after Obama got elected, not the day after he became President. This one we have in the house tonight, though; Wednesday's, which I read cover-to-cover at the Tavern, we don't.
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Now, finally, a bookend later, things feel right. Things feel good and true and positive. And hopeful.

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Jacquie and Beth have articulated it eloquently the last few days. And I'm right there with them. Hope. Readiness. The Big O.

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¡Viva Obama!