Post Trip Thoughts

November 1, 2011 - I still have the gnome.  He sits up on my shelf along with various travel mementos from my trip; a book, an alligator head, and the stuffed armadillo; among a variety of other things.  Additionally, I've set the cactus next to the gnome, reminding both himself and I of all the fun we had while traveling and the buddy I leave behind for a year in Tucson.

Alaskan enough?

I had an amazing time on my trip.  I got to see strange and wondrous places, meet fun and interesting people, and do things that I would have never had the opportunity to do.  Most importantly, I got to do these things with one of my best friends; which made the trip that much more memorable.

I miss my buddy.

And yes, Bruce and I still talk to each other.  He's my battle buddy, after all, through thick and thin.

I have a lot of good memories from this trip.  If you have been following what I have been doing, you may also know that I have a lot of trinkets from this trip too.  Here are a few of some of my favorites.

This alligator head from Louisiana scares the cats all the time.

The armadillo from Carlsbad Campground.

Authentic Mississippian sunglasses given to me by Blues Legend Chris Gill.

A book from Arlington and a collection of postcards from Carlsbad Caverns.

I probably mentioned that I had gotten a lot of keychains too.  I tried to get one from every state and didn't do too bad with that goal.  Here are a few of the ones that I really like.

My keychain from Canada.

Out-of-this-world keychains from Roswell, New Mexico.

One can never have too many bear things.

A keychain Bruce got me in Tucson.

Oh, and all those bumper stickers I've been talking about...yeah.  They got put to good use.  Check out the back of the trailer now.

There's still room for a few more.

I look forward to the last part of the trip.  In the fall of 2012 I plan on traveling back down to Tucson and helping Bruce come back to Alaska.  With my camera in one hand, and the gnome in the other, we will hopefully have as much fun as we did on the first part of the trip.