2.) Departure

    After working nearly non-stop since I was 15, not having a job is a strange feeling.  It bothers me that my account balances will only decrease for the forseable future.  But I've been dreaming about a trip like this for ever.  20 years from now, you'll regret the things you didn't do a hell of a lot more than the things you did.  Thats what I tell myself, as I pull out of my neighborhood of 7 years in northwest Houston,TX.

It doesn't do much to combat the anxiety, the creeping suspicion that I've made a terrible mistake; that I'm just running away from something and I'm not completely aware of what that something is.  But the open road has a soothing effect, almost hypnotic.  And as the miles unfurl beneath me, I still can't concoct a definitive answer, but the feeling slowly becomes less prickly and I let my mind wander to the sights and sounds of the places ahead.