I can't believe you're still checking the site. I'll be sending out an email soon. We're resurrecting ThereGoesJohn for one last road trip together.

I know I've worried a few of you by disappearing like I did. I still haven't answered many emails asking if I was OK. Suffice to say that I'm fine. The exhaustion of fourteen months of travel, culture shock of returning to the U.S. and uncertainty of my immediate future were all way, way more overwhelming than I expected.

I thought I'd be able to wander back into my old life without missing a step. Turns out not only have i changed while I was gone, my "old life" isn't exactly how I left it either. I'm different. America's different. Americans are different. But that's always the way.

The last few months have been a bit like grinding the gears really badly on your car. Everything will eventually fit together but it makes some really ugly sounds getting all the little parts synchronized.

But as I get ready for one last cross-country adventure all the strangeness reminds me of show a guy named Jay Shadler did one time. He was a reporter for ABC News and did an hour special on how he hitchiked across the U.S. He did such a good job with it I still remember a line from the ending. I'm not sure his optimism still fits today, but it's good writing nonetheless.

"If it sometimes seems that it's all slipping away, that's because it is. America is always slipping away. To a new place. A better place. Down the road."

I'm off to my Dad's in Martinsville, Virginia on Sunday. Shortly thereafter I hope to head off for a cross-country road trip before going back to work.

"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time."
- T.S. Eliot