Well, on the bright side I get to stay in San Francisco for a few extra days. On the not-so-bright side I’ll be missing out on what I wanted to do in Oregon, which is fine.

I guess it’ll always be there and remain circled on the map as one of the places I’ll get around to visiting later on in my life.  Oh well.

Due to extenuating(what a word!) circumstances, I’ll spend two more days in San Francisco with my best friend. You won’t hear a peep of a complaint from me regarding that one.

I’ve learned that when the road takes something away from you, it always gives you something in return. I had a similar experience in Phoenix when I was stuck for an extra week there because of my car. I was supposed to hang out in L.A. for a week, but I never got to go visit. In exchange I got to be with one of my great friends for an extra few days.

Seeing things is cool, yes, but in the grand scheme of things it means a lot more to spend even an extra day or two with a best friend who lives far away from you.

And if you think about it, there’s always more to do and more to see anywhere you go. I can’t possibly witness everything that the American west has to offer. So when I think about it like that I realize that something will be missed no matter how much time I spend in a certain state, city, or place. That makes me feel good.

The road will throw anything it can at you.

The other night I had a girl sit next to me and she struck up a conversation. It turns out she’s a backpacker herself from Canada who drove down the coast through Washington and Oregon to get to San Francisco. Pretty cool. She had been backpacking around the world for five years. She was living out of her van with some people who I also met.

I love to meet people like her during my travels. People who are just wandering with no rhyme or reason, completely unattached from the bonds of a corporate job in the city, finding ways to make money doing odd jobs along the way. It’s people like that who got it right in my opinion–not that there’s anything wrong with having a job in the city and supporting yourself that way.

There are nomads. There are people who have had the blinds ripped back to see that a life of travel is worth limited living spaces, food, and money.

The road always gives, even though it’s unpredictable. Somehow things always work out, all you have to do is get yourself out there and start traveling to see it.