Maurie's Reflections from July 4th

First of all, Mark is one of those people who cannot easily carry on a conversation while driving. Nor, really while being a passenger in a car. In one case he is so focused on the road and traffic and in the other he tends to just fall asleep. I'm not sure what makes the bus different, but it is. He enjoys the opportunity to take his mind off the road and focus it on some good conversation with his wife, something she doesn't mind at all! Or he can spend an uninterrupted 45 minutes reading, something I am sure he really appreciates since his day to day life seems to leave little time for extracurricular reading. With the extra reading time he may just get through that book by presidential candidate Obama BEFORE the election. I enjoy the extra time for reading as well. Where I tend to get car sick reading in a car, this is not the case on a bus, at least not on the freeway. And though I have more reading time than Mark does I also have a much longer book list. A writer must read! I got further through "Three Cups of Tea" on Friday than I had in a quite a while.

We even made some new friends. A couple of cyclists who were making their way south by bike and having quite the adventure of it. They had stopped to catch a bus for the last leg of the day after getting thoroughly lost and we were able to offer some help once we got back to Olympia. It all made a great story and had us laughing for hours afterwards. We never would have met these guys had we been in our car. That was worth the trip by bus all on its own. It's situations like this that create community not to mention give a writer some good fodder for future stories.

What we may have considered as cons to taking the bus for this trip turned out to be pros. We got home at a reasonable hour, met some fun folk, relaxed, and had a great time. I think we're learning the truth in the adage "It's not the destination, but the journey that matters."

Maurie