It was probably early summer last year when I bought myself the first (and only) guidebook of the Gazeta Wyborcza "Dream Journeys" series, which accompanied the paper's Saturday issue - it was The National Parks of the American West and it only cost PLN 5,00. It never dawned on me then that it was the beginning of an adventure: I started reading the book immediately after coming home and did not stop until (well, a short break for sleep) late Sunday afternoon. It was then that a dream was born: to visit the American West, especially California - possibly go to San Francisco and then the national parks: Yosemite, Death Valley, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and, ideally, Mojave Desert.
The chances for my California dreaming come true were at that time, well, slim: given that my prospective traveling companion, who has at least a 50% vote in matters such as vacation plans, would not hear of a trip to the U.S. until they stopped the humiliating procedure of mercifully granting us visas, I could count on making my dream tour... in retirement.
And then the unexpected happens - In February and then in April 2008 HE HAS TO GO TO THE U.S., which he does, and he loves it, and he says we have to go there together, stay longer, see more.
Lucky me, lucky, lucky, lucky me.
Due to the scarcity of guidebooks about America on the local book market, I discovered the merits of Wikipedia in my preparations for the journey. Every time I went on Wikipedia, my appetite grew. I so hoped that this U.S. trip of mine was not happening too soon, because a dream that comes true that easily somehow loses its quality of a dream. And we want to "dream on" - like Gatsby;). A propos Gatsby - delaying the trip too much might have produced a disaster as well - the dream could have grown so huge that the reality would never possibly match it, as has often happened with those dreams of America;). I was surely at a loss...
As it turned out, timing was just right. I spent three weeks in August in San Francisco and its environs (well, we made 5,100 miles, which makes up 8 thousand kilometers or so), I traveled through 6 states: California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona (to be precise, I also set foot in Idaho and New Mexico - but that's only for the record). Here are MAP 1 and Map 2 of the journey (a little patience is needed for the maps to load, sorry).
The subsequent entries in this blog-memoir will contain pictures. There will be two types of pictures: very-nice ones, (marked (S)), taken by Simon, who traveled with me and M for some time, and not-so-very-nice-but-hopefully-nice-as-well ones taken by myself. Sometimes I will add a map or an illustration downloaded from Google's Images, but those will be obvious.
P.S. I'm writing this blog to name the things that have brought me joy - not my words, unfortunately;) But does it matter, if the sentiment is mine?
1 comment:
This dream that has finally come true has an extraordinary quality- it definately inspires other dreamers!
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