While I’m on vacation this week I’ve asked my good friend, Haley, who I’ve known since 1st grade to write a post on my blog. She is an awesome writer and has started blogging recently. She is full of life and her laugh is definitely contagious and you’ll love her!

Road-trips make me think of a rental van, a pair of Aussie blokes, and my boyfriend in the Outback aiming to see a rock.

Ever seen an insect storm on a large scale? Thousands of winged, antennae’d beings migrating, fleeing, and invading the air. I saw one on the way to Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock), the mammoth stone of ever-changing hue in the center of Australia. A locust storm, surely not one of biblical proportions but present enough to amaze a person. In the midst of the cloud of critters were sprite-sized birds swooping down for their evening dinner, feathered terrorists at their Country Buffet. The sun was low on the horizon and most the wildlife come out to play at that time of the day, an approaching twilight bound for dark, the magic hour (for life and otherwise). It was gone as soon as it came. In the passenger seat I couldn’t help but wish we weren’t just destination-bound but could enjoy the meandering about of true explorers. These days, more often than not, we see the landscape only as a streak, like the blurred tail of a comet.

Although, I’d take something over nothing at all. The trip to Uluru was a rush, yet it was an one of the jolly rollicking kind. A frantic frolic that leaves you breathless and dizzy but full of fuzzy happy feelings. Wistfully, I smiled with my mouth closed, a whimsical one for the road.

Even when landscapes blur, the wind in your hair and the sun puddling in your lap makes up for it. As Stephanie currently drives North to our shared birth-place, the Ever Green Northwest, I anticipate my own trip East-ward next month.

This’ll mark a permanent change in my life. I’m moving out of Los Angeles after five great years here.

It’ll be my second roundtrip across America. It’s a super special build-up because once I hit the Big Apple I’ll be reconciling with my man who I’ve not seen since March. (Yes, the very same one that I rock-gazed with back in Ozland). He’s coming in from a sojourn across Europe. I can’t wait to see his bright eyes and shaggy chin. The moment I arrive downtown, my buddies that drove along with me will be booted to the curb with my eyes already zoned ahead and a barely there wave over the back of my shoulder. Love waits for nobody.

I am prepping my room right now for the exodus. The empty white walls tell you nothing of my story. But if you look hard enough, there’ll be strands of golden hair whispering sweet nothings. “Adieu, adieu sunny California. It’s time for the car, the sun, the unknown, and a new place tomorrow.”

Place of settlement will be Austin, Texas. Which is smack-dab in the middle of nothing we both know.

Have you ever picked up your pieces and relocated just to see how it goes?