The Great Experiment

I didn't get much sleep that night. In part because I wanted to get up at five to give myself plenty of time to return my car and catch my 8:10am flight, in part because my head was full of thoughts: about the trip, about the past three weeks of my life, about new places visited and new friends made, about the adventure I had just ended and the one I was just beginning.

The only rough spot on the trip home was returning my rental car. I thought I was going to be charged only $223.99 per week plus change, but I was so giddy when I got here three weeks ago that I hadn't figured on thirty dollars of insurance a day actually adding up to anything. On top of that I was billed a surcharge for having been given the specific car I was given (a 'special fullsize' costs more than a 'fullsize', I found out), an airport tax, and several various other small fees which added another thousand dollars to what I originally thought I'd be paying. Whups. It's my own fault for not having read the fine print and done the math; live and learn. At least that extra insurance had given me the peace of mind that if I wrecked the car, I wouldn't be liable for it. Heck, with this much insurance, I could have driven through Epcot blindfolded and not been liable for it. Disney might even have thanked me for helping knock down Horizons.

After a delayed flight and then a change of planes in Phoenix which led to an overbooked anddelayed connecting flight, I made it back to San Francisco International just after one o'clock in the afternoon. My friend Eve met me at the airport and brought me back to my apartment out here.

After the clean, spacious highways and communities of Florida, California looks dirty and crowded, asphalt and concrete crowded up against each other to use all of the available space. It's not quite home any more, and I know that before I can feel at home in Celebration, there's a lot more hard work on the road ahead.

Bring it on!

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