Sarah’s Epic Train Trip: A Reflection

Feel free to skip this one… it’s just a look back ramble…

I’m tired and my back is killing me, but I am so glad I took this trip. It ended up being a couple days longer than I planned, but it was entirely worth it.

A year ago, I was sitting in a hospital bed with a very dangerous infection eating a hole in my spine. I could barely move. I could barely walk by myself. I was in extraordinary pain. Pain like I’ve never known before, despite having kidney stones and a torn knee and a couple of fractured bones. I required assistance from my mom and from nurses to do basically everything.

This year, I was off traveling by myself to new places and experiencing new things. Not only that, I made this trip by myself. I had nobody else to rely on. It took massive logistical planning. But I did it.

When I got divorced, I never thought travel like this is something that I could do. I contemplated traveling many times before, but stopped myself because I was convinced that I couldn’t do it by myself. Yet here I am, home from a three week trip, and I’m so proud of myself. And I’ve got so many people who are proud of me as well. And I think that’s the most touching part. I’ve had so much support from my family and friends. So I think all of you for making this trip even better.

Someone asked what my favorite part of this trip was, and I honestly can’t pick one thing. I loved each of the three cities for different reasons.

Washington DC was amazing because of all of the post-American Revolutionary War history. The monuments were breathtaking. Seeing where our government lies, especially considering it was under attack in January, was overwhelming. Seeing the documents that our nation was founded upon literally made me cry. And yes, I know I’m usually on an emotional roller coaster, but this was different.

New York City was amazing because of the way of life there. It was bright lights and amazing experiences. I finally got to see not one, but two shows on Broadway. I got to go to a taping of a late night talk show. Times Square was everything I’d hoped for. The museums were fantastic. As far as culture goes, I couldn’t have asked for more.

I loved Boston because of the history. Getting to see where the Declaration of Independence was read and where the Boston Massacre happened and seeing the trail where Paul Revere rode to warn of the British Invasion was awesome. Plus I got to see where some of our founding fathers are buried, and how history shaped Boston.

I can’t forget Salem. That city’s way of life is both semi-comical, and neat. Knowing that people dress as witches and monsters and freely roam year round (and people don’t think it’s strange) was just odd to me. But it was neat that they do that and no one thinks twice. If that’s how it was a couple of days before October, I can only imagine what it’s like during October. Plus, I got to see Kat for the first time in ten plus years. It was wonderful getting to catch up with her, and spending some time wandering around aimlessly like we used to do in college. As an aside, her and her little pregnant belly are absolutely adorable. I can’t wait to meet baby Kat.

Bookending my trip in Virginia was also really nice. I know my friend wishes he could have gone on the trip with me, but getting to see him at the beginning and the end of my trip made me feel like he was a part of it, which was really special.

Will I ever do a trip like this again? Probably not. I was lucky in that stars aligned and everything fell into place. Yes, a few things didn’t go as planned, and I didn’t get to see everything that I wanted to, but that’s okay. I can go to those places and fill in those gaps later. But I will be traveling more. This trip just showed me that I CAN do these things by myself. I shouldn’t be afraid to go and do them. I’d love to go back to New York in the winter time and experience that, because I think it would just make the city that much more interesting.

So while this is the end of this bout of travel, there definitely will be more to come. And when I make those trips, I will return here and update. Next summer I have a family reunion in outer banks, and I intend to update during that trip. I probably won’t update when I go to Florida to see my family, unless I do a bunch of running around while I’m there. But I hope to be able to update you all with travel to new places in the future.

Thank you all for going on this trip with me. I hope you had as good of a time as I did. And I will see you next trip!