I guess I am going to Vermont. I bought a plane ticket tonight. Two days ago plane tickets were $305. By tonight the same flight was $481. I had put a reservation on hold. I decided to buy once I saw how cheap I could get a hotel. I had a $100 travel voucher and so I got a $500 ticket to Boston for $200! I fully intend to make very penny of that Saturday in my garage sale!!! The hotel breakthrough was what did it. I had a place reserved but it cost more than I wanted to pay because on July 4 it jumped up ONLY for that one night. I tried something new—I decided to check out July 4 and not stay the night, then drive down to Boston and stay July 4 and 5. Sure enough. Somehow actually checking in ON the holiday did NOT subject me to higher rates and so I have CHEAPO hotel rooms for New England on July 4. But the best part is that on my return flight there is not ONE available seat anymore. You know what that means. I have an EXCELLENT chance of getting bumped. When they ask for volunteers I will be first in line. Being bumped means free tickets. There is a method to my madness. I have an AWFUL seat on that flight—in the back in the middle of two people. Not a single aisle or window was open. I HATE that. But I intend to be bumped—if not I will read a very long book for four hours.

I locked in hotels and rental cars, but I might change those. The ticket was the biggie—buy it or forget it. The main reason I am going is to be in New England and get away. I am being honest: Ministry is secondary this time. Let’s face it, no one is impressed with the ministry moniker anyway. No one cares—okay Darrell and Terry do, and I think Robin does, but I think she worries about all my travel. But I just know I have to be away. I hesitated on this trip. Money money money. And I truly almost did not do it. But it is just fear. Blasted poopie fear. I am going to be an aggressive garage sale queen Saturday. And by golly if I have to go to work for temp agencies for a bit, I will! (In fact I already applied.)

Anyway, my brain is very full and I intend to empty it in New England! I was thinking of going elsewhere.

I thought, okay, Tyrrell, fine, go away, but go somewhere cheaper—not the 4th of July week when everything is at a premium. So I looked up where John Bevere would be, looked up worship conferences. I almost signed up for one in Dallas—the big dance one, but it is $200 for the conference and another $200 for the hotel—and on the off chance my class makes, I could not do both. It was close. I sat there wondering what I could do… states I have not been to in my quest to see all 50. But you know what came out of my mouth?

“I have done everything I want to do.”

Now of course that is not entirely true. I want to sky dive and fly a plane and dance on Pointe on stage and a bunch of other things. I have yet to see all 50 states, though my numbers will increase dramatically next month. So I did not literally mean I had done EVERYTHING. But in some ways the truth of that rang in me. I have lived such a full life of doing stuff the last few years. Now it is time to settle down. It is like I came to Texas, grew up, learned to live and now I am going home. Darrell says it best in the first video from spring break-only he was making a joke. How true it was.

Does this make sense? It does inside, but I can’t even explain it all yet. But I do know that New England is the one place I want to see. I can’t think of many places I have not been that I am dying to see—Minnesota and Montana maybe just for their own beauty. But after falling hopelessly in love with PA and seeing upstate NY and bits and pieces of that area, I am very excited to spend my last blast trip with God on the East Coast, savoring the gorgeous beauty and cool summer breezes of the New England region. Temp work will be my friend!!!

Meanwhile let’s all remember that July 14 is my citizenship interview. They are going to ask me what America means to me, blah blah blah. And how absolutely COOL to say that I spent the 4th of July in Boston. How appropriate.

Plymouth Rock, here I come.