I had planned to travel in the Summer of 1985, but I had not counted on leaving the country entirely. When the time arrived I was excited and a bit nervous — I had wanted to get away, but this was farther than I had ever gone before.
I had planned carefully for my trip out west across the country. Now that I was going east across the ocean I felt that I was not fully in control of my journey. That was both exciting and scary. This trip was taking me into the unknown in a way that I had not anticipated.
I also found myself thinking about Martin. He had left his home in Ireland around the age that I was now to find work, first in England and then in America. I had known him only as an old man, but now I felt closer to who he was at my age. Now I was taking his journey full circle.