Hurray! I'm looking forward to your update.

Lee Ann

Mother and Child Reunion

I’m waiting impatiently in the BART station on Saturday evening when the train from SFO arrives, and all I can do is watch the head of the stairs to see if the Scruffman was on this run. Then, lo and behold, I see his scruffy face, head topped with a very-familiar-from-photos scarf, rise through the stairwell and he’s finally here! I can hardly wait until he comes through the turnstile and I give a yelp and we have a big hug, until he says, “Mom, you’re pulling on my dreadlocks.” So I have to let go. The others in the station look at us quizzically – they couldn’t possibly imagine the import of this greeting!

My boy sports the same scruffy beard, reasonably well trimmed, and his dreadlocks, perhaps four inches long when he left home, now hang below his shoulders, although he usually wears them in a ponytail or a knot at the back of his head. His clothes are the usual well-worn jeans and a brown T-shirt. On his back is the pack he picked out a year ago at REI while I watched, now grubby from its long travels. His face is more weathered, he’s lean and muscled, but all in all he looks like himself, in good flesh and with a happy glow.

So then it’s the short drive home, where he greets the dogs, with special attention for Bear, who was so deathly ill last winter but has now recovered. They’re all over him, delighted to see him after his long absence. He hadn’t eaten since early morning in Brussels, as airport security had relieved him of his bread, granola, and peanut butter – allowing him, however, to keep his jam, go figure! (Whatever is problematic about bread, granola, and peanut butter?) Fortunately, I had pizza fixings ready to go, one of his favorite meals – fresh dough made, sauce cooked, cheese grated, vegetables chopped. Twenty-five minutes after he walked in the door, he was tucking into it with gusto and topping it off with handfuls of homemade snickerdoodles.

Despite the fact that he’s been awake since 5 am Brussels time, when I crashed around midnight, he went out with some friends for a few hours more! Ah, to be young again and careless of one’s sleep…

An Inventory

My housemate is traveling and graciously offered to let Greg sleep in her (his old) room, so for three nights I can provide an actual bed. Greg’s comment when he awakes the next morning is that he almost felt guilty being so comfortable, like he should get down and sleep on the floor. That’s OK, when my housemate returns, he’ll be surfing on my couch.

He empties his pack. It doesn’t take long. He has two T-shirts and two pairs of pants, along with one pair of light flannel pajama pants he left home with. One pair of pants are his snowboarding pants, which he hung onto all the way through India – the shorts he bought there are gone. He has a zip-up wool sweater which he acquired by swapping his Nepali yak-wool sweater to someone who was headed into colder climes. He remarks that this is really all he needs. He’s planning on getting a new pack, a smaller one, because he discovered that when he has a bigger pack, he just fills it up with more stuff. After a year of living out of a backpack, his needs have become even fewer. Anyway, everything goes into the washer, especially his jacket which smells like I don’t know what – but bad. It all makes up about a third of a load in the washing machine.

Along with the inevitable dirty laundry, he has a small package about the size of a fist, which is a gift for me. It turns out to be a gorgeous silk scarf from India, fuchsia and purple and gold – it sounds a bit garish, but it is really beautiful. He knows I love scarves. He said he also saw a really pretty green one, and he knows green is my favorite color, but this one “spoke” to him more. I didn’t see the green one of course, but I’m really pleased with my gift, which he hung onto all through the Himalayas and four months in Leiden.

And what did he bring back internally? Greg says he’s absolutely fine and has no lingering health problems. He went back to get the lab report so he’d know what he was tested for, but they couldn’t find it, so we’ll never know what they established he didn’t have. But apparently he is once again in the pink.

The most striking thing the Scruffman returned with was a radically different mindset, far more radical than you might imagine. He was aghast at and emotionally drained by the incredible poverty he saw in India, the very young, barely clothed children living full-time literally on the street, sleeping on the medians of busy roads with traffic whizzing by, children without parents or even the most remote opportunity for a decent life. This was beyond mere compassion. He was angered by the inequities of a world in which the distribution of an essential commodity such as food is so uneven, so poorly matched to the needs of humans. He was angered by the failure of developed countries to do anything about it. He was angered by the casual waste in the developed world. He doesn’t see this shockingly excessive inequality as something amenable to change from within the system. I think he’s not sure there’s a way to change matters on a global level. He is thinking about ways to change matters on a personal level, as he has developed an antipathy to anything connected with politics, government, and the consumerist/capitalist system as inherently antithetical to the global justice he seeks.

I recognize his idealism, a more extreme version of what I thought at his age. My idealism grew from a college education. Greg’s grew from his experiences in Mumbai, Delhi, Pokhara and Leiden. The vast majority of youthful idealists, myself included, eventually make some degree of accommodation to the status quo in the interest of a modicum (or more) of material comfort and the desire to change something, if we cannot change everything. I wonder if his still pure idealism will endure, can endure. My own take is that it will be a shame if it does not.

Glad he's home safe and sound Arts. My nephew did two trips around the world in his 20's, having some long stays in London, Ireland, Australia, and Greece. Don't know how he got around the visa thing, but I didn't ask. He worked, under the table, at the pub in London, living in an apartment above it. He was traveling at that time with a girl from Australia, so perhaps she helped him stay longer. As said, I just don't know.

He finished his second trip in Zimbabwe, as it was falling apart and the violence was increasing. He didn't stay there long, for obvious reasons, came home, and went back to school. He's now married, living and working in Sacramento, and he and his wife are expecting their second child.

I'll be interested to find out where Scruffman goes from here. Enjoy your time with him.

thanks for the update! how thrilled you must be!

Thank you for the update! My son, although only 17, has many similar world views as your son. It sure does open one's eyes to travel and see the world instead of just hearing about it on tv and in the news.

Final Tales from the Road

The fun part of our visit, of course, is hearing more about his travels, in between his slipping out to hang with his friends and to play open mics. I’ll include some tidbits here.

A Musical Tour

As longtime followers know, the Scruffman left his guitar, with his iPod also in the case, in a car in Michigan while hitchhiking. The kind provider of the ride mailed the guitar back to me (at Greg’s expense). I then shipped the guitar and iPod (again at Greg’s expense) to his friend Russell, who was studying in Florence, for Greg to pick up when he passed through. The guitar and iPod were hung up in Italian customs so long that Greg had left for India before it was released. Greg acquired another guitar early in his visit to India, and kept it through India and Nepal. Before leaving Nepal he gave it to the Nepali who had guided him around the Annapurna Circuit and hosted him in his village. Once Greg had returned to Leiden, Russell mailed the original guitar and iPod, which had been marooned in Italy for several months, to Greg there. The package was returned to Italy, having run into a problem somewhere on its journey, two days before Russell was to fly home to the US. Russell extracted the iPod, but the guitar is now in other hands in Italy. In the interim, both in Leiden and at home, Greg has been able to borrow guitars and continue developing his musical skills. Russell returned the iPod to Greg at home in the US. The few days he was here without a guitar, he was clearly missing his musical outlet terribly, but he has since acquired yet another.

While in Goa, Greg learned to play slide guitar, apparently in about a week’s time. This requires tuning the guitar to an open G chord and using a tube placed on a finger to “slide” up and down the neck of the guitar to change chords. This technique permits sound effects equivalent to those a slide trombone can make – it’s very interesting. He learned using a small medicine bottle, which he had to hold instead of fitting it over his finger – that must have been a challenge. In Hampi he found a music store and bought himself a glass slide – he commented that the store was spotlessly clean, making him feel incredibly filthy in comparison. But within three weeks the glass slide was broken and he was back on the medicine bottle. He didn’t acquire another slide – this time metal – until he returned to Leiden.

Nonetheless, he's developed a considerable amount of facility with the slide. He mostly composes (or maybe it's "improvises") most of his music, or jams with others. It was a real pleasure to listen to him play. I haven't heard him play much sine he left home, and even then he used to play almost exclusively in his room with the door shut. He's gotten a whole lot more comfortable with having an audience.

A Little More on India

In retrospect, Greg remarked that the cities of India were uniformly hideous, although he found Mumbai the least unpleasant. Delhi seemed to be the very worst, although it sounds like Varanasi gave it some serious competition. One event that it’s good I probably didn’t hear about at the time: Greg acquired multiple ugly mosquito bites on much of his body, including some on his feet, and two of the bites on his feet became infected. He visited a doctor in Delhi and was given an antibiotic and some ointment – total charge, about $2. He couldn’t wear any kind of shoes because they rubbed on the infected bites, so he toured Delhi barefoot. Mom winces. If it had been me, I would have stayed in the guesthouse until I could wear shoes again!

The Annapurna Circuit

I thought that the Scruffman had only hiked a bit of the circuit, as he had said to expect an internet blackout of three weeks, but I heard from him again within five or six days. As it turned out, contrary to what he expected, at some points he was able to e-mail from the road. So he did indeed hike the entire circuit in the company of Saresh and Jimmy.

He made abundantly clear to both young men that he was unable to pay them anything other than room and board at a very low-cost level while hiking. Jimmy apparently made periodic efforts to cadge some extra cash from him, but Saresh stuck to the bargain without complaint. Greg’s photos from the Himalayas are fantastic. It’s amazing to see so much gorgeous real estate with no human leavings in evidence other than the odd cairn with its string of prayer flags.

I also enjoyed his photos of Jimmy and Saresh. They are such well proportioned men, graceful and slender, that I did not notice how short they are until seeing a photo of Greg with them. So commonly, here in the US at least, short people have proportions that make them look short in photos even when there is nothing to measure them against for scale.

Perhaps his favorite mode of transportation during his entire trip was the buses of Nepal because he could ride on top. He has several photos of himself, Saresh, and Jimmy lounging among the backpacks on the rack atop the bus as the scenery rolls by.

Squatting Again in Leiden

Greg didn’t e-mail ahead to his Leiden friends. He just showed up at the multiplex, a former office building that has been converted by squatters into apartments, walked into a gathering, and sat down next to one of his friends – who did a double-take when he saw who had turned back up. The Scruffman immediately fell back into his slot at The Couch, the squatted former bar. It sounds like his “bedroom” was a sort of windowless half-height loft, which makes me feel claustrophobic just to hear about. He was more or less running the couchsurfing function of The Couch, answering surf requests and showing visiting surfers around town.

The squatting community in Leiden, as elsewhere in the Netherlands, faces a period of great uncertainty. As of October 1, squatting became illegal. No one knows, however, if or when the law will be enforced. After all, marijuana is illegal in the Netherlands, but since you can buy it openly in cafes dedicated solely to its distribution, it’s clear that a decision was made not to enforce that law at all. There are 50,000 squatters in the Netherlands, so it’s unlikely that the police will show up immediately to turn them all out, as that would create an enormous homeless population, and no doubt there isn’t vacant housing for that many people even if they could afford it. Squatting has a long tradition and a great deal of acceptance. For example, the large and beautiful canal house that Greg helped squat was vacant for four years. Rather than the neighbors being displeased that it was being squatted, they are actually happy because one of the first things the squatters did was to pull down an ugly, decrepit chain link fence the neighbors hated and build an attractive picket fence instead. Owners can only evict squatters if they are ready, including with financing, to renovate and move into (or rent out or sell) the building. In practice it doesn’t happen. Squatted buildings are abandoned buildings, perhaps being held for investment but long idle. Wasted space.

On one of the other threads, someone accused Greg of being a parasite. This bears a little discussion because of all the time he spent among the squatters in the Netherlands. All of these people are living off leftovers and cast-offs – what others do not want. They occupy housing that has long been idle and empty. They repair and improve these abodes using what they can scrounge. They furnish with what others have thrown out. Their food comes from dumpsters, and sometimes pre-dumpsters – an organic grocery gives them all the old stuff at the end of the day on Friday, and they use whatever comes their way to produce a meal for the eetcafe on Friday night. (Greg says that’s always a challenge, as they never know what they will have until about 5 pm, which doesn’t give a lot of time to come up with a menu and put it together before the café opens at 8.) Alternatively, these buildings are vacant, leftover building supplies and cast-off furniture end up in a dump, and the food rots and is disposed of. I don’t find using throwaways to be parasitism. It is economy, in a smaller and larger sense. It is the highest form of recycling: reuse. I can’t think of a single reason to condemn it.

What an amazing read. So glad he is back home safe and sound and what an fabulous year.
You're a great mom.

artsnletters, thank you for the update. I've been checking in every couple of days to find out about the reunion.

Thank you so much for this long-awaited conclusion! Greg (and his Mother) have become a part of my consciousness. Keep us informed of any developments. CJ

The Joys of Home

While my hippie son has turned my living room into a bedroom, he’s enjoying his hometown again. He particularly remarks on the sun – “They don’t have sun like this in Leiden!” He also remarks on the smell – whether it’s trees or the Bay or whatever, an instantly evocative smell that he loves. His favorite thing about staying at my house: baths, as opposed to many, many, many months of showers. After initial protest, he capitulates and lets me set him up with a cell phone, making him directly reachable for the first time in a year.

He’s out with his friends a lot, but he also made up a big batch of vegetarian Moroccan couscous (with my ingredients, of course, but delicious) and hosted a gang at my house, along with my young German housemate and her visiting boyfriend. All in all that was a very fun, lively party, and the chow was great. I have been introduced to the joys of cumin, which must count as the Scruffman’s favorite spice. I also made a baked mac ‘n’ cheese and he invited some of his friends over to share that as well. His couchsurfing host from Portland, a year ago when his trip was in its infancy, was in town and stopped by for a few hours. His friends are a really great bunch of young people, and it’s a joy to spend time around them. Many of his friends are off at school, or pursuing their own ends, but it’s been a good year for the Scruffman to have been traveling – those who have graduated haven’t been able to find jobs. It’s probably fortunate for the Scruffman that he isn’t looking for a traditional occupation in at least the nearer future.

Thanks for the updates, Arts'n'. All the very best to you & your Scruffman.

The Scruffman Travels into the Future

I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to include here the Scruffman’s immediate and longer term plans, as he’s back from his big trip and preparing for a new phase of his life. Of course, you can assume that he’ll return to Leiden sooner or later. He has deep friendships among the squatters and found his activities and experiences there to be meaningful as well as fun.

However, after a mere two weeks at home, during which I had the opportunity to be reminded just how much that boy can eat!, vegetarian or not (at least he cooks too), I drive him out on Highway 1 to start his hitchhiking journey onward. It’s a beautiful road winding along above the Pacific coast, and the day is gorgeous – low 70s, light breeze, sunshine glistening off the blue water ruffling toward shore, diaphanous mists suspended around the headlands. He’d chosen this route because of its beauty. He told me that he can look at art or architecture and find it interesting and beautiful, but it’s nature that really moves him. His messages home from Nepal suggested he was having a nearly spiritual experience among the mountains of the Himalayas.

We pass Stinson Beach and start heading toward Bolinas. I’m reluctant to stop, because I have just these few minutes more with him and I feel them draining away. He asks when I’m planning to stop, and I tell him just that. He laughs and points out that I’m going to have to let him go sooner or later. Then he says, “Here.” It’s a turnout, one of many, perhaps halfway between Stinson and Bolinas, and it’s really in the middle of nowhere. The traffic has been sparse, and he hasn’t even filled the water bottle he just bought on our way out of town. Nonetheless, I pull over and he unloads his shiny new backpack and his new/old guitar from the car and prepares to “suit up.” Then he stops, and we have a long last hug. He heads over to the shade of a tree to await his first hitch of the day, and I turn my car around and leave him to his next adventure.

Oh, no! He's gone again?!

Me too, starrs.

...and I turn my car around and leave him to his next adventure."... tears welling & spilling ... sweet,sad,salty,proud,wistful...

Greg has reminded me of my two sons so much through your threads, artsnletters. They too have lived on the road and in squats, mostly in Great Britain. One is now in the Christmas fair business in Belgium and Germany, and the other lives most of the time either on the beach in Mexico or in a cabin in upstate New York with no electricity. Bot feel the Scruffman's unease with the inequities of the distribution of wealth.

Both are wonderful people of whom I am very proud, as you must be of your son.

what a last phrase!

Thank you for telling us his amazing story. What an adventure. Best wishes to Greg as he goes forth again.3

Thanks for keeping us updated. Your relationship w/your son is to be greatly commended.

Thank you so much for sharing your/his story, artsnletters - it's been an absolute joy!

artsnletters, thank you for finishing this part of Greg's story. I hope that book comes to fruition!

Thank you for sharing, artsnletters. Wishing the Scruffman the best on his next adventure.

Thanks for bringing the story full circle. Truly, a bittersweet ending but, I trust, a wonderful new beginning.

Oh, I actually got tears in my eyes and I'm no softie as a rule. Great writing, arts. I've enjoyed this saga immensely and wish the best for you and Scruffman in the future.

I am sorry, why didn't you put him on a bus to Bolinas? Just a couple of dollars, and no danger of hitchhiking.

Oh, maybe you didn't know? Bus # 61 West Marin Stagecoach, you can find it on the Golden Gate transit website.

The road is beautiful there

I've been following the Scruffman chronicles, I think he sounds like such a wonderful young guy. I feel connected to you and the Scruffman in some way, as I am the single mother to a son who resembles the Scruffman a bit. My son has always been super independent, he just started his freshman year at college, he's a photography major and he also plays music. I look forward to seeing who he'll become, I think it would be great if he had an around the world adventure like this.

Best wishes to you and the Scruffman!

He’s planning on getting a new pack, a smaller one, because he discovered that when he has a bigger pack, he just fills it up with more stuff.

Greg has it right! When you dropped him off, was his new pack smaller?

Also, hugs to you ((artsnletters)). I feel a bit wistful when my son leaves, but it is nothing as you experienced. My guy is still coming home each weekend from college.

Dayenu, he was going a lot farther than Bolinas, and at this point I imagine expecting him to take a bus is about as realistic as expecting him to get a suit for his entrance into the UK.

scotlib, yes, his new pack is significantly smaller than the old one.

Thanks to you all for your kind comments, and for your enthusiasm and support over the past year.

I've so enjoyed reading your posts, artsnletters. You've raised a fine young man.

Lee Ann

Hi, artsnletters, I saw and posted on your Europe Forum thread and as I said on that one I can only imagine how wonderful it was to see your Gregg after his being gone for a year. Best wishes to him and to you my friend!

Bookmarking!!

Artsnletters what a bittersweet time for you. I can imagine how much you enjoyed seeing Greg again even if it was only for a short time. What a terrific journey he has had, and thank you so much for letting us all in on his trip. Wishing Greg and yourself all the best and may Greg have many more fantastic adventures.

I just found this thread. What an adventure and what beautiful posts from you, artsnletters! Please keep us posted about your son's newest adventures.

Thank you for sharing his adventures with us. I have tears in my eyes. He sounds like such a fine person and I think you are a great mom.

I have followed the Scruffman's journey since day 1 and am sad to think the chronicle has come to an end. I do hope you will let us know what he is up to when he contacts you...he does have a cell phone now doesn't he? You will have to wean us off our addiction. Thanks

Just a note for Scruffman fans.

He is getting help reworking his resume, and they told him to be sure to list his hitchhiking adventure, as it shows he is resourceful:

Hitchhiked, camped, and couchsurfed around the world: one year, 11 countries, three continents, $7500.

So nice to see some of his "news". Please don't stay away!

That was an amazing trip, Arts, I hope he lands a job he enjoys in the US.

Good luck to Greg in finding a job!

Good news about Greg, but we also wonder about how you are doing, Artsnletters.

I am very well, thank you, settled into a fantastic new job for a couple months now. It was a long grim haul for me, worse than I have shared, but it was made much brighter by all the fun news from other continents and sharing it with you good folks.

Whooo hoooo, artsnletters! That's wonderful news!

Lee Ann

Way to GO!!!!

Great news Arts. Well done, YOU!

GREAT news! I hope Greg has the same good fortune in finding a job. So happy for you!

Thanks for the update, artsnletters, and congratulations on your new job! I'm so glad for you!

That is wonderful news Arts. I so glad you like your job and didn't have to just settle. I'm sure you are relieved. Hope Greg has success also.

Just found this again while looking for something else. I followed the trip with interest, and wonder where
Greg is now?

bookmarkikng

Yes, how is he?

Just came across this multilayered thread about the Scruffman. Or is it equally about artsnletters reporting? Being on the "other side agewise" at past 80 I wonder how long Greg's free-wheeling life of abandonment will continue. What's interesting also are the many hurrahs posted by god-knows-who about this footloose adventure. This seems almost as much vicariously about the Bay area Mom as about Greg. So that's why it is posted in United States!

Anyway, browsing the European phase: Sorry to hear of the decline of Christiania in Copenhagen. Yes, Leiden is a nice Dutch coastal town...knowing nothing about the squatters. Yes, Amsterdam is touristy...so is Paris, Florence, London, Washington, the Keys, yes and San Francisco, too. So many Japanese like the bunch on Harvard Square yesterday! As for wonderful Brugge, who knew about the Tree Occupation?

I have been troubled by certain trends in the U. S. This refers to a military-industrial dominated leadership. And to
violence and lack of gun control. And to unequal rights for the poor and gays. And to an unbalanced economic system with too much wealth in face of too little caring. And to a demonizing of immigrants illegal or not. And to restrictions placed against pregnant women.

So the Scruffman has been "living outside the system" and even flouting the law? But now he is actually looking for employment?

Bill in Boston

Hello again, gentle readers.

Greg is taking a stab at the conventional right now. He is working part time and taking a couple classes. He is tearing up his English class, and his teacher thinks he should be a writer! Yes! (I don't think he is convinced.) He has been very involved with the Occupy movement, including getting tear-gassed. He is struggling to find a way to make a life for himself that will let him be true to his values, which have only solidified since he has been home, but it is challenging to find something that leads to a job in this economy that is consonant with his talents. Right now he is suffering from a burning desire to hit the road again, as his girlfriend is on an extended trip in Europe (she has a British passport and has literally no idea when she will return - no sooner than six months) and he would love to join her. At this point, he really can't afford it, even at starvation level, but he may bolt anyway when his semester ends. I have to hope not for the time being, although believe me, I completely understand and deeply sympathize - my last trip was seven years ago.

And for anyone who is interested, I am still happy at my fantastic job and hoping that before too long I begin planning an adventure abroad myself.

Thanks so much for the updates, artnsletters! Somehow I'm not surprised that Greg found Occupy a worthy cause; I hope he finds his courses worthy enough to finish them. And I'm very glad to learn that you are enjoying your new job and beginning to contemplate a new adventure. i suspect that I am not the only person who will see your post and find a huge smile spreading across his/her face.

Good news! Will be looking forward to that trip report!

HI artsnletters, thank you for posting the update. I am glad to hear both you and Greg are doing well. I hope to read your trip report before too long!

Thank you so very much for the update! I am so pleased that you landed a job that you enjoy; we were concerned when you lost your earlier position just when the Scruffman was having his problems during his journey. As we talked about earlier, I feel involved with Greg as my son Chris is involved in his own travel adventure, and has now reached Columbia in his tiny self-built sailing proa.

Please let us in on the planning of your very own next adventure and tell us how your trip went. We enjoy your writing style so much, and would love to follow along.

Thanks for the update. So glad to hear that the job is working out.

I hope that if I were Greg's age I'd be occupying something too.

I had missed the last episode of the Scruffman adventure. I'm so glad I saw this. I'm happy he is doing well and happy you love your job.

So inquiring minds want to know did he join his UK girlfriend overseas this summer?

nukesafe... is he sailing solo? yes, artsnletters.. how is your son doing now?

Thank you for asking, lincasanova. Yes he is sailing solo, and has now covered about 2500 miles since leaving Veracruz. He is now anchored in the small Panamanian island port of Bocas del Toro. If you are interested in seeing his blog, it can be found at http://grillabongquixotic.wordpress.com/

Oh my.. nukesafe. If you're not a sailor.. ( or maybe worse if you are) it must be difficult to read of his tribulations on the open waters. I skimmed through a couple disasters.. and am looking forward to his safe arrival at final destination.

I am a sailor, and did similar solo voyages myself. (In a much more sturdy, conventional, and well found vessel, however.) That means I can't bitch at him too much. But that also means I fully realize the dangers my Son is facing.

Calls for stringent sphincter control on my part every time he does not check in for a few days. Finger nails are off to the elbows.

I can imagine. Have been following the VOR, our son is not ON THE BOAT, thank goodness, but we know several of the sailors and skippers. Can be Very very non-champagne sailing out there.

Here's wishing him a safe journey home..

Thanks for the blog link. I will keep taking a look at it.

In the end Greg wasn't able to travel this summer - money is just too tight, and he wants to be back in school in the fall. He is busy saving up for tuition and playing in a band - they do a lot of open mics. I would like to hear them play sometime soon, if I'm allowed. He has been hosting couchsurfers himself and is still in touch with many of the folks he couchsurfed with himself, although he said he doesn't touch base often. He has so many friends that he says he just tries to be present for those he is with.

His girlfriend (although they are considering themselves broken up for the time being since they don't know if or when they might be co-located) is still abroad, having done a swing through central Europe to Turkey to Greece and now working at her parents' farm in Burgundy preparatory to taking off for Spain and Morocco. She and Greg seem to be in very close contact, as she mentions talking to him on her blog fairly regularly. In addition, I got a sympathy card from her after I had to put one of my dogs to sleep a couple weeks ago, so she is up on developments in my life as well. I know Greg would love to be on the road with her, but it will have to wait for another time.