The return of wanderlust

I had been back in Iowa for nearly a month. After working a double bartending shift at Micky's Irish Pub, I went out with some friends for a few drinks. I was in a strange mood, still chatting, but mostly off in my own little world. I thought of how much I missed the lifestyle of being on the road.

I talked with a couple friends about how we all hoped to make it out to the Northwest someday. We had all heard Portland, Oregon, was a great town for people like us.

On the walk to another bar I decided to head in my own direction without telling anyone. I walked to the Greyhound station, read the schedule on the glass door that informed me a bus was heading west at 3:20 a.m. that morning.

I walked to the apartment I had been staying at, showered, packed up all my belongings, hopped on Greyhound's website and found out I was not allowed to purchase an online ticket so soon in advance. I wasn't going to let that stop me.

I arrived at the station three hours early. I chatted with the people who gathered to catch the bus heading east to Chicago. An 18-year-old named Darrell watched my bags as I went to use the nearby Port-o-Potty. I watched as a man said goodbye to his family with kisses and tears. I asked him where he was going. "Istanbul," was his answer -- this caught me off guard since Iowa City is in its own little bubble and outside world is usually a distant thought.

I told him I loved Turkey and had recently spent a bit of time there. I spoke highly of a guest house I had stayed at. "Metropolis ring a bell?" I asked him. Surprisingly he knew exactly where the place was I spoke of.

"If you ever stop by, tell Muro I say hello," I said.

"I will," he said, as he boarded the bus heading east along with everyone else in sight aside from me.

The conversation on the dark, chilly street corner at 1 a.m. reminded me of why I love traveling with no agenda -- because you never know who you might meet or what might happen.

***

A group of three guys a few years younger than me showed up about an hour later. They were the first people I had seen in a while other than the cars passing by.

I found out they were freshman at the University of Iowa and one of them was hopping a bus to Minnesota to see his girlfriend although he hadn't told his parents. They asked what I was up to. "I'm not sure," I told them, knowing the answer wouldn't be sufficient and that they would be in for a long story.

A half-hour later, after explaining I had been traveling for eight months, came home for three weeks, and now here I was on the road again, the boys said how cool that was and how they'd like to do that. Victor seemed particularly interested, stating he may just drop out of school and take off.

The two who weren't making the trip hugged me goodbye as I boarded the bus with Ben. "Is there room for me?" I asked the driver. "Sure is," he said. He took my driver's license and told me to pay once I reached Des Moines. I chatted with Ben for a while before we both fell into deep sleeps. Once we reached Iowa's capital, we parted ways. He told me good luck and we promised to keep in touch.

I boarded another bus west for Denver.

***

I slept through most of Nebraska, getting the best quality sleep possible while sitting up, resting my chin on my backpack. I arrived in Denver around dinnertime, realizing I had a four-hour layover before I was to catch another bus to Salt Lake City.

I stored my bag in a locker at the Greyhound station and roamed the streets of downtown Denver. I sent Andrea, the girl I had met in Los Angeles and went to Fiji with, a text message to let her know I was in Denver since she goes to school in Boulder

"What?!" she replied almost immediately. I told her to call me. I explained to her what I was up to. She decided to come down from Boulder to meet up. I walked back to the station to ask the woman at the information desk what it would take to extend my ticket and hop another bus another day.

"Honey, that ticket is good for a year. You can hop on and off any time you want at any of the stops," she said.

***

I've been in Colorado for four days, three nights now. I don't know when I'll continue west. Maybe sometime soon. Maybe not.