issue #5 From Ukraine to California

Back at it!

Jan 08, 2023

Hello friends! Happy New Year! It has been six weeks since my last update on “I Think I’m Tripping.” The title of that last post was “Rolling Blackouts in Lviv…” Life got pretty intense after I wrote that. We never knew when we’d have power, and it would often be out for 4-8 hours at a time, making for many a dark evening huddled under blankets with the apartment lit by candles. The war had reached Lviv and our lives were very impacted. I lost inspiration to write, and with such inconsistent electricity, constant air raid sirens, and long dark evenings my routines were broken. But now I’m back and ready to continue sharing stories and life updates.

We left Lviv on December 14th. It wasn’t easy and our hearts were torn. It was difficult to say goodbye to friends and family in Ukraine, but it was time to make our annual pilgrimage to America for the holidays.

Our final few photos in snowy Lviv before embarking on a 12 hour bus ride to Warsaw, Poland. That’s me in front of our double decker bus.

Getting out of Ukraine was an adventure in itself. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion all of the commercial airspace has been closed. We used to be able to take a 15 minute cab ride to the Lviv International Airport and fly straight to either the east or west coast with Turkish Airlines. This time we had to take an exhausting 12 hour bus ride to Warsaw to reach an airport. I got thoroughly questioned and searched at the Polish border for carrying a little bronze Buddha statue in my carry-on. I have no idea what they thought it was, but after shining a flashlight at it from every angle for about ten minutes they decided it was harmless…

The view of the vast snowy fields of western Ukraine taken from the second floor of our bus. I already miss those lands.

Upon arriving in Poland, we took the opportunity to stay in Warsaw for a few nights to catch up with some dear old friends who live there before making the long journey to California. We were shocked to arrive in Warsaw to sub-freezing temperatures and heavy snow, but the scenery was beautiful.

Our hotel in Warsaw ended up have a beautiful floor to ceiling window overlooking the snowy landscape.

After bidding farewell to our friends we made the 24-hour journey to California, arriving late at night after barely making a few connecting flights. Airline travel can be so rough these days… But even still, I’m always grateful to even have the opportunity to travel like I do. I never take it for granted.

Reconnecting with old tree friends in Hollister, California.

And what a change it was to arrive in California! 60 degree weather and the trees still had some of their leaves! After leaving icy Ukraine and Poland we were practically drunk on the lush, fresh, warm air. My parents have their RV parked near Hollister, so we’re staying in that area. It has been great to see everyone after almost a year (a very intense year).

California evenings playing guitar by the campfire. Never gets old.

On December 20th I celebrated my 40th birthday. We had grand plans to spend the day doing something fun outside, followed by fancy dinner reservations and an evening in a healing spa…. Then we looked online and saw a charming little tiny house for rent deep in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains. After all the travel and jetlag and stress of the past few months that sounded really good… Even better than a fancy restaurant and healing spa. So plans were changed, a few bits and pieces of camping gear were thrown into the car and we drove far into the hills to get away into the silence of the forest. It was truly magical, and ended up being a memorable way to bring in this next chapter of my life.