I'm Just Happy to be Here

I got another deal on a different mode of transportation. This time I decided to try a bus/coach adventure. I found a good deal on Greyhound with which I could travel anywhere in their network for a certain period of time. I thought this would be a good way to see more of the country too.

Once again I flew to New York and began my bus odyssey to Florida. I had some time and had never been to Washington D.C. so I decided to stop there first. YWAM had a basement flat in a not-so-nice part of town not too far from the Capitol Building. They used it to house people for outreaches but didn’t have anything going on at the time. They just left the key somewhere for me and I returned it to the same place when I left. I never did see anyone.

I stayed a couple of nights and had a day to check out all the sights. I walked and walked and walked. I visited the Capitol Building where I got to watch both the Senate and the House in session. I walked down the Mall to the Washington Memorial where I went to the top to check out D.C. from up high. I went over to see the White House then down the Mall again to visit the Lincoln Memorial. I kept walking past the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington Cemetery where I found the famous Iwo Jima Memorial. Then I walked all the way back.

On I went with my bus journey to Florida. I had a long layover in another city which I think may have been Richmond, Virginia. The bus station was a little way out of city but I could see downtown from there. I decided to walk down there to see if I could find a movie I wanted to see. I found a few theaters but the times weren’t going to work out to see it and get back to the bus in time. But at least I had gotten to see something new by walking around. So I walked all the way back to the station to catch the next bus. 

As we continued, I began to smell some kind of sweet sickly odor. A little while later, the driver stopped the bus on the side of the road and told some people to get off. I guess they had been smoking marijuana. We continued on and I eventually made it to my destination.  

I had came up with a saying while I was in Florida. Although I loved London, my life there was a struggle. I so appreciated America where people were so kind and generous. It was like I was home and I started saying, 

“I’m just happy to be here.” 

One of the girls I was hanging out with had the saying printed on a tank top and gave it to me.  

I used to like the girl I was going to the prom with but my feelings for her had abated over the years. She sensed the change and questioned me about it. I had to be honest with her. There was no use pretending something that wasn’t any more. She wasn’t very happy but still wanted me to go to the prom with her. I think it was still pretty cool to her to be able to say that her date had come all the way from London. I did feel bad that it wasn’t the great, romantic, magical highlight for her that some of the movies make a senior prom out to be. Who knows, maybe I saved her from doing something that many seniors shouldn’t.

The Capitol Building from the top of the Washington Monument - May, 1988


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