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After picking up our luggage (all of our luggage this time) and filling up the car's tank ($4.05 a gallon - what the hell happened while we were gone?), we began the long drive to pick up McGyver and head home to Big Bear. Over the weekend we unpacked, did about 5 loads of laundry, sifted through our mail, caught up with friends and saw two of them off as they move on to Bend, Oregon. The jet lag took hold on Sunday evening as I lay staring at the ceiling for hours listening to Pink Floyd. Sleep came about 3:00 a.m. and was interrupted at 7:00 for a planned farewell-mountain-bike ride for other friends moving to Taos, New Mexico.

While it is a let down not to be skiing in Kamchatka, it is good to be home. We have made the promise to simplify our lives even further. In 2002, after returning from Lake Baikal in Central Siberia we left the big city, bought a house and moved to Big Bear Lake - a small mountain town in Southern California's San Bernardino Mountains. Though I am not sure what will be the result of our trip this time I do know we spent the weekend contemplating our trip, drinking a lot of tea, avoiding our cell phones, the news and television, and parked the car and rode our bikes everywhere.

Perhaps this will be the new direction of Airstream Nomad - a continuation of Kamchatka and our quest to enjoy every day and eeek out a living in a small town doing the same.