May 31st.

There it is.

I have no idea how Melissa figured out exactly when I'd be leaving (particularly since I wasn't even sure at the time), but I just booked a plane ticket back to San Francisco for exactly one week from now, thereby clicking the proverbial "section break" button on my metaphysical word processor. I'm now officially on my way home, and so ends my time in Asia.

It's not at all over here yet, though. I've taken my motorbike back down the marijuana infested Manali-Kullu valley to Mandi, the crossroads town where I'd written my post after having spent 3 days fixing the bike. Now I'm taking the other road to New Tibet, where places have names like Mcloud Ganj and Dharmasala. I dropped my muffler on the way down here, and if I thought my bike was loud before, I had NO IDEA how loud these things can get. People don't just look at me anymore, their faces are irresistablely attracted to the monstrosity I'm driving by the 18 massive horses screaming out my right foot. It happened as I was picking up a hitchhiker (I started playing Himalayan Crazy Taxi with the Saddhus walking along the highways). He might have accidentally stepped on it, but 500 miles of bumpy roads had finally pulled the not some bolt and I heard a loud "KALUNK" as the hitchhiker yelled some Hindi version of "What was that?" in my ear. I pulled over, figured out what had happened, and just as I went to get the muffler so I could find some duct tape and put it back on, one of those giant diesel trucks honked a "sorry, dude" and proceeded to roll directly over it without slowing down the slightest. So now my exhaust pipe ends just below my right foot and the whole valley can hear me coming. Man, is it fun. So much fun that there's gotta be a law against it back home. At least I'll have the freedom for one more week to go deaf in the right ear.

But all this thinking about dynamsim and rates of change has got me thinking that maybe it's not the places I should be going that needs changing, but the whole format of my travelling. I think I've figured out a way to bring that "whatever it is" back to my trip. Change continents, first of all. But more importantly change what I'm doing. After buying that plane ticket, financing a further road trip across America would involve some borrowing somehwere. I could sleep in my car, but it'll cost about $800 for the gas alone. So here's the proposal:

America by Accordion. The objective is to drive a circle around America, making New York in time for "The" wedding and coming back by the end of July, by playing street accordion for gas money in cities along the way. Personal money could only be used for food and lodging, so I wouldn't be allowed to refill my tank without having earned it. This would only really work with Jeff's help, whose phone number is (650) 678-9346 and who really loves when people call him to tell him to go on road trips... because he's deciding... It doesn't quite beat "Around Ireland with a Fridge," a story about a guy who lost a bet and had to hitchhike around Ireland with a small refrigerator. But it could be fun...