I'm not completely excommunicado on the road; I have Whatsapp, Line, and Kakao Talk to keep me in touch with family and friends. I even usually manage to get a sim card for my phone in each country I visit, and sometimes it even works!
Just a couple of days after arriving in Gangtok, India, I was hanging out with Mike and our new Gangtokian friends Jashoda and Abhijeet, when the message arrived: "Chris, your grandmother passed away this morning."
I managed to wrangle up a plane ticket through the Indian app MakeMyTrip, and about three days later, after finding a place to stash my bike and stuff, I was back in Little Rock just in time for the funeral.
I'm sad to have to let my grandmother, Bobbie Buchman, go, and I'm sad that I didn't get to spend more time with her during the last few months of her long, healthy, life, but she went well, and her passing provided a wonderful occasion for her descendants to gather in her memory, and make memories of their own.
For the last few weeks, I've been enjoying spending much-needed time with my family and old friends, rediscovering the cool things in good ole 'murica, getting fat, and gearing up for my next steps (or should I say, next revolutions, of my wheels?).
From a to Be is far from finished, so don't worry. Starting in mid-November, I'll be back in India where I left off, and from there it's westward-ho for me, all the way to Istanbul.
