Notes on traveling alone

    The Short Jewish Gal and I noticed that we weren't getting as hungry in Santa Fe as we normally did at home. Weird, we thought, but we didn't complain. The trend has continued since the SJG went home and I've learned it has to do with altitude. Seems higher altitudes tend to increase leptin and reduce appetites. Thus, I am happily getting by on two meals a day - breakfast and dinner.
    Breakfast is my favorite because, here at the Inn, it's a good, hot meal with lots of protein and I have found friendly people to sit with. Yesterday, it was a fun woman from Prescott, AZ, in town for an astrology conference. "Oh! A Sagittarius writer," she said about me. "Perfect." Today, it was an older woman traveling solo from Tuscon to Nashville for a wedding - a seasoned road warrior, often traveling ten hours a day, crossing the country to see family and friends. We talked about the hellish thunderstorms she's dodged in Oklahoma (my return route home). I admired her. 
    Dinners are not as comfortable for me yet, but I'm working on it. There aren't as many solo females in bars and restaurants and the conversations tend to be different. On two separate occasions in the last 5 days, men have made inappropriate - albeit harmless - comments to me, which have knocked my comfort level down a few notches. And, it made me miss my big, protective husband even more. 
   Traveling alone is an emotional ride with peaks of lovely independence and valleys of palpable loneliness. I'm slowly learning to embrace both emotions. Because isn't that what any journey is all about?