TWENTY years ago today...The Western Trip began

It's so monumental to me...both the trip AND the fact it's been 20 years...there's no words to really convey how I feel about it. I guess the thing that gets me is simply that it's just SUCH a marker of time's passage. I mean, when I went away to college, it was only "5 years ago." NOW, it's TWENTY! The 13-year-old gawky kid is now a 33-year-old LESS gawky man...and, yes, i'm referring to myself. Christ, it's overwhelming to see 13 and 33 next to each other. I feel like i'm 80. It's just about 2am now...so at this time in '86, I was around Pittsburgh on an Amtrak train. That's what my diary says...but did it really take 9 hours to get to Pittsburgh? Seems long to me. Good fucking Lord, twenty years. This is just crazy to me. I prefer 33 to 13 without question; it's just how swiftly time goes by that kills me. The whole anniversary of this trip is only another factor, though, in altering how I spend my time. Because life is too short. That trip's a great, priceless memory. An absolute Key Life Event. There's really not much more to say. The clock's already ticking into the next 20 years...