Nothing says welcome home like the crunch of thousands of dead fly carcasses. After migrating across the Highline (highway 2) for two 14-hour days, I’ve got a disorienting road buzz going on and just want to settle in. But the flies. So many dead flies covering every surface of our home.

At least it isn’t mice. The worst return we ever had was when the boss forgot to put out the permanent mouse traps and the mice took over the place. Mouse crap everywhere. Seriously. They apparently partied on the counters and ate all the soap, then shit all over the counter tops and munched on the rugs. That was a super rude returning — mmmmm, the smell of mouse pee. Everywhere.

Returning is disorienting. The relief to be off the road, home sweet home and immersed in intense quiet. And also, the intense quiet. Too much space for the mind to go wiggy.

Settling in is a process. I kind of hate it. I hate the drive. I hate the cleaning. I hate sudden jolt to the mind. But, I’ve had to make peace with my migratory nature. I have unwittingly been developing this constitution my entire life so it seems only fitting that I was attracted to another migratory creature and now we migrate along the Highline together biannually.

We make our nest in the UP and return to it each year. The boss has come up with a few ways to make our return more gentle, like overwintering greens and carrots (yum, cold kissed carrots). Oh how wonderful it is to return to fresh lettuce out of the garden just waiting for us, especially after buying slimy lettuce mix from the store. And I talked the boss into sacrificing a garlic bed to plant deer-safe tulips (I really can’t believe he went for the plan). The idea of returning home to hundreds of colorful blooms makes the transition a little more sweet.

I feel an affinity to the osprey that return to their nest perched on a telephone pole above the cemetery down the road. They’ve been migrating longer than I have. I wonder if the birds feel like this when they get to their summer homes. They probably don’t care about the mice and flies. In fact, they probably like it.