Back East

photo by Marv

Connie flew out of New Mexico on Monday and I drove back across this amazing country.

Made some good time across "The 40" and onto the Blue Highways, as William Least Heat Moon dubbed them, through NM, OK, TX and into Kansas. Flat straight, 2 lane roads with amazing sky views. When I hit Kansas every town seemed identical; grain elevators, rail sidings, gas station, single traffic light... and onto the next. The sky was looking ominous when I spied the billboard that read "Visit Dorothy's House" with a giant picture from the Wizard of Oz... Oh, yeah... Kansas.

The van felt like it rocked up on 2 wheels when the wind gust hit and the windshield wipers were useless to keep up with the torrential downpour. Lightning lit up the blackness, tumbleweed and debris flying by... I thought I was going "over the rainbow". Suddenly the sun broke out beneath the storm clouds and turned the storm pink, orange and yellow... Surreal.

Jan and Paul were home and open for a visit, but it got too late especially when changing time zones so I pulled into a truck stop for a few hours sleep. My entire body was vibrating when I stepped out of the van. I thought "Whoa, I pushed this leg of the trip too far...". Then I realized that the dogs were vibrating too... from the diesels that surrounded me... Slept like a baby on the cot in the back of the van. Massaged to sleep on a "vibrabed". No quarters needed!

I arrived in Overland Park at 9:00 and enjoyed a great visit with the Carter's, Paul, Jan and Tresa. Sam and Lu met their new dog Wriggly. Lots of laughs, family news and a world class smoke barbecue brisket. You guys are the best... Thanks ever so much.

Back on the road, I-70 to Evan's State Park in Illinois. Nice spot on a lake. Only situation were the ticks... Pulled a half dozen off Sam, Lu and me. Showered, shaved and laundry done before 8:30 and on the road.

I tuned into talk radio after so many months (years...) away from it and TV. After a few hours I recognized that old tightness in the gut. So much contention, bad news, frantic advertisements. Conclusion; Life is simpler without the stimulation. Be a simple monkey as Trungpa wrote.

Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania on I-90. I detoured north to watch the sunset over Lake Erie and pulled into another truck stop at 10:00. We slept until 8:00 and pushed to Albany by 4:00.

After Connie went through security she discovered she had forgotten her cell phone in the car. No problem. I gave her mine. The unintended consequence was that I found myself at a truck stop late at night. walking two little white dogs, talking on a pink cell phone... When a big truck driver tried to hold the door for me, I recognized my dilemma. Said in my deepest voice " Thanks anyway, Bubba..." LOL... Who has more fun than people!

The tolls in NY totaled $16.50... more toll money than we had spent in the past 8 months driving from Georgia across the south, up the west coast, through the northwest and back down into the southwest. Ah, the northeast... land of taxation. And it has been raining here for the past 2 months. Connie said "Get planning for the next trip, Dawg... We're not staying long." With pleasure honey...

We will head to Maine in a few days... after the 4th of July... to celebrate Connie's birthday on the 7th with Ryan and Kate. Feel free to send Connie a card. She has sent hundreds over the past year. It would be nice for her to get a few... 243 State Street, Apt 2L, Portland, ME 04101.

And then to work on the docks for my cousin with his lobster and bait business. Time to put some juice in the jug as Eric used to say... and time to think about all that has happened. Some of you blog readers (about to hit 20,000 this week...) have suggested a book. That would be fun. Think we might take a run at it. I printed the blog... over 300 pages of notes. We'll see....

We are sleeping in a nursing home these next few days visiting Tina. A solemn reminder of where the future leads for many. So glad we unplugged for awhile. It's been 2 years this July 3rd that we sold the house. I had thought we had sold at the bottom of the market... never suspected we sold at the top of an economic/housing precipice. Of course the 401k fell off the cliff...like every ones. Illegetimus non carborundum...

Thanks for reading the blog and for staying in touch. When you do something like this, you truly do learn who your friends are. More valuable than gold...