He dove and felt the power and control,
the precise relationship demanded between eye and muscle to drift
down and land gently..." (From chapter 1)
It’s Sunday evening, August 8, 2004. Tomorrow
we jump in the car and head west. The last time we traveled, we had
gone to AAA and had Trip-Tiks made up. We got in the car, tossed
out the Trip-Tiks and just drove. That’s the way to do it.
No itinerary. No schedule.
Leigh pulled out a map that we’ve been using since 1992. It’s battered
and held together with scotch tape, but it’s like an old friend. We’re
thinking of doing the same thing this time, heading to Colorado and just seeing
some places we haven’t seen before in Colorado, New Mexico and maybe Utah.
The U.S. is a large country that in parts is grand, subtle, rough, desolate,
and always beautiful.
In my mind, the U.S. has several sections -- the East, the Midwest,
the West and the South. All are like different countries run
by one Constitution. A lot of folks in the south still mistrust
us northerners, even though a lot of northern folks around the
rural regions in New York and Pennsylvania worship Hank Williams
Jr. and wave Confederate flags.
I’ve talked to a lot of people out West who see the East coast as one big
city with New York in the center extending north to Boston and Connecticut and
south to New Jersey and Washington, DC. The folks who have traveled east are
always amazed at the thousands of miles of Appalachian mountains, the lush, heavy
green beauty that holds, for the sensitive, the ghosts of the Senecas and Iroquois,
the music of the early Irish, Scottish and English (that would be old timey and
bluegrass music) and the backbreaking work ethic of the Scots, the Polish, and
the Amish who still farm without electric, travel by horse and buggy, make beautiful,
solid furniture and stubbornly, gloriously cling to their religion and values
despite and encroaching, mindless, merciless 21st century.
I started packing some books for the trip because
I don’t have time to
read that I used to. Somehow, I used to read one or two books a week.
Now I maybe read one every three months. When I started selecting,
I began thinking of the books in my life and what influenced me.
It started out pretty easy.
Then, as I thought about it, hmmm. Damn…. It got harder.
So, I may add another section to the site on books. Maybe one on
music, too, because music has been a big, big part of my life.
Maybe it has been my life.
Right now I have to make sure I’ve got everything packed. We travel light—a
week’s worth of t-shirts, underwear, socks, one pair of sneakers, my summer
three-button black leather jacket, trail mix, cheese and crackers, water, laptop,
books, and cds. And the battered roadmap. Leigh put new tape on some torn sections.
