When I jettisoned my career in August 2002, one of my goals was to travel. I'm happy to look back 18 months later and see that I accomplished it. I've driven over 30,000 miles in that time around the US, plus taken a few trips by air. I've created a ton of memories in seeing many places I had never been to before. A few days ago I vowed to take a break from things political so I could reminesce about some of my experiences from the road, which I intend to start now. Some of these things are long, others are short. I have a feeling that many if not all might be difficult to convey, but I am doing this for me more than anyone else (so get on with it already).
#1 Driving from Mississippi into Louisiana on I-10 at sunset, over a bridge that spans the gulf while listening to "El Sol" by Zwan, the fifth song on the "Mary Star of the Sea" CD. It's not a great song, but the beginning guitar blended perfectly with the timing of being on the bridge, seeing nothing but the two lanes in front of me and water on both sides, with the setting sun a huge blazing disk of red. It took maybe five minutes to cross that bridge but the images I saw combined with the melodies I heard will stay with me for the rest of my days. I did not see another car while I was on that bridge-five minutes of exceptionally perfect isolation.
#2 Birds-this country is full of them. I have noticed hundreds of formations of flying birds, not large one like geese or ducks, but smaller ones like sparrows, that fly in groups of what seem like a thousand. They fly in such precision that all I see is what appears to be a large black blob moving perpendicular to me, then completely disappear as it moves directly away or towards me, changing every second. It's like a child's bubble wand, the toy that makes huge asymetrical shapes with a flick of the wrist, if the bubbles were somehow black. Difficult to describe but a definite natural beauty.
More of this stuff to come eventually
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