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sublime detroit part 3 –
We continued to drive down Grand River until a building with mirrors glued all over it caught our eye. Trevor made a quick u-turn and we were back. It was a Heidelbergesque project with the mirror building and in the back a huge installation of found object art. There were a bunch of chairs with chunks of concrete in them (Trevor’s interpretation place holders for when the people come back, my interpretation the deadening effects of school), and most striking a large sort of scare crow made out of slices of vinyl interior topped with an African mask. It was Dabl’s bead museum and we got to meet the propetier who invited us to look around and told us it was a 10 year project. We took the tour and checked out how he had expanded to a nearby abandoned building. There were African language lessons painted on the sidewalks. It was all very cool. A little art in the wreckage, very postapocalyptic and it fit in great with the increasing number of abandoned buildings as we got deeper into Detroit. We also got directions to our hotel as my discount atlas didn’t have Trumbul though I had a fair idea based on the old Tiger Stadium. We drove to the hotel and I was struck on the incredible decline of Trumbul. Michigan and Trumbul is a grass lot, all of the sports bars and restaurants I remembered from my childhood were closed. It was very much a ghost town. We arrived at our hotel and checked in. There was the dank smell of marijuana in the first floor hall and a musty odor on the 4th floor. The room was small but nice and appeared clean.
Then it was off to see some jazz. We decided to walk as it wasn’t much more than a mile to Hart plaza. We caught some pieces of sets and moved from stage to stage. My favorite was an electronic act with the voice all altered and playing loops and it was very fun and the performers looked like they were having a good time. I like jazz a lot when its live and you can feel a part of it but i’m not a fan enough to know bands or probably really appreciate what they are doing.
It was most fun watching the people. It was very diverse 45/45 black and white and 10% everything else. Except for the dearth of children it was pretty age diverse and there were homeless to the bourgeois. Jazz is a uniter not a divider. We left early because it was colder than shit. September in Missouri is far superior. I hadn’t even brought a jacket thinking a long sleeve shirt would be sufficient. I had picked one up at a thrift store and was glad to have it in spite of its unsettling dirty sleeves (they washed up nice you may care to know).
We walked back to the hotel full of jazz. We were debating getting a 6 pack and ordering pizza but we stumbled across a Coney Island instead. I had a fairly good patty melt but trevor’s tuna melt looked tastier.
sublime detroit part 2 –
Woke up Saturday morning at the Burns-Pavlik demesne specifically in the princess room. I had slept hard and needed it going on a few hours of light sleep the night before. The heavy curtains were nice as sleeping well into the morning was a nice change of pace. Trevor was out for a run so i curled up with Doris Lessings “The Golden Notebook” which is just a heavy and brilliant novel. Dense with meaning she has literary talent, a piercing political consciousness, and rare insight into the human condition. its sweet.
After Trevor returned I made coffee and had some of Jeff’s most excellent cinnamon roll I explored the backyard. I remembered what it was like when they first moved in, typical suburban fenced in grass box, the green rectangle endlessly repeated. Now there’s a nice patch of prairie wildflowers looking very Autumnal to my Missouri eyes, looking very sharp in its benign neglect. I was envious that i couldn’t let my plot be and have it still work.
It was a just beautiful morning and I was glad to have lingered. We drove back to Farmington and went to the farmer’s market. Very cool, very lively lots of great stuff. We got cucumbers and a couple of melons a cantaloupe and something similar and some apples. Besides stuff we could eat in detroit i also looked for stuff to take home. I was delighted to see some Michigan maple syrup and I excitedly picked up a big bottle then remembered that i only had a carry on bag to get home and there’s a 3 oz rule for michigan maple syrup (can’t get it at home). I put it down and said “i’m flying and i can’t take it back. the terrorists have won. i conceded, i admit defeat, please now can i fly with michigan maple syrup?”
so i bought nothing, my innocent glee in the beautiful day of seeing all these folks marketing tempered.
but only for a moment. then it was lunch with rosie, jeff was baking and becky was slinging bread but rosie was up for some chicken chili. tre’ and i had the reubens, good but the french dressing kind which i like a bit less, but really good. i can’t remember the name of the place but rosie thought highly of it.
after lunch we said goodbye to becky and rosie and after stopping to look at discount books and by a map we were off. we decided to drive up 8 mile to most appreciate the transition into the city. for some reason we took grand river instead, a cool street that runs across the state. i’d ridden my bike on probably the first 100 miles coming out of grand rapids getting in shape for my trip to Mexico.
This stretch got shoddier and vacant buildings started to increase until we were in full on city. we stopped at a ghetto mart and stocked up on food: bread, mega sized jar of peanut butter, chips, salsa, cheese, plastic ware, perhaps other things. We were in line behind an older african american guy buying a nice stock pot at $5.95 and a mess of greens. I commented quietly to trevor that that was a good buy on the pot and was pleased to see the guy straighten up. everybody likes to get a good deal.
sublime detroit part 1 – getting there
I am glad I took the extra day on the mini-vaca, it was nice to get ahead of the game instead of jumping right back into it tired and coming home beat down on my first day back. Things started out last friday way too early. i had lost my watch and didn’t own an alarm (i like to get up naturally instead of jarred awake at a set time [picked it up from O’ Henry]) so i slept poorly afraid of over sleeping. I got up, packed and drank almost the last of the coffee (sorry dad), tried to go to Wal-Mart for a couple of essentials but they weren’t open yet (i didn’t know they closed), went to Hi-V instead for amongst things a 3 oz or less toothpaste. Hi-V has about 14o square feet of toothpaste on display. All of it a variation on 4 brands none of them less than 4 oz. wtf. Hi-V customers don’t fly, or they know you’ll have to throw it away and buy another one. I hate that our society is organized that everyone is potentially planning to rip you off, makes me paranoid. I pass on the 2 oz training toothpaste because its fluoride free. I love fluoride, i’m 42 and still got all my teeth. I got the age defying brand for the liquid calcium. calcium carbonate has been shown to fill in microcavities, its worth the extra bit when you can find it. starbucks wasn’t open yet but trevor had coffee waiting. we drove to the airport like a couple of kids way early on christmas morning. we had been waiting and we were ready to have fun. the flight was pleasant, trevor let me have the window and i could see the exurban sprawl and farms sprawl and farms sprawl and farms across the midwest. we got a budget rental car, never have i turned down so many offers for the add on sale, extra insurance, nope, no deductible, nope, insurance rephrase, still nope, gps, nope (but now you don’t give me the map i was counting on, jerks), sattelite radio five dollar, nope, car upgrade nope, come on now not even one class for 5 dollars, nope. It got ritualistic and quick. I hate dehumanizing as a survival skill. Why do we set up the world where its peoples job to rip you off? Boom, off to Monroe. Flying is weird. I woke up in Missouri and I was having lunch in Monroe Michigan. Went to Pete’s Garage, but didn’t sit in a car. Both my sisters came and the one with the husband and kid brought there’s. It was nice to see everyone even though we’d just seen each other a month ago, still. We ate way too much bar food because we had already had coney island (gyro and fries, not the greatest but better than you can get in CoMo) at the airport. We drove up 275. I reminisced about riding the bike trail in its entirety when i was 19 (15o miles or so). I remembered riding with dad in the truck and him telling me about it and me saying some day i would ride it and i did, my last big ride before i bought my first car, when i seriously rode (when i likely bulged my 2 bulging discs). hardly any of its open now. they let it go to shit because they didn’t want to pay for the upkeep. looking back on it now that was the theme of the trip. decline, loss, frenetic remnants. then it was just appreciating the glory days. this makes me want to get a recumbent and really get back into riding. I am on the low car challenge this september, pledged to only one car trip this month which is completed. Tomorrow i’m forced to take my first bike ride of the season riding my bike to the bank, hopefully at lunch. I think I will pay myself a dollar a mile to ride my bike and put it towards a recumbent. that’d be fun and might work exercise back into my life. that’s part of what vacations are for me, to give me some space to step out of my life and see where it needs changing. Then though we were just driving and bullshitting. we pulled into farmington 15 minutes late. we saw jeff and becky and rosie leaving the bakery and followed them into the burger basement. nice place. the owner came out and said howdy, make your own combo on a check off sheet. I had 8 oz beef with jalapenos, olives, tomato, mixed greens, grilled pineapple, and swiss with barbecue sauce. nice. though mayo might have been better. It was great getting caught up with the burns-pavliks. rosie had turned into quite a prepossessed little 8 year old. she took us on the scenic way to their home in farmington hills and was quite the tour guide. She called us Uncle Mike and Uncle Trevor. I used to be Uncle Mike Trapp because she has a real Uncle Mike whose a bit of a character. I told her I was glad we were still fictional kin. Jeff picked up some first class local brews. Detroit Dwarf stands out as yummy and an interesting tale. Look it up its too late for me to regale you with it but its a tale worth telling. also had a smores beer, syrupy and over the top but a little glass was good. Both jeff and i dozed contentedly after we got caught up. It was one of those 20 hour days where you really suck the marrow out of your daily bone. I slept the sleep of the just. I was in Michigan. I was home.
Canoeing through the woods
Staycation 2010 rocks on. I have been doing a terrible amount of gardening. Most of the place has been cultivated, I planted all but one of my new wildflowers, and I got in three rows of okra. I am experimenting with putting them pretty close in a square foot garden approach. Yesterday I harvested half of my mixed greens. They were getting tough from the 90+ degree heat so i made wilted lettuce and it was quite delicious. I set aside some bacon grease for another round later this week, then no more backyard lettuce until fall. I was also able to host a little breakfast thing around the world cup which was fun and an exciting game with the usa coming back in the end to advance. I grilled a nice sirloin with paprika, dried aromatic basil, and garlic powder with some baked red potatoes from the springfield market (i suspect they were last years).
In the evening Jared came by and we drove out to Overton Bottoms and canoed around the flooded wildlife refuge. There was supposed to be a group but no one else showed. We offloaded the canoe and ran over to Woolverton for a six pack of Redstripe. Of course their was a client in the parking lot, that always happens on the rare occasion I buy alcohol. Coming back in I got the truck stuck parking off the side of the road. We got ‘er rocking and with Jared driving and me pushing out of the flooded ditch we got ‘er out. I was covered in mud but relieved not to have to call for rescue. Getting stuck makes beer taste good.
We canoed around, first through some brush and weeds and it felt very evergladey. We then moved through the woods which was pretty cool, i’ve never canoed in that kind of situation. We went down the flooded road and explored a parking lot to read the informational signs. Jared spotted a tree frog clinging to a lonely dry reed. I broke it off, loaded him on to the canoe and carried him to a large tree. He hopped off happily.
We were going to head to the river to see the transition from flood to river but the weather turned ominous. We instead had a mad dash back to the truck as lightning struck along the horizon. It was coming in a few large drops and not a minute after we had the boat strapped down it came down in buckets. A beautiful trip and the end to a really wonderful day.
home from springfield to start the staycation
In my last vacation update I left off Harry and I were staying in a cheap hotel in Springfield. We had seen a sign for the farmer’s market on the way to the show the night before and decided to check it out. It was tiny, with only a handful of vendors but still nice not to miss the market. I got a bar of handmade soap from the soap lady that is at least very pretty and purple, it was also pricey. There were also peaches which have been yummy and its nice they’re back. There was also a big vendor with stuff that was out of season and little plastic stickers so its not a producer’s market. I did get some good sized red potatoes and onions of size as well.
We hopped on Highway 44 but decided the interstate was not to our liking and cut off on route 5 and stopped by Bennett’s Spring. It was Hillbilly Days so very crowded with bass fisherpeople standing in the spring in waders which took away from the beauty of the third largest spring in Missouri. We went back to the little used hiking trails and attempted to hike the Savannah Trail. It was hot but I brought water and we weren’t going that far. There was also a natural bridge but it was a 7+ mile hike and it was too hot to do that enjoyably.
The hike was pretty close to a disaster. There were a lot of ticks and neither of us were really dressed for that. The trail was also poorly marked and we couldn’t make since of the markers and ultimately turned back in frustration after walking close to seven miles. We did find this little grotto where I took a moment to compose myself in the cool mists of the little waterfall and rinse the worst of the ticks off my legs. It seemed we were well above the cows so I drank a few handfuls of water just to feel more apart of the scene.
We drove North glad to be alive. We had definitely had an adventure and I like to remind folks they are not always fun. We hit some brief heavy rain which was followed by a cold front and it kind of got nice when we finished up our trip at the Missouri Wildflower Nursery in Brazito. I got some phlox and other wildflowers as well as a gallon sized paw paw tree.
I’ve been back for a couple of days and its been nice being on vacation and being at home. I’d had quite enough travel for a bit though I am hoping on going somewhere towards the end of this week. I did get to be back for Father’s Day and cooked the old man breakfast and went with him to the casino for a buffet. I also picked up a bench for the backyard so the popster can rest in the shade when we’re playing partners. I even put it together rather than trying to get him to do it.
Yesterday I caught Spain vs Honduras in the worldcup with Amy and her friend Belen from Spain. It was a lot of fun and Spain dominated. Belen is going to come over tomorrow for USA vs Algeria and Dad and i are laying out our brunch menu. Bacon & eggs or grilled sirloin? I’ve also done a fair amount of gardening in spite of the heat wave. Turned over some garden bed for Okra to go in later this morning and hope to get my wildflowers in today. I cleaned up the beds in front weeding and cultivating and cut some flowers that were leaning. I planted my paw paw tree, this time inside of the fence which will hopefully keep the deer from eating it like the last two. I also used the last of the stackable composter compost and am on to my batch from spring. Its not as done but looks pretty good except for some sizable eggshells. I need to run a strap around it to secure the bin so i can get in and turn it better. Nonetheless I am quite proud of the grounds, hardly looks like the place i moved into. The coreopsis and asters are a brilliant yellow and the shade bed is totally rehabilitated and flowering nicely with the added beauty of the spiderwort in the mornings. Come on by and check it out.
mewithoutyou
Vacation so far has been a lot of Missouri travel. Got back last night from a two day trip to Springfield. We left Friday morning fairly early heading down 63 to 54. We drove through Lake of the Ozarks which I had described as a tourist trap shit hole for drinking on boats, date rape, and meth. There are also lots of local little restaurant/bars with names playing on fishing, beer, and date rape (no meth yet) and we decided to take advantage of that to grab some breakfast at one of them, Hookers or Crack Whore or something like that, a little before ten. We found a lively crowd of drunken revelry happening in celebration of the USA/Slovenia world cup mach. I heard a local calling to check in with her boss saying: “Its started early, the US world cup game started at 9:00”. We felt we had an appt. with destiny as we caught the last 20 minutes of the game, just in time for the US to come back to tie. Breakfast was good as well.
We stopped at Ozarkland as we had both forgotten our hats and it was a hot and sunny day. We ended up getting some close outs and I got a leather brimmed Lake of the Ozarks hat for $3.25. The check out lady was very funny and engaging and every line was a joke. She confirmed Ha Ha Tonka State Park was worth the trip.
And it was. We met another very nice lady who wrote out an ambitious agenda of short hikes for our 90+ day of humid hiking. We walked up to the remains of a castle built by a KC business man at the turn of the century. It was very cool and a nice hike with lots of drinking fountains. We also hiked up to the water tower which was very D&D. The glade trail wasn’t all that as it was supposed to be booming with wildflowers which it wasn’t (right now its time for Brown Eyed Suzans, Cone Flowers and Butterfly weed). We caught the natural bridge which was pretty cool but it had a very heavy handed gravel trail across it that took away from its natural beauty. We drank a lot of water and slowed our pace when we started to flag and the heat and humidity thinned out the crowds nicely.
We drove on to Springfield and took 44 West until we saw hotels. We looked at a local place but it looked meth-ridden so we cruised down to the America’s Best Inn and payed a little more. Firm bed but the remote didn’t work and it had ants.
The hotel was also across the street from a Buckingham’s Barbecue. Since there is no good barbecue in Columbia we ran across the street for dinner. I had smoky links and beef brisket (excellent) and the pot beans were first rate. I tried Harry’s greens which were also great; my fries were highly skippable, but nice and salty for having had sweated a gallon of water or so earlier in the day.
After dinner we napped and then cruised down to the Outland Ballroom for the show. There was a long line and it looked like young hipsters were the target audience. Friendly though and we talked a bit with a mustachioed young fellow while we waited. He was a David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) fan.
The show turned out to be great. Rubik was the opening act straight from Helsinki. They had really complex fun stuff with lots of instrument changes and complex clapping. Just really fun and though I couldn’t make out the words there was a nice spirit to them. The crowd, whom I am quite sure had never heard of them, were really into it and there was lots of dancing, jumping and clapping which we joined in.
It was hot so we ran across the street to a coffee shop and I had a nice frozen coffee drink that was excellent and sat well with the two beers I had blasted through in the first act. I don’t know why Christian music and mind altering substances go together so well. I think a few beers and a stiff espresso drink puts you in an ecstatic place to really get into it. Church ought to look into this phenomenon.
This might be a good place to talk about the crowd. Mostly Christian so in spite of being in a smoking bar there was very little smoking and drinking going on. The non-intoxicated crowd was fun and not overtly christian by dress. But polite. If someone bumped you they apologized. They looked like hipsters and were mostly young and pretty. It was an all ages show so it ended at 11 which I liked.
David Bazan was good. We saw him use the bathroom at the coffee shop before he went on. We speculated he was doing a few lines. Putting in a singer song writer in the middle act was strange but the break from jumping was good. He seemed sincere and his stuff was ok, but singer-songwritery. Hard not to be when you’re a dude with a guitar. But he had his fans.
Finally mewithoutyou came on. They were as great as I had hoped and it was a fun show. Everyone was super into it and I think all of us sang along to my favorite which was part of the encore, “lets forgive everyone all the time for everything” and “Allah, Allah in every blade of grass”. All that good stuff. It felt like worship and ended up being one of the best shows i’ve ever seen.
they paved the road to sutton’s bluff
This week found Harry, Dad, myself and Oni making a brief Ozarks excursion. We delayed a day to have an extra one to prepare and severe weather had been threatening and left on Tuesday. We set out around 9:30 and had an enjoyable drive down. The Black Eyed Susan was striking and it was nice to get out into the woods. Going gluten free and wanting shade for the dog kept us out of restaurants and it made me nostalgic for road trips past when we had made sandwiches on the road because we couldn’t afford to eat in restaurants. In 94 I had helped organize a summer long volunteer/protest/environmental education/camp out. We were a roving band of 8-60+ folks who met and did projects and hung out and camped and gave workshops and talked to locals. We worked on trails, repaired a dam, dumped saw dust at a national forest office, publicly threatened to disrupt an ATV race, got death threats, and were almost set up for a marijuana cultivation case we did not commit by a crooked sheriff in a small town. All in all it was a grand old time camping and hiking in beautiful country, learning about the natural world and how to live together and make it better. A lot of skinny dipping and a lot of driving. One of the places we liked to go was Sutton’s Bluff and I planned to check it out/camp near it and check out some tourist sites I gave short shift to back in the day, namely the recently re-opened Johnson’s Shut Ins.
We had a little trouble finding our road as forest service 2233 was being paved and was renamed county rd 917. We drove up it a few miles weaving around the paving crew then traveled down a forest service road for a couple of miles until we found an established camp site at a trail head for the Ozark Trail. It was a pretty site with some clearing, lots of shade, and some black eyed susans. We pitched our tents then drove to the shut ins but we didn’t have a lot of time and we were tired and the visitor center was closed so we never figured out how it worked.
Camp was nice though, made spaghetti and we had a smoky fire to keep away insects. Got up early made coffee. Thought our Kaldis Bolivian in the French Press quite likely the best cup of coffee in Reynolds County. Hiked the OT up from camp, nice. Found some fresh boar scat which i thought i had heard them snuffleupagussing in the night.
We headed out and drove up to Taumsauk and climbed the tower. Oni was game for it even though she wasn’t quite as tall as the step, but she climbed it like a champ. Beautiful 360 view. We also checked out an overlook than headed down to Elephant Rocks. I’ve seen bigger rock fields but it was cool for the Midwest, getting to scramble around on boulders. We checked out the ruins of an old engine house made of the granite pieces. I learned about Reg Granite which can can come from Missouri and Dad talked about how granite got going (black granite first used as ship ballast to even out loads until they had a surplus and decided to slice em up and sell them) and how they work it (1/4 mile long wires to give it time to cool). Elephant Rocks are the world’s preeminent place to see weathered red granite and it was pretty cool. There were some cliffs you could jump off into a quarry but i wasn’t quite hot enough and wanted to get back to dad and oni.
We then went to Johnson’s Shut Ins which were very cool and Harry and I slid/scrambled our way through that. Rock climbing in a waterfall, just a lot of fun in the water. Went back to camp and cooked again, i made an apple and ham wild rice dish that was impressive let alone for camp food.
Today we packed up, did out OT hike and cruised back. Caught a diner for lunch on the way home, they did a nice hamburger steak and we all made it home happy. Oni enjoyed camping, just thrilled to be living outside and loved the off leash hiking.
Today back in time to mow the front yard and get cleaned up for Batterer’s Group. The guys were rockin’ and we graduated a cool dude, biker type who teared up when I praised his progress. life is good, vacation is fun even when you’re working. Harry and I are both excited to be seeing mewithoutyou tomorrow night in Springfield. I remembered when I was hoping to leave work an hour early to make the show on time and now i’ve had all week off. Surely god works in mysterious ways.
going crazy part 10: The Captain’s Washroom
I awoke in a very strange space. A flight attendant brought me a duty free catalog and asked me “What do you want?” Again, I was struck by the momentousness of the question. What did I want? I went through the duty free catalog selecting presents and writing things down for my family and a few close friends. I had written down a number of things for Christa, whom I hadn’t thought about in some time and didn’t realize I still had feelings for. What do I want? echoed through my mind. I handed my list to the flight attendant.
“That’s quite a list sir. I’ll tally up the total and come back for payment.” I hadn’t realized there was payment expected. I had given all my money away weeks ago.
“You know that’s alright. I guess I was doing it as an exercise in what I want.Thanks all the same though, it was very enlightening.” She gave me a look of displeasure, quickly composed herself and left.
Filled with an incredible restlessness I could not just sit. I wondered if I could get some media on the screen. There were some buttons on the armrest and a screen in the seat ahead. I couldn’t make sense of the buttons. I pushed an up arrow and someone up ahead wearing earphones jumped in his seat. I wondered if my buttons controlled the volume on his ear set. I wondered if this were some elaborate puzzle or intelligence test. I decided I shouldn’t mess with it anymore.
There was also a counter on the armrest. It was at somewhere over 5 thousand. I wondered if it were an altimeter and I thought about the mile high club. I watched the numbers spin higher and higher and I wondered about a two mile high club, three mile high club, four mile high club, five…. There was so much I didn’t know about these people and what they were capable of. What they wanted from me.
I could no longer sit with this sense of powerlessness and impending doom. I got up and walked to the front of the plane. To the right there was a curtained alcove and a small restroom off to the side. I splashed water in my face. I was still so tired, even after that sleep. There were a set of colognes and I splashed some on. There was a jacket on a hook, a captain’s jacket. I tried it on, too narrow in the shoulders. I could not be the Captain. There was a red button. I returned to my seat.
I was sitting looking at the numbers go up on the armrest. I could not sit still. I felt something was calling me to do something. I thought now was the time. I returned to the Captain’s Washroom and pushed the red button, thinking to summon a stewardess to enroll me in whatever mile club we were at. I waited, nothing happened. I realized that was silly, things don’t work like that, and returned to my seat.
A flight attendant came, a stern older woman with curly blond hair. “We have had enough of this. You are going back to economy class and take your seat. If you get up again I will have the Captain turn this plane around. Do you hear me.”
“Yes, I understand”. I walked down the short flight of steps and pulled out my ticket. Row 23 seat “H”. I walked back feeling like everyone was looking at me, to row 23. There was no seat “H”. Where there should have been a seat there was a support beam. Strange. I wandered around until I found an empty seat and took it.
I struck up a conversation with my seat mate, a very engaging older fellow and we talked intently about something until we landed. I had made it safely back to the United States. We poured out of the plane and we carried our conversation towards customs where we had to go our separate ways, for I was an American without a checked bag and had a different line to go to. The muscular flight attendant walked by pulling one of those black wheeled bags with a handle. “Thank you for your service,” I said.
“Point Reyes”
This poem was shouted down as hippy drivel by Mike Leonardi the first time i tried to recite it at a party in the Old West End in Toledo. So take it for what its worth, full on exuberance about a really special place. All bad poetry is sincere.
I wrote this at Point Reyes when i was visiting John in the late 90s. He didn’t have a vehicle but we rode out with a mutual friend from CAN, John Davies and the three of us did a five mile hike to a pretty isolated and amazingly beautiful beach/cliff side. John and I camped a few days and then hitchhiked back to Oakland. In addition to what i remember in the poem the other thing i remember is how much sulfur was in the water. We had packed in some, drank sparingly and mixed in the well water when we had too. Harsh. Great trip, the skies in the west are so vast especially with the clean air coming from the vast Pacific. The venerable oak there is still one of my favorite trees, and I wrote this in my head on the walk to and from the tree:
I walked five miles across the ridge top
To get to the beach at Point Reyes
The sun shining over the ocean
Is more beautiful than i can say.
The pelicans fly over the crashing waves
While at camp the kit foxes play
Hide and seek with our apples and t-shirts
While the sun sinks into the Bay.
The constellations shine as we lay on the ground
There’s shooting stars across the Milky Way
The vastness of space surrounds me
Its the perfect end to the day.
We’re out on the trail at the break of dawn
To hike to the ancient oak tree
We sit in the shade of its massive limbs
There is no place that I’d rather be.
I walked five miles across the ridge top
To get to the beach at Point Reyes….
Appalachian Spring #3 (i’ll think of you)
This is the last piece I wrote hiking the southern most piece of the Appalachian Trail in 2000. Overall that was a really rough year for me but this piece has some joy in it. It was in early May and the wildflowers were really spectacular. We bought a little book and tried to learn their names as we went and this piece came out of those efforts. I remember reciting it for a friend and she was rather surprised i had this kind of sentiment in me. Life is not made up all of metaphysics and politics, but it takes a little love now and again as well.
When the Mountain Laurel is blooming
And the Cinquefoil is too
And the Bluets and the Spiderwort
Is such a lovely hue
I’ll think of you
And I’ll think of you
When I have fresh berries
That are so delightfully blue
Or I see the mulberry tree
And stop to pick a few
I’ll think of you
And I’ll think of you
When the leaves start to change
And turn all red and yellow like they do
And I go out walking in the woods
And the Great Horned Owl asks “who?”
I’ll tell him you
And I’ll thank of you
When the first snowfall comes
And turns everything white and new
and the kiddies don’t have to go to school
And the moms don’t know what to do
I’ll think of you
And I’ll think of you
At the stars at night
I’ll think of you
When the sun shines bright
I’ll think of you
Most every season
I’ll think of you
For any reason
I’ll think of you
And I’ll think of you
Multiconstruct 
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