A lot of driving, A lot of strolling
A lot of leaving here
A lot of arriving there
Trying to go just about everywhere
A lot of thinking about where I'm going next
-Avett Brothers
I have been in a strange mode halfway between leaving and arriving, enjoying the blissful peace of finishing former responsibilities, discarding excess possessions, packing everything into two bags, and taking off on the road. I like to take time moving. I usually try to give myself a few days to process the going and coming. Which is why I am now here in Chicago, between North Carolina and Minnesota.
Some adventures between there and here:
*A few days back at the CAMP, culminating in a failed attempt at adventuring on the Huffy bike of my last bike trip. It was a 45 mile trip from Cedar Mountain to Asheville, on mostly backroads through the green, gorgeous, warm hills of southwest NC. I knew that the bike was in bad shape - it had worn tires, one partly functional brake, a very heavy frame, and a derailleur that did not line up perfectly, so that there was a high-pitched sound of chain on metal. I traveled 20 miles on bike, when the back tire began to wobble and a strange clicking sound began. I stopped and inspected, only to find that the rear axle was rusted, corroded, and now broken, making the peddling disconcerting and arduous. I walked for 2 miles until I passed a cyclist from Hendersonville, who told me that I could bike safely. I biked another 5 miles, to a gas station where I obtained a marker and paper to make a sign to ask for a ride. After about 10 minutes, a woman in a Prius pulled over and picked me up. She was a real estate agent looking to obtain "good energy" by picking me up and checking out the fall colors of the trees on her day off. She drove me into Asheville "even though I don't normally pick up hitchhikers alone, you looked so innocent!" she said. Typical.
*Wrangling honey-bees in order to extract a small amount of honey from their supers, in a fabulous bee-suit. This is a photo that I took on my computer last spring of what the top half of the bee-suit looks like. This time I was mistaken for an astronaut by some children as I walked across camp with the supers (top drawers on a bee hive that contain comb where honey is stored).
*Seeing Solas and the Duhks at the Orange Peel with Reid and Lara, dancing like mad
*Making a new dog-friend (malamute-German shepherd mix).
*Spending a couple of days at a rental lake home in the backwoods of South Carolina with some pest exterminators from Atlanta, who were on a mission to clean out hundreds of pounds of bat guano (shit) from a historical monument.
*Accidentally crashing a breast cancer survivor party in my swimsuit (underwear and sports bra) while chasing after afore-mentioned new dog friend.
*Adventuring in St. Louis with college friend Jake, going to the AMAZING Missouri Botanical Gardens, a bar that allows dogs with his man-child friend Jeff, and on a run past beautiful brick buildings. We had a great time watching dog friend humping three different people at the bar.
And the usual enjoyment of watching the demographics and landscape change as we traveled from the Southeast to Midwest, through South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. I am ready to be back in the North for the next couple of months. I don't have a job yet.
