Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
First off, the KVII story is online, you can check it out here. Really have to hand it to Mitch Roberts and Kale Steed – they made it quite fun!
new feature at KVII.com website
I’m in New Mexico and I’m already enchanted. I exited the trailer this morning and was hit with the comforting smell of the desert in the wind. There is this smell in the desert sometimes – I don’t know what it is, I think it’s some plant – that I just love love love. It’s warm and earthy and vaguely smoky… mesquite plant? Not sure but it made me really happy. Another thing that made me happy was finding this park in San Jon
on the border - and a time zone change - in a ghost town!
(pronounced San “Hone”) where overnight parking was allowed. I’m just off the interstate so I can still hear the traffic, but this is way more peaceful than the truck stop where I was planning to park. Plus I’m right next to a washroom with flushable toilets and a sink where I can wash my dishes (! the joys of plumbing !) – and only one other trailer was parked here last night. I gotta tell ya: after yesterday’s little meltdown, I really needed this.
**Caution: if you don’t have the stomach for rants and musings about somewhat private thoughts and feelings, skip this part and move to another of my more educationally-slanted posts about Route 66 itself, and not about me. This time it’s personal. **
I ended up in a bit of a dip yesterday, mostly because of time issues. The connection I had was miserable – like, dial-up bad, and it kept dropping – and getting everything loaded up onto the blog and checking emails and dealing with some nasty-but-necessary Canadian government websites (where I had to download software to make them work, and that alone took about 40 minutes)… I couldn’t get on the road until mid-afternoon, with only a few hours of daylight to drive. This is becoming a regular occurrence and it’s bumming me out. I was so incredibly frustrated at how long everything takes… and then I started thinking about money and my house and all the crap I have to sort out when I get back… then inevitably, that voice started. “What are you doing here? Why are you doing this? Your family and friends are all back home, you’ve got a house to pay for and no job – what the heck are you doing? Are you nuts?? Who do you think you are?” Yeah, I love that voice, don’t you?
I know that I don’t sit still well and that part of me who isn’t punching a clock will probably always start flapping when I feel I’m not being directly productive – especially at a time like this when I don’t have someone paying me to push buttons for them. But dammit: there are some people in this world who find a way to do what they love to do, and get paid for it. I actually know some!! And I am cursing my small-town mindset that has kept me from really stretching out to try to do – and be – something I really, truly love. Yeah, yeah: I know it’s a luxury. I know it’s not practical. I know not many people get to do that… but frig! SOME people do – so why shouldn’t I be one of those people? Unless you believe in reincarnation, we only have one chance at this life. Why shouldn’t we try to be as fulfilled and authentic to our true natures as possible? Isn’t it our duty to do just that, during our short time here? To thine own self be true and all that jazz? I’m not a church-goer but I’m not entirely devoid of spirituality either… something somewhere gave me the talents to take photographs and write blogs, and stoked in me the courageous spirit to travel solo, and instilled in me the drive to share my explorations with others using these skills. Shouldn’t I be trying to find a way to survive while honoring those gifts? Shouldn’t I??
…That last question is rhetorical by the way – this is just me working out my own demons. I have a feeling that many people don’t want to read this sort of thing – but I have a feeling that many others do. So I included it here, for what it’s worth. Some of the road blocks I hit on this journey aren’t just on the pavement. (Speaking of, I did hit up against two more closed segments of the Route, thwarting my efforts at being as true as possible to McJerry’s EZ Guide tour of Route 66.)
the 10 Cadillacs half-buried at Cadillac Ranch
OK, rant over. I want to write about making it to Adrian, TX yesterday (a very significant stop on the Route!) – but for now I’ll sign off with a pic of Cadillac Ranch, just because it’s cool and famous. Eccentric millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 (not III) commissioned the art collective Ant Farm to install this outdoor public art sculpture.
More echoes of Detroit past: ten Cadillacs from the golden age of the automobile (tail fin era) are buried hood-down at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, out in the middle of a field. The public is encouraged to come with spray cans and add their graffiti to the cars. (Only downside of that is people leaving their empty cans strewn around.) It’s beside the interstate west of Amarillo, and it’s free. Definitely worth a stop.
Oh, almost forgot: I think I came close to being bitten by a rattlesnake yesterday. I’ve done a lot of shooting in the desert over the years and I have only seen one rattler – and that one was sleeping. Yesterday, right at the border of Texas and New Mexico in the ghost town of Glenrio (totally bypassed by the interstate and now mostly abandoned), I was shooting this great old building.
ledge under door: great place for snakes-?
The door was painted this chipped, fading turquoise color and the interior looked as though it would be great for some of that decayed stuff I love to shoot so much. I started venturing in and suddenly heard this loud hissing noise. I didn’t stop right away, because I thought it was some unusual birds up in the ceiling trying to warn me off. Then I noticed the broken ledge of porch in front of the door. It would have been a perfect place for snakes to coil up, out of the sun. I backed up and waited to see if the noise stopped. It occurred to me that it could be wind whistling through the gaps in the broken roof. I really did want to go into this building to shoot! But I’d never, ever heard this noise before, it was totally persistent, and it just started up as approached the entrance. I was pretty far from anything, so if I did get bitten, I’d have a ways to drive to get help. I figured it wasn’t risking it, and moved on, feeling stymied and a bit cowardly.
dead rattlesnake
As I walked to the next grouping of empty buildings, I almost stepped right on something at the side of the road. Guess what it was? A large, dead, rattlesnake. Glad I minded my instincts – and the hissing.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Keep up the good work, I’m enjoying your travels.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
awesome! just making me smile ear to ear
October 14th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Thank you for sharing your journey – both the physical and the emotional. I know there are certainly days I feel similarly – even after doing this for 2.5 years (you should have read my posts from my first couple months
).
You are doing something that many dream of and few have the courage to attempt. If it’s something you want – a way to make it happen WILL find you.
I so look forward to finally meeting you and talking in person..
*hugs*
– Cherie
October 14th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
My guesss about that smell you mentioned: Do you see low, spreading clumps of light grey-to-sliver leaved, branching shrubs with twisted limbs scattered about?
Sagebrush. Breathe deep.
Totally intoxicating, isn’t it?
October 14th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Again, I’m thinking of your mother, reading that part about the rattlesnake…
October 15th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Was that snow I saw falling in parts of the TV segment?
October 15th, 2009 at 1:19 am
It must get difficult traveling on your own for so many miles without having someone to alternate with the driving. Traveling for stretches at a time with nothing but your thoughts. It is not always a bad thing but occasionally there are those days where you can’t elude your thoughts. I don’t know about you but it’s times like those I have to pump up the volume and escape…”Gimme the Beach Boys and free my soul I want to get lost in your rock ‘n’ roll and drift away.”
Hang in there because you are doing great.
Stay well and stay safe.
I’ll leave you with these lyrics from a Live song, which sort of touches on your blog:
Rattlesnake
Lets go hang out in a mall, or a morgue,
A smorgasbord
Lets go hang out in a church
Well go find lurch
Then well haul ass down through the abbey
Is it money, is it fame whats in a name, shame?
Is it money, is it fame or were they always this lame?
Its a crazy, crazy mixed up town
But its the rattlesnake I fear
In another place, in another time
Id be drivin trucks my dear
Id be skinnin hunted deer
Deer
Lets go hang out in a bar
Its not too far
Well take my car
Well lay flowers at the grave of jesco white
The sinners saint
The rack is full and so are we
Of laughing gas and ennui
From the album Secret Samadhi (1997)
I bet you thought I was going to go with Springsteen’s Cadillac Ranch…too obvious.
Take care.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Don’t worry Sandi, self doubt just means you’re self aware and not a total moron. Start to worry if that ever goes away. I was a tall skinny kid at Scarboro10 with bad glasses and a worse haircut. If I can live my dream of taking pictures every day you don’t have anything to worry about.
BTW, the trio of Gil Moor, Rik Emmett, and Mike Levine also known as the |+|Canadian supergroup TRIUMPH have these words of advice for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qnhoxAEVX0
October 15th, 2009 at 9:07 am
A scene of you opening the Aliner over the line “If this story was a movie, this would be the trailer”. Coincidence? I’m betting not. Those KVII folks made it quite fun for the viewer, too. Nice piece.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Your doing great! and we all have to complain or we aren’t normal. I am enjoying your journey and maybe I will hit that road next year. For now its with you.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Time zone change in a ghost town – what a concept – almost like the old “If a tree falls in the forest…” And I love all the music references this post got. Cadillac Ranch is sure part of the pop culture of my era (speaking as one who grew up in Detroit in the50/60s). I think you’re doing just great Sandy. Tell that little voice to take a hike and listen to Elvis instead – follow that dream!
October 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am
This was a great interview. We just loved it. As a matter of fact it made me cry a little as it makes me miss you so much. You look wonderful, by the way. Stay away from those rattlesnakes, will ‘ya? Thanks for thinking of me Peggy. Your hospitality and concern for our little wanderer is appreciated.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Thanks so much for the supportive comments, all!!
Paul: TRIUMPH?!? Now you made ME spit coffee out all over my screen!
TSB: again, you are the man with the right song for any occasion.
Route66News: Almost snow! freezingish drizzle. Nuts!
wildsage: sagebrush, eh? makes sense – and with a name like wildsage, you would know!
Cherie: I can’t wait to meet you too. You’ve been such a huge help/support with all this – not to mention an inspiration.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Miss you too, Mom.
Peggy: thanks for being my OKC mom! And thanks again for your call to Aliner. The converter is working great and it’s so much better this way! I finished the biscuits and am almost done the yogurt. Your snacks have been such a help on the road!
October 15th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
So glad the converter is working! It was Steve who made that call, and he was really happy about Aliner’s attention. We went to a local RV show tonight and are still researching A-frame campers.
I went to see “Julie and Julia” again this week, with Emily this time, and am even more convinced you should treat yourself and stop and see it. I think it will encourage you, and know I am not alone in that!
Hi to your sweet mom. I’m eager to hear who next along the way will get to share your adventure!
October 16th, 2009 at 11:30 am
This morning I was thinking of some of the less then optimum responses an individual could have to being laid off from a well paying job or even leaving a relationship or situation where one had all their eggs in that basket
….and how it might occur to that person like the “end of the road” and not a launching event for the thing they most always wanted to do and not the opportunity to let the community into one’s life and to reach out let others contribute to them in a way that they never have before ..AND that in part is what you seem to be doing – a very interesting and useful and inspirational experiment Sandi. I wonder how that would transfer to a family or a group where they were not as mobile an unattached as you and I – I am sure there is an access there for all people in here somewhere…..
taking risks….living an invented life?
October 16th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Nice, vallis. I love this concept. What a lovely observation! Thank you!
October 17th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
You will be fine. The voice is from past habits. Ranting is one way to get them out. It is time to soar and to really soar you need to divest yourself from old habits, beliefs and attitudes. I liked the rant, keep it up. I loved the shots.
October 18th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Sandi, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have doubts, you’d be one of those unreal/delusional people, which you are not. Consider that your sanity check. Yup, you are sane. =)