cinco

day #ers 5,6,7,8
Hours driven: 4
States lines crossed:1

From chicago I made my way south to rendezvous with some more family: My two bestest friends from college, Ginelle and Erin. Ginelle has been living in Bloomington for the past two years working and studying, while her sweetie, Adam (also a good friend) works on his Ph.D. in English. Impressed? Erin drove up from Asheville with her sweetie, jose. Erin has been working in various avenues to promote immigrant rights and human rights in North Carolina. I call them my smart friends.

There we are doing one of the things we do best, besides talking and salsa dancing: feasting. Erin, Ginelle, Jose and Adam are all excellent cooks and when we get together its one elaborate meal after another. This was breakfast numero uno: silver dollar blueberry applesauce pancakes, scrabbled eggs w/ veggies, warm tortillas, fried 'taters w/ more veggies and coffee, of course. I do dishes, and eat, those are my gifts :-)
I spent the weekend here and enjoyed catching up and resting up after my three, 12-13 hour drives. We did lots of eating, drinking, hiking and biking. Hooray for biking. Bloomington is a great city to bike not only was it a super fun way to see the neighborhoods and the beautiful IU campus, it was also imperative after all that feasting of food and drink. Thanks Gine and Adam!

quatro

hours driven: 0
States crossed: 0
hot

Day four found me nestled in the warm hospitality of my mother's cousin Jenny and her family. I am especially grateful for family when there is an instant bond and many things in common, besides family gossip. There was much in common, indeed, and much laughing and sharing done. Every time i visit these Holman's i am overwhelmed and inspired by their warmth and their talents. Jenny is an accomplished artist, Molly is an animal trainer, Jim is a fine woodworker and Andy is a musician and chef.

Andy and I headed into Chicago for the day in search of Chicago things like: deep dish pizza, hot-dogs, chocolate cake and art. We found them all but chocolate cake. for chocolate we did get a whiff of Chicago's chocolate factory as we pulled into the amrtrak station. The dog we had at Potillos which was the best hot dog i have had since Gillies in Portsmouth when i was a kid. My dog came with mustard, ketchup, relish hot peppers, pickles, and sliced tomatoes. yum. For art we went into the Chicago Institute of Art which was free thanks to it being Thursday evening. Maybe what was better than the Picassos and Monets were the people busking out front.

tres

hours: 13 (last of the big days!!!!!)
states crossed: 3

I made a major discover today. ready? Iowa is beautiful! really. if you are from there you know that, but poor Iowa get such a bad rap for being the center of the most boring universe. but considering how many 'great' people were born there: Bob Dylan, John Wayne and my very own small town hero, Lance Hellman, how could it not be beautiful? Iowa was lush and pulsing with growth. Its rolling hills dotted with old farm houses and the occasional animal made for a real soul vista.

i am grateful again for another lovely day. and for whatever protecting angels have been watching over me on this grand adventure. grateful also for family. i visited Lance's boyhood home today. 'the farm' as it is know in fables. it was as beautiful, magic, special a place as I had heard Lance and Micheala describe it. My heart ached for all the Hellman history there. stories they have told me came to life in front of me. Micheala baling hay in the fields, riding her pony to town to get ice cream, lance fixing a car in the drive way, riding his horse Scout, sketching a dead bird, playing cowboys and indians in the hundreds of acres of corn Michaela grandmother working in their garden, the hollyhocks, dogs running about, Carle's booming voice coming from inside the house. I could feel and see all these things happening at once as I stood near the farm house and looked out upon the land.

dia numero dos

dia numero dos

number of hours driven: 13
states crossed: 2.5

Long day. I am grateful for another amazing drive, for the health of my body and my car. Right now the former is in worse shape than the latter. Go Black beauty go! (that is my Honda's new name!!!! after 4 years she finally found a name in Wyoming)

Wyoming was so beautiful i kept thinking, "i can't believe they waste all this beauty on the freeway travelers. Thanks to the information provided by rest stops i have learned that i have been following the Oregon Trail and the Lincoln highwa. Two historic transcontinental paths. The oregon trail, of course, was carved by the wagon trains of the pioneers and the Lincoln highway carved out by another kind of pioneer the sightseeing kind. The lincoln highway was America's first transcontinental auto road and, i guess, was the brain child of the Henry B. Joy. I had to give him the thumbs up and a thanks as I admired his monument, pictured here, at a rest stop that was also the highest point on the highway. I was also able to accumulate some good driving karma by tossing in some change upon ole Henry's monument. (I assumed that's why my fellow travelers where throwing their pennies in there).


breath taking sight #3 Wyoming Mesa
Coming out of the mountains around Salt Lake was all up and down, up and down, hills and mountains. As I summated one of these hills what lay infront of me me resembled the dress shirt of a giant. It was a massive, green, long sleeved, botton up shirt and it was stretched out on the hill in front of me. The four lanes of east and west bound traffic, the shirt's front, and the dotted lines of the road, its buttons. I dropped the car into a lower gear for the steep grade. As i summated, this shirt, i expected the other side to be a downslope. Instead what i found was that all breath left had left my body as I saw, not another side or a down hill, but, across! This was a giant mesa! On top was a paradise of a green peaceful meadows where sheep grazed. I felt like i had just discovered a new earth. I stared. shaking my head in amazement.

left portland early this AM to the land of the rising sun. There it is for you.
and, that's a rather scary shot of me pumping gas for the first time in 10 months! It's illegal to pump your own in Oregon.

Day Numero Uno

Number of hours driven: 12.5
States crossed: 3

Breath-taking Sight #1
6 A.M. Colombia river still as ice with morning blues, pinks and greens dancing on its surface. I couldn't help but see the greatness of this river. In that light it was the Nile or Gangies. One of Oregon's many holy waters.

Breath taking sight #2
Idaho sneaker canyon. Flat, dry, vast cattle fields lulled me into thinking: 'this is it. this is what Idaho is going to look like from now on.' So, I was shocked and alarmed to see something unfamiliar on the horizon. It looked like a huge square building. but it wasn't. 'Was it a mesa?' i thought 'no. could it be? Oh my goodness! I said, as i gripped the wheel and and took in the full vista of it. it was a huge canyon! Its walls rose higher and higher in front of me and the land all around dropped down and over into its abyss like a massive water fall. As the road turned i wasn't entirely sure if it would keep going or just drop right off into the canyon.
Lesson taught by the road #1
Just when you get attached to something being one way it changes.

My route: Oregon to Utah to Nebraska to Chicago to Bloomington Indiana to Geary Indiana to Pennsylvania to New York to Portsmouth New Hampshire!