Vanishing Point

Callooh! Callay! When I woke up yesterday morning, my body was complaining nearly everywhere from being too sedentary recently, due in most part to my not quite knowing what to do with myself when I can't go for walks. (No suggestions being solicited -- I know all the options -- I won't bore either of us by relating my reasons why not this or that.) Back to yesterday morning when I looked out the window and I saw this sky: I looked at weather.com and saw 65 degrees. I thought of my neighbor who, after his life-saving surgery, would walk the block in front of my house a little more each day while he rebuilt his strength. Remembering that inspired me. I didn't know how far I could walk, but I was going for a walk. I was going to enjoy this beautiful morning by being outdoors. I stepped out into the breeze and I took that photo. Aimed at a different part of the sky, I took this one: I walked slowly. Slowly enough that I could avoid the appearance of limping. My...

Always use gloves when handling fresh turmeric. The photo shows my gloves after washing them with soap and water. Also wipe up any spilled turmeric immediately. To offset the effects of withdrawing from three months of taking daily anti-inflammatory pills, I switched from black to green tea in the mornings, and I've been drinking tea made from fresh ginger and turmeric in the afternoons. Is it helping? I don't know, but it can't hurt. It turns out that I like the tea, so that's a bonus. I finally tallied all my gas station purchases and mileage notes, and came up with these figures: 7,481 miles driven 17 mpg overall $2.57 per gallon average paid for gas I figured out some other statistics, but those are the only ones I plan to share here. If you're curious about other stats, you can ask me individually. 😎 My goal was to strike a happy medium between a vehicle I could camp in comfortably and a vehicle that would allow me to enjoy more urban ...

The last leg of my trip was rainy and windy and very, very gray. I didn't take any photos on that leg of the drive. This photo of my first forsythia sighting of the year is from the day before in Southeast Missouri. Back to that last leg of the trip...  After stopping for lunch and groceries, I arrived at home mid-afternoon. There is a slight scent to this house that isn't at all about perfumes or about who is living here -- it has smelled like this since I first remember visiting my grandparents here as a small child. Walking in, I recognized the scent of the house immediately. Waking up in the night, I immediately remembered that I was at home, but then I had to remind myself which way the bathroom was from the bed. What now that I'm home? Unpacking, laundry, cleaning up after all my pre-trip van projects, sorting mail, filing my taxes, the list goes on but you get the idea. Almost three months on the road was enough time to interrupt some habits I'd like to...

I'd read about it on roadsideamerica.com, and I'd passed it on my drive through the Missouri boot heel in January, and then I forgot about it. Until I saw the billboard, that is. I didn't recognize the name of the restaurant, but the slogan, "Caution, hot ones comin' in!" tickled a synapse or two and I wondered, could this be the place that throws the dinner rolls? A couple more billboards answered the question, YES! So I had to stop. It's a great place for kids and for families who have a tradition of celebrating birthdays and anniversaries there. Big party? No problem. It's likely that one just as big is just finishing up and there's a place for the next one almost ready. When I got there, they had a live pianist performing, and when she stopped they had upbeat recorded music to replace her. There was a guy there filming, I'm guessing for a commercial because it was just one guy and not a whole film crew, but it was way better equipment tha...

In Arkansas I saw two crop-dusters on the same day, both flying back and forth over the highway I was on. One passed no more than 20 feet in front of me, and maybe 10 feet over me. With those distances, it sure looks like the plane is headed straight for me... The second also was headed my direction but the timing was a little further off, or possibly just as close but behind me instead of passing right in front of me. The first one was an ultralight, and looked a lot like this (only bright yellow):  http://www.zenithair.com/stolch701/pic09/crop-spray.jpg and the second looked more like a regular small plane. When googling for crop dusting images, I was surprised how many of them were related to articles about crashes. Glad I didn't see that before I saw the planes headed toward me! I think that the people who stayed in my hotel room prior to me in Jonesboro, Arkansas were professional hotel housekeeping testers. The housekeeping staff at the hotel failed the test, but I passed!...

There's something about the backroads countryside in southern Arkansas that feels like going back in time. The creeks and rivers are natural and picturesque, and you can drive for miles and miles and never see a chain store. When I drove through a town called Delight, I saw a sign announcing that it was Glen Campbell's birthplace. I have only the most pleasant associations with Glen and his music, so it was a cheerful thing to see the sign announcing the connection between him and where I was driving. Here's a video where he mentions Delight, and shows off his gee-tar playing skills:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUBhE00h9U0 Although Hot Springs has a lot of chain stores and restaurants, the downtown area does not. It's quirky and touristy and unique. I made an appointment for a private mineral bath at Quapaw Bath and Spa, then went there the day before to make sure I knew where I could park my beast. The bath was nice, and then I was invited into the cool-down roo...

This is probably obvious, but it's the first real experience of it that I've had, so I'm going to talk about it. There's a big difference between watching the weather from one particular location (or from a couple of particular locations if I'm planning to fly somewhere), compared to watching the weather while both I and the weather are moving across the country. It's different tactically and it's different emotionally. Before this trip, my thinking was that if I'm mobile and paying attention, I should be able to avoid weather I don't like. But I was thinking about the kinds of distances and weather patterns I'm used to in California or Indiana. Seeing what happened in Texas this past week has humbled me. To a large extent, I escaped winter this year. Yes it was very (single digits) cold when I hit the road for my trip, but I've missed all the snow and ice and most of the rain and wind. That took some planning at first, but then it was ea...