O r
Would you like to come with me tomorow
& feed on lust we have made
we'll rise up through out the evening
and dance with ghosts of yesterday
we'll do the rhumba For Jehovah
tango with Zoroaster for Ahuru Mazda
Shake and Shimmy, with the Kachinas
The Sacred Hula with many hoops
Crying Haere Mai, Aroha Nui
To Wonka Tonka, and Quetzacoatl
If Krishna is like the milk of loving kindness
to remind us of that sweet mamas breast
then shiva is the cheese
you get when you drop some acid
in the supreme dairy metaphor of the godhead
don't forget Bruce Lee, he could manifest the Qi
but if you look closely, you can see
A beautiful woman dancing lightly
dressed only in the texts
girdled in the words
she whispers
she tests
*******************************************************************
Henrietta Lawson Do the guys who make Harley's ride Harleys?
July 24 at 1:37pm- Henrietta Lawson
The dynamics of the Road today have been ripe, the fruit luscious. Rt 5 through Maine, from Old Orchard Beach, headed to Stoneham Maine.
I was awoken at about 3:45 by a nice enough lady cop - I had lay me down in the doorway of an Anglican C...hurch/Funeral Home. I don't normally sleep where the dead dream, but it was raining and I was tired.
So I rose and packed and walked - got to a gas station a mile or so later, hot water turned into instant coffee, and I crossed the intersection. It had a nice roundabout to it, and directly oposite the c-store was a Motorcycle parts shop that faced directly east. So I pulled out Elizabeth and played, drinking coffee and smoking snipes, watching the midsummer sun rise over the horizon of waves a couple of miles off. The sky was still pretty cloudy, so it wssn't as grand as it sounds, but it was awesome.
I began to walk, and before too long got to Saco, and kept on going. I got a little turned around where 5 joins 122, ended up having to backtrack a mile or so. then it was on out of Sacco on 5 ( stopping at a grocery for a food stamp salad lunch ).
Walking out of Sacco, a pair of Harleys passed, one with a guy with a girl on the back - the other with just one guy. The first one backfired, making me jump and have to clean out my ears, checking the balance. The sun had burned off the clouds, and I found myself thinking all kinds of questionably motivated thoughts about the people of Maine, their expensive toys and fancy cars that don't stop.
Found shade beneath a tall tree, next to a beautiful farm property, hung out there for a while, sang some of amazing grace while I watched the birds fly, and pretty much returned to the zen yogi state. So I started walking again, and a mile or two later found a path off into the tree line. I went and lay down for a about twenty minutes, and was feeling much better - started walking again - crossed the freeway, and kept on keeping on. All told, I walked about 12 miles before a pick up truck with three good old boys with beards and beers picked me up - they drove me to where 202 meets 5. There was a Harley bar called Hawg heaven - the nice lady refilled my water bottle - and as I left I noticed the two harleys from earlier - with their riders. I just kept walking.
I started thinking about how happy I am to see all these weekend warriors on Harleys, overpaying for prestige when true performance is not what you get with the Milwaukee Iron. Now, I grew up in Milwaukee, WI, and am very happy to have people buying our stuff - even if it does mark you as a bit of a show off. This got me to thinking about whether the guys who make Harleys ride Harleys - and then about other things - and then the two bikes go by again - and the one guy is in the back and he leans over and yells ' BANG ' as they motor on. So I guess they thought they were funny.
About 5 minutes later, a guy pulls over in an SUV with a car seat and gives me a ride to the next town. He drops me in front of a cigarette and liquor store - from which the Three riders of those two Harleys are emerging. The one who rides solo makes a big point of yelling, in a Maine accented, been on the bike all sday and can't control my volume sort of way, ' hey, you remember that back fire in Sacco - that was this bike!"
To which I reply - as I was walking away down the road - ' Well from the looks of things, as of right now, I'm making better time hitchin than you are on those Harleys.'
He had no reply, and the girl guffawed and said, ' he's right'
So I walk on, and they pass me, the front guy does his little backfire thing again, but I was ready this tiem, the girl either flips me off or does a peace sign - the angle was hard to see, but she was smiling. So was I.
It occurs to me as I'm in the midst of all this that there's a certain refreshing Arrogance to the Biker thing - they hav their chosen pretensions, and it allows them to blow off their steam. All three were in pretty buff condition for middle aged types - maybe they are firefighters, or lawyers, or something, who knows. It got me to thinking about whether my arrogant pretensions of that go with being a peace activist are in as fine a balance as theirs. Not enough data, but it freed me a bit from the monotony of watching the petroleum addicts roll by in their many forms - a caravan of atv 4 wheelers across the road, the fancy cars and work trucks, the many bikers and such. And then a White Bearded dude in an SUV pulls over and I get in - I tell him about my journey, and my plans to establish a nonprofit next year to bring about a Sanctuary for Homeless Pregnant women on an Organic Farm that incorporates a midwifery school and disaster relief preparedness training sminars into the mix. Turns out he worked for year in Mass as a rehabilitation guy for delinquent and troubled teen girls - and he was part of the process of deinstitutionalising the system there - going from ju-vee halls to halfway houses and foster care etc. So he gave me some interesting insights on all that. Standing on the shoulders of Giants.
two of three rides today also specifically told me they picked me up because I had a guitar. I swear, Elizabeth gets more than half our rides.
So now I'm in Limerick, about half way from Portland to Stneham, maybe a little less. It's about an 85 mile trip - and I'm turning it into an epic trip - two days into a two hour drive.
Henrietta Lawson I asked for water - he gave me the essence of life
August 14 at 6:19am ·- Henrietta LawsonLOHALELUJAH!
in this flesh, blessed and beset by resentments and reservations on all sides, we see the best of paths, that which walks through the darkness by the light of our lives, the love we share glows and grows, and as, like a river it... flows, we turn resentment into lyrics and reservations into melodious harmonies -
till we shine the light of love again, I know, my friend, that our antecednts are all but premonitions of the goodness in which all will one day rest!
Soon, yes, sooooooon! as if it was now, even.
Today i woke, and in my waking ( in the parking lot of a closed steak house ) I walked to the gas station that gave me matches last night for the smoking of my snipes. The guy let me have hot water for instant coffee, then he asked me where i was from, what did I do - so
I told him I was on a hitch hiking journey from peace prayer to peace prayer, working on building a sanctuary for homeless pregnant women on an organic farm that will incorporate a midwifery school and disaster relief preparedness training.
SO he tells me what he does - that he'd been new to the internet a few years ago, and mistakenly hit a pop up banner. It took him into an ugly world of inescapable porn bots and chat screens. He doesn't dig on that sort of swine, but has a heart filed with love. So he started chatting with a Fillipino girl whore.
Not for the cheap thrill - but to diagnose the ill.
He started showing me pictures of the girl, who through his new association with him is now in school and living on a farm - and several other girls - all of whom a re pursuing dreams of healthy children and happy lives - he's digging wells for them, helping with medical and technological skills that the local culture denies to the poor women.
From a nasty hole of decrepitude condoned and controlled by the patriarchy, this one man has rescued several mothers and children.
All this, from instant coffee.
This, is Middletown, New York. One wrong turn, or so it would seem , leads to consequential humbling - yes! PROVIDENTIAL BUMBLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See More - Henrietta LawsonAnd we were Yogis of the Pooh - we built a Yoga center by digging a hole, long, narrow and deep.
We put a tarp in front of it for privacy and a Native American Spirit Tobacco can filled with Toilet paper
we sent people to the yoga center to P...ooh
If you helped dig the hole, you were a Pooh Yogi
We warned people about Bears.
On Monday, we built our ship into a stage, and had a reception
when the sun went down
we had a talent show that started with a naked four person chorus singing BOhemian Rhapsody, had two different beat boxing performances, several appearances by the King and Mayor of the River, the naked spirit reincarnated of Joni Mitchel, and a naked lady personifying rage while peals of argioed insanity rolled across the river from a hidden amplifier -
see we were in the parking lot, having a handfasting cermony for a year long commitment between grandpa and 99.
Grandpa even did a nun-chucks exhibition to elevator music.
oh, and ancient chinese theatre, featuring gay ninja pirates resulting in zombification
And now I've left it all there, behind me in those woods.
Gave away anything anyone wanted, found people to take responcibility for my rope and my tarp and my tent - all things they'll need.
Me, I wanna do cleanup at the WA regional, and get there as early as possible.
I just caught a ride out of the woods with some phamily, will be doing laundry here, and resuming the road.
Henrietta Lawson I guess I should mention literature.
The journey began, a couple of months ago, with a novelization of the life of Aaron Burr - the iconoclastic warrior who was once vice president - for Thomas Jefferson, no less. Better remembered for fatally wounding Alexander Hamilton in a duel during his term as VP than his Revoluti...onary war heroics ( for which he earned a Colonel's rank ) and later wide ranging eccentricities - for which he was actually accused of Treason.
That book took me across the mountain states, and was followed by a long open stretch where I read little. This came to an end in Vermont, where I picked up a book about the Pilgrims, called Saints and Strangers - which did me well hitching through New England. I finnished that in Portland, Maine. The day I put it down, I found a copy of 'Shelters of Stone', the most recent book in Jean Auel's books about the Stone Age differences between Neanderthals and early Homo Sapiens. This book has been fabulous, always seeming to fit my surroundings. At the Mainebow Gathering I was reading it during seed camp; building old school rock hearths for wood fires, digging latrines, carrying everything I needed, keeping track of my own eating utensils and tools, living with the weather. When I was on my way back into the Gathering, I read about a seance they performed to help soothe the spirits of the lost souls while sleeping in a Quaker Friends Meeting Hall's backyard - which also was their graveyard. I repeatedly moved to relight the motion detector light so I could finnish that chapter - before going to sleep - no need for foolishly inviting in nightmares. And now, as I travel across the country to go to the Northwest Gathering of the Tribes, Ayla and Jondalar are traveling to the Summer Gathering of their Cave dwelling contemporaries.
Next up in the cue is 'Dharma Punx' given to me by the Cubano Rasta from New Jersey with whom I travelled from Maine to Jersey to Bethel New York the other day. It is apparently a true memoir of a young punker who lives hard then sobers up and finds incredible truth in Buddhist Inspired meditations.
But anyways, I am now on I-80 west, the sun has gone down on me as I stood on the ramp, hoping for a ride. I got dropped here by a sister who picked me up in Dunmore, near Scranton. I had walked into town and found roads to lead me to where I-81 was clearly seperate from I-84 and I-380. To be specific, I walked down Drinker Rd. I thought that was fun, poetic in an obvious sort of way. Got honked at and flipped off by some dudes in a van with lots of sports team stickers on the back. AH pensylvania. Amish and Assholes make it so hard to see the vast thriving populous of good people here sometimes.
Like that sister - she pulls over in her diesel VW Jetta, back seat full of art supplies, the front console holding lots of bits glass art. She used to be a Phish tour head. Now she's going to college pursuing her Masters in Art - she just got back from an archeological dig in Spain and Portugaul where she caught the desire to build her own Roman style forge for making bronze.
She drove me to 80 West and dropped me at this Pilot Truck stop.
So I put the thumb out, and while I sang Amazing Grace, an old local bum with a cane and club foot walked by and smiled at me as he went to go sleep under the Interstate.
The sun went down, and I went into the Pilot, got some water and went outside to try to talk my way into a ride. Before long, two of the worker girls ( both twenty ) came out and asked me about my travels - i told them about Rainbow and the MotherFarm, they asked for my Facebook, so I gave them a card with my badfolkorchestra@gmail.com , http://livingcrystalship.blogspot.com/ , and facebook henrietta lawson on it. Henrietta Lawson being the name of my first guitar, who wrote a series of short stories about visionaries and punks from the time of Shakespeare until today ( speaking of literature ) which includes 3 stories, 14 songs and the memory of her face.
Henrietta's neck broke at a Rainbow Gathering near the Hobo Campground hotsprings in SoCal, while I was travelling with Banjo Puppy.
I've also developped quite a fondness for freecell - the computer solitaire game. Its gotten to where I very rarely have to restart the game once begun. I think I'll play again now before I read some more Cave Bear stuff.
And then a bus pulled in, $1 from pittsburg to NYC if you buy your tickets 3 weeks in advance - $30 same day. Full of wild ly beautiful folk - a lady who discussed noun declensions and verb forms, made an adjective of the the noun gerund - 'gerundively'. And a guy from a farm who was at the Nationals in the Alleghenies, a singer/songerwriter moving to New York for the music scene. He kicked me down a little bit of herb he'd grown himself.
So, now that I have some herb, I've got to make a pipe out of my apple. whatever shall I do?
***********
What I did was went and made a pipe from my apple, found a nice spot under a big deciduos tree, and smoked, then lay and thought about systems of development appropriate to the board of directors for the MotherFarm.
Woke up and went out to the ramp after instant coffee. It was begiing to drizzle. Went up to the top of the ramp, to thumb off the actual Traffic, and within an hour a mini van taxi cab pulled over. The driver was a Tea Party apologist, getting ready for a big Glenn Beck Faith Rally. He was also on his way back to Philadelphia, after he picked up his Fare in Williamsport. I told him about the Mother Farm concept, when he asked me what I would do to change the system. His thought processes seemed to change pretty drastically - but the bombastic self righteousness of the Fox News channel seeped out of his thoughts continually.
He tried to bridge the big gap, but when I told him I was a man of faith and had no reason to hope for the system to change itself for the better, we found common ground.
He clearly was of a different sort than I, but made sure to repeat continually that I should look into the Tea Party movement.
The view from Williamsport is of rain. We shall see how this goes.
Henrietta Lawson http://www.youtube.com/user/alohathelion#p/u/6/x4QaKdpCJWU
this link leads to a video I made of the crazy beautiful SMERF
Henrietta Lawson I walked away from the Barnes and Noble, to catch a city bus. It took me straight down Washington Avenue ( East Wash to the local slang cogniscenti ) and got dropped off near the capitol on the east end of the isthmus. The left over bits from Hippy Christmas ( last week ) were obviously spread from dumpster to dumpster... - though this was nothing compared to what last week must have been. Now it was just every dumpster over flowing -last wek it would have been every curb as well. This was more the left overs of the big movin - unexpected move outs and such - more of a Hippy Hanukah then Xmas. This proved quite true when I found an as yet unopened tin of enteman's Happy Hanukah cookies - chocolate chip and sugar cookies in little paper cups. I guewss they had probably been blessed by a Rabbi - which got me to thinking about the Rabbi whose job it was to bless all the Kosher food.Does he typically go to a culinary art school?
I found a new pair of size 13 hiking boots ( i guess to replace my beloved sole train nikes, whihc I ditched yesterday ) a bunch of different tgicknesses and lengths of white string, and a new neck tie ( with water geometry designs ). Then I found the backyard garden of the Lothlorien Housing co-op and went down to the water. There I made a little video of the garden with a recording of one the Tales From Cafe Queequeg songs ( faces in the Rocks ). http://www.youtube.com/user/alohathelion#p/u/6/yNFZpw67bUU
As I finnished, an elf ( lothlorien residents are called elves ) came down, then went back up.
After a bit, she came back down with a friend, and they went out on the pier. I said hello and told them I was a former elf.
They went back up and down came the two longest standing householders in the Coop, whom for the sake of delicacy I shall call Mix and Mixture. They lived there 5 years ago when I did. They said it must be visitor Sunday, because two other former elves were up in the building.
They also had lived there when I did, and had just ( that very day ) returned from a months long trip to Guatemala - whre he had been training to be a yoga instructor. A family tragedy had ended their journey unexpectedly, they made the return trip from south of Mexico to North texas ( a trip that took 2 monts south ) in 4 days. The five ofg us there had ( at the time when we cohabitated ) been the active members of the house council for a spell - the secretary, treasurer, food and supplies purchaser, and two maintenantce heads.
Mix and Mixture delighted us with the news that they were pregnant, expecting to bring a new child into Lothlorien - so far as I know the first serious child resident in some time.
After we chilled a bit, we all went out and did what anybody does in Madison - dumpster diving. It was quite a fun time - a pair of chest enhancer gel bra inserts were found, and worn to great comic effect - and a hard cover of Harry Potter was discovered to have a holloed out compartment, in which was a crumpled envelope containing thirty dollars. We wandered about for aout an hour like this, then took the unexpected windfall of cash and got Afghanistan food ( served by a Ukrainian Waitress with a beautifulluy earnest way of over enunciating her English ) lots of lamb stuff for them and stuffed eggplants for me. They all ate the Beast Flesh.
As we prepared to go, our waitress received a present from a visitor, with whom she made a great effort to speak to in Spanish - save that it was a broken spanish mixed with Russian - 'Ruspana' we dubbed it.
Then we returned to the coop, I picked up my gear and my friends from quatamala gave me a ride the 5 miles back to the interstate so that I could wake near my departure point.
Henrietta Lawson Yesterday I got several things on my list of stuff to do done -
Laundry, music, video, checked prices on the ferry, and now I have a
ride lined up for today from my friend Danger up into Michigan. But
back to Yesterday - I went over to a hippy fried's house, and played his
cello, and he did too, and then he played an ...instrument he;d made, and I
also played a pair of finger drums and an electric bass.
http://www.youtube.com/user/alohathelion#p/u/6/xK0M-28e31U
Henrietta Lawson the angel with the water pump...
- Henrietta Lawson
Went and stood on the on-ramp for about 2 hours, smoking unfiltered cigarettes I'd found a pack missing one of. There was a colorado tax stamp on it - I think the guy thought they were filtered and just tossed them out his window.
After some... time, I was getting to where Iwas gonna give up on that ramp for a while, maybe go get lunch or some such - when this blue green toyota celica picks up. The guy at the wheel had a heavy accent, Ukrainian. He's on his way to Grand Rapids michigan. So I hop in, that being a route around 80 I hadn't thought of.
After about 25 miles, we have to pull over, the catr was over heating. Says it had been doing that all day. We're on the side of the interstate, and he's putting in antifreeze and water. We drive another 30 miles, and he has to do it again. So we use his GPS ( which speaks Russian ) and it tells us there's a mechanic in Reynoldsville - 4 miles away as the crow flies, ten miles by the roads. We get there, and he sends us down the road, too busy. The next stop says he can't get the part till tomorow. We take his card, and drive to Dubois, PA, 7 miles away.
There we stop at Kent's Auto Service. Kent makes a call, and says he can get it done today for less than $200. We wait fror the part, and as we wait, a guy pulls up in a late model Dodge Stealth, RED. We get to talkin, he's there for an oil change and says this guy Kent does good work. A long haired friend of Kent's shows up 20 minutes later with his little blonde haired girl. She's got the part we need in a box her hands. I comment that it's like an angel with a water pump. He smiles. They dig right in. I go up to the gas station to buy a cup of coffee, and on my way out, run into the guy in the Stealth. He's got a bag full of ham sandwhiches and two bottles of water he bought to drop off for us as a gift.
I walk back to Kent's and share the Hoagies with my driver, eating one myself. now, I don't normally eat meat, but this one has the glimmer of God's will on it if ever I saw it, so I do eat one.
If the part works, we'll be in Grand Rapids, MI by dawn. I actually think I'll be having him drop me in Kalamazoo.See More
- Henrietta LawsonHaving been dropped in Sioux Falls and posted from the Walmart, I walked about a bit hunting snipes. THen I walked back to the ramp around 4:30 pm. On the East Bound Ramp is a wild old drunk couple, who just hitched away from Sturgis, South... Dakota's huge Annual Bike Week, which ended last week. It's Harley mania stuff.
I say Aloha, and chat up the old brother for a while, turns out he hasn't been to a Gathering in a while - but we source a mutual acquaintance named Chink Bob Lee. I wonder where that brother is now.
I walk to the West bound ramp, and there's an older mousy looking lady with glasses on already there, making a sign that says 'Rapid City' - which is on the other side of the state. I look at the scene, and decide to walk it. There's a junction with I-29 in 3 miles, and I want to get passed that traffic anyway. That, and there are no Access Controlling signs on the onramp - so I feel legal hiking it.
I set out, and as I walk I begin thinking about the Bible, having been reading it this morning, and where the part of Revelations 12 that I feel inspired the MotherFarm concept fits into the real calendar.So I stop and look up Revelation Chapter 12 - all of which speaks to me.
I walk the three miles, no ride, and stop at the point where all traffic is just 80 West. I could keep going, but why? After about twenty minutes, a brand new white cadilac pulls up.Turns out he's the Vice President of a small local Christian University. What he does is raise money for schools. Grew up an Iowa Farm boy, went to Seminary after normal college. After 7 years as a Pastor, his old college asks him to come back as a VP in charge of Fund Raising. He does and helps raise over $100,000,000. That one hundred million.
While doing that he raised two boys as a single dad. Took them to Austrailia and New Zealand - and was thus had been through Rotorua, where I lived in 1992. He retired to the ancestral family farm several years ago, and then was called by several universities to come and raise money for them. He chose the one in Mitchel, South Dakota.
As he was dropping me there, he invited me to dinner. But there was over an hour of sunlight left, and I'd already eaten twice - recently even.
SO I decline and head to the ramp - I walk up to the very top of the ramp, where I might get rides from the main stream of traffic. About an hour goes by, and the sun is just a little orange ball about to settle nicely on the table of the horizon. A big white pick up pulls up with a Harley in the back. ANOTHER Iowa farm boy! this one also still has the family farm - works for the railroads, using heavy machinery to move all the railroad ties from South Dakota to missouri.
He tells me he has 2 hunting dogs right now, and has had lots over the years. In the winter, they go out hunting coyotes. lkast year, they got 100. He doesn't shoot em, the dogs do all the work. He just directs em.
He said that a man with his dog is just a boy. Its all play time.
He drops me at 9:45 pm in Kadoka, South Dakota, at truck stop that has wifi and classic rock - right now Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition'.See MoreAugust 25 at 9:26pm ·
Henrietta Lawson Truckstop Fudge ( or 4 meditations on Father hood - from the point of view of Peter Pan )
- Henrietta Lawsonwoke in the doorway of a Lutheran church - lots of cool tunnel webs in the windows and jambs of the door - cool little wolf spiders made them - obviously this door had not been cleaned in quite some time. I walk to a gas station and get hot... water for instant coffee.
when I settle in the gear to sit for a bit, I feel something in y shirt - a much larger spider had either just climbed aboard or tagged along for a while. He's big and fancy looking - i think the monster version of the wolf spiders I had slept with! I carefully find him a way to escape, then settle down and read 25 more pages of Dharma Punx.
This Noah Levine ( the writer ) is a classic of the American Psyche - wealthy california liberal inteigencia, seemingly vascilating between contempt for 'fuckin hippies' and then compassion for all seekers. This isn't the easiest thing to pull off in print, and I find this aspect of his work admirable - he is, as they say, rigorously honest.
I start walking down the ramp of I-35 W ( the western spur of 35 goes to Minneapolis, the Eastern to St. Paul ) on 98th st. As I do
i see that there is an HOV, or carpool lane, and am hoping someone will pick me up as carpool insurance.
Instead it is a Volvo Station Wagon. This guy grew up on a School bus with Hippy parents, going to lots of gatherings and festivals. His parents raised him in a goofy hippy version of the Anabaptist idealogy - they didn't get him a Birth Certificate or Social Security Number as a kid - he had to consent to these as an adult. Which he has done, being now a working father in a major midwestern city, those things became importnt to him. He works as a mechanic on used volvos.He drove me to his Volvo dealership, about 50 blocks south, and dropped me at a KwikTrip.
I go in and get more instant coffee, and some 2/$1 peanuts. There is a nice picnic table out front, so I sit and drink coffee, smoking cigarettes and reading more of Dharma Punx. I've begun wondering what will happen to this book when I finnish it. I know that Poet, the 6'6'' Cubano Rasta who gave it to me would like to see it passed on to a person who would read it - and I have begun to fear that that event will be at a truck stop somewhere, and I might just abandon it for weight considerations.
A minivan pulls up right in front of me, and a guy gets out, smiling, and sits down at the bench with me, saying, " Whatchaupto?"
I laugh and tell him I'm reading a book - tell him about the book a little, and he says he thinks his girlfriend might like it. I think he's thinking about writing down the title to give to her. I do one better, and pull out one of my 3x5 cards and write down 'Dharma Punx pg 231'. Then I tell him she can have this copy, I'll finnish it at a borders or Barnes and Nobles. He smiles this unbelievers smile as the gesture hits him.
Then I give him the Deep Down Dirty Dirty Phunk answer to what I'm up to - and he says he can give me a ride down to I-90.
He goes into the store to get Mountain Dew, and we hop in his minivan to go to his house and tell his lady friend what we are up to. He hands me a cheeseburger he had bought ( he ghot 2 cheeseburgers and 2 mountain dews ). I think about it for a minute, then just decide to throw caution to the wind and eat it. I don't like turning down gifts at all, and reckon it'll work better all around if I just eat the cheseburger. ( later on, as we are on the road, I let him know that I'm a vegetarian, and only eat meat in situations like that - likening the moment to the one in Pulp Fiction where Jules eats the guys Cheeseburger before he kills him ).
We get to his trailer park doublewide, and I get to met the Fam. His girl friend loves the book, is also caught off gaurd by the gesture, and tries to find a book to trade me. Can't. So instead she gives me a small painting she made of a blue dog, just the night before.
We joke with her daughter about the upcoming trip tot he truckstop, and she asks for chicken noodle soup. The younguns had been drinkin the old liquor round the house the night before, and apparently the only solution to what ails her is Chicken Noodle Soup. Hair of the dog, I guess, she saysshe'd been eating chicken noodle soup the night before, to the tune of 3 cans! I practice restraint of toungue and pen. Her mom changes the subject a little by joking about the excellent fudge at the truck stop I was to be taken to -and I grin and guffaw, then just say , "Truckstop fudge', to which everyone else has a laugh - Truckstop Fudge!
As he and I drive south on 35, I do 'The Survey' a three question series I use to spur conversaton and give me an idea of the tastes and desires of my demographic ( people who will listen to me) I've been doing it for years. The questions are
1. When you were young, nearly adolescence, someone (probably a guidance counselor ) asked you a question. I want to know what your answer was to the question , then. The question is ' What do you want to be when you grow up?'
2. How's that working out for you?
3. Free association multiple choice - just pick one - Rabbit, octopus, or monkey.
As he answers the questions, he tells me about being an explosive ordinance specialist ( combat engineer ) in the Persian Gulf War of G.H.W.Bush. I thank him for his service and tel him about the man my mom divorced when I was 2- whom I met when I was twenty one - a man who had the same job description in the same theatre of combat. Then I tell him about y step grandfather who had the same job description in Europe during WWII.
Then I tell him about my wild assortment of allergies that madfe it so the army wouldn't take me in 1994. That since then I've just specialized in building kitchens in National Forrests for Peac Prayers in National Forrrests that started as and continue to be Welcome Home Parties for Veterans of foreign wars.
He then drove me another hour or so down !90 west, getting me to the town of Fairmont, MN, leaving me in the Walmart parking lot.
I bought some twine and more instant coffee, returning my balance on all accounts to zero-ish, and then went and took a nap in the shade.
Waking about 6, I go to the ramp and catch a ride from another minvan, this one driven by the manager of a feed coop and his wife. They had been in town to go to dinner with a Norweigian Girl visiting the states who had been a foreign Exchange student with them a couple years ago.
I try to thumb for a while, but the sun is setting beautifully, with the full moon rising like a perfect negative print on the other horizon - and I give up on the ride.I walk into Sherburn ( one street town ) and dumpster score popcorn at the movie theatre ( only open on weekeneds - so its about 2 days old, but still pretty good ) and set down by the library. There I watch my beloved Milwaukee Brewers blow another lead in the 7th inning using the wifi on aninvisiblepirate.
I walk most of the way back to the ramp and crash out beneath a pine tree across the street from the High School.
I awake with the voices of my best friend Banjo Puppy and her little sister, as recorded on the "Viven en el corazon" song for the art show - and banjo puppy's Christmas Present,
'The shape of my Heart left,
No more impression on
Turtle Island
than these
beckonings
of the breast"
See MoreAugust 25 at 12:32pm · - Henrietta LawsonAfter getting hot water and a big bean and cheese burrito at the Kum-n-Go ( the actual name of a midwestern convenience store chain ) I went out to the onramp. My oh my was it slow. It was so slow, I got out one of the books I have left ( t...he Bible [New International Version ] The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book [first 165 pages plus appendices and forwards to all four editions] and 12 steps and 12 traditions [ the indepth companion to the 'Big Book']. The Bible was handiest, so I pulled it out. There was less than 3 cars per hour going by, and so I read. First from Ezekiel, chapter 18 'the soul who sins will die', the bit where God does away with the idea of the sins of the fathers, and makes clear the nature of the wicked and righteous, Exekiel 19, 'A lament for Israel's Princes' , which is a beautiful blues song that starts with the metaphor of the lionness and her cubs, then moves on to the metaphor of the Vine in the Vineyard - very organic, you reap what you sow type stuff. I sang this one aloud, and so decided to skip into Psalms, and sang Psalm 10 aloud , its all about the nature of the wicked as well. Its pretty compelling stuff - clearly declaring the worldyness of iniquities and all that jazz.
After all that, I was feeling pretty Bibled out, so I headed on down that lonesome road, and started walking down I-80 West. It was seven miles to Alpha, MN. Having just read from psalms, I felt the spirit and started singing the psalm that Sublime popularized, the 'By the Rivers of Babylon' stuff, which laments ' How can we sing King Alpha's song in a strange land'.
I walked all the way to Alpha, and there discovered that this town was even SMALLER!
Just as my heart was falling, and I began to commit myself to the 9 miles to the next tow, a red pick up truck pulled over. He was a former Marine, and his son is a current Marine. He told me about a huge free music festival that happens near Sioux Falls every year - 200,000 - 300,000 people per year. That's right - almost the size of Woodstock. And they do it every year! And they just got donated a 250 acre farm!
I found that pretty encouraging. He dropped me at the Love's Truck Stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 2 pm, I reckon I'll be able to get t Montana today, if all goes well.See MoreAugust 25 at 12:32pm ·
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posted by Sojourner Truth @ 25.10.10
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