Travel Notes

Travel Notes

Econolodge, New Castle, DE 8 August 2006

Visited with Mira’s parents over the weekend in Philadelphia (Mom) and D.C. (Dad). Myself and her Mother kind of smoothed into each other as I made her a breakfast of eggs, toast, and tea. We then had a little yard sale so that Mira could make up a little travel money (got $29). Mother sat around and talked with us for most of the day. We got real into each other when I happened to find the same book on Taoist sexual practice that I was practicing real hard in China and was just telling Mira about it that very morning. She told us that we were going to have so much fun engaging in it and how she wished that she could have found someone compatible enough to practice it with. She then began telling us about Tantra and books and Tantricas that she knows and thinks weird. We then watched Where the Buffalo Roam and then we went off to sleep. The next morning Mira and I made pancakes (they picked on the way mine looked) and we sat at the kitchen table and ate together and chatted about India and what Mira and I have to do to get there. After a hug and an adios Mira and I were on the road to Washington.

Susquehanna State Park Campsite, MD 8 July 2006

A marvelous lonesome weekend. Rode a bike and walked through the forest here in the state park. Picked trail berries and put them in my organic yogurt and ate it all up whilst walking. Sat by the river and left knowing my path for the year. Sleeping outside is for the humans. I wake with a smile and sleep with a smile...even the discomfort of it just adds to the joy...the thrill...of having to work at one’s existence. Of having to partake in all of my human necessities- I cook my own food on an open flame, I make and break my own sleeping structures daily, I have to keep focused on my tasks constantly. I love this way. I meditate and feel real into it. To sleep I drift now. The sun has tucked itself in and so shall I. A beautiful night, trees silhouetted in the night and myself just working away and my appreciation of it. Blow on wind. With love.

Susquehanna State Park Campsite, MD 6 July 2006

Worked today, which meant that I slept in a truck, dug a few holes, and laughed a little. Sitting naked right now in a tent. Was rained on all night last night. My tent flooded and my sleeping bag was soaked. Tonight the sky is clear.

I really to miss Dave and Erin though. I left them a couple Robert Service poems to read as a parting notion. Yesterday I felt a little lonely at having left them but today I feel joy that I love them so much that our parting caused me grief. I may run out west with Dave this autumn.

The joy of the travelling life has overtaken the May blues as it usually does by this time.


Dave’s home, West Cornwall, CT 4 July 2006

Visited beautiful friends in CT. Now I am about to depart for Maryland. Working a job that is paying me alright...the would have to to keep me in Maryland. A pipeline job for some gas company. I received a little badge that says that I am a “project representative.”

Really love these kids that I am visiting....Dave and Erin. They float my boat for sure. I am quite sure that, in different times (or someday in these!), we were jumpity, wandering Bodhisattvas in some forested mountains of some Buddha dawned land. I do not wish to leave them...this time has been so comfortable. Joking much when joking...and being silent when silent. I feel that I should not be away from them for very long. I feel that I should make an attempt to build a little log hut in the forest lands with them and smile a lot.

We walked up to the highest point in CT yesterday. It was our intent but we did not let it chasten us. We just walked into the forest on some path and ended up where we were going just by going. We stood on the peak and faced into the wind and just spoke of the beauty. These people are beautiful.

Erin: “It was fun while it lasted; going up mountains and stuff.”

Me: “Yeah, it was beautiful.”

Back to the old, old trail


Best Western, Edgewood, MD 30 June 2006

This life is so fucking funny. When I am serious I miss it. In China I thought that I knew what I was doing. I was studious....I thought that I was progressing on my life’s path. Chinese poetry. I thought that I had the knack for it. Maybe I was right...perhaps wrong. I translated a few much translated poems and thought myself into it. But I missed the drunken nights, the friends, the sex. I was a mess in my security. I lost a good lover and thought nothing of it. I just want to go back to Asia.

Wade from Song of the Open Road Travel Blog