Waking up in Gainesville, TX in the middle of May is not so bad, I thought. With a little effort, and a little time, there would be life-saving coffee available. My companion was still sleeping. With a full bladder, however, choices are limited. Get up and slowly get dressed, enough at least, to get to the [...]
In my sleep, in the middle of the night, there was vague awareness of Stella being up, moving around, doing things, and then being back in my arms. Later, struggling to wake, I knew she was not next to me. Able to open my eyes, I saw that she was in one of the lounge chairs, [...]
It had rained sometime during the night in Vicksburg. Hearing the sound of rain on the tarp told me it was a gentle rain. Having taken two or three aspirins before trying to sleep had good results. Since childhood I had always dealt with periods of insomnia and through that had learned the value of aspirin [...]
Sometimes, morning arrives when you least expect it. Looking out the wallet-sized window of the small motel cabin, there was some light in the sky which meant I had slept eight or nine hours. Stomach was empty and complaining, bladder was full and complaining, and as I switched the light on my eyes were constricting and [...]
In my tent, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, in the middle of Indiana, I was awake and I was alone … not lonely, alone. Traveling across the US was doing what I had intended to do and I was more than half-way. This was not a painful ‘alone’, rather [...]
Jacksonville, Florida had become the 80% mark of my journey, the end of the fourth leg of five … first: from Tucson, Arizona to Denver, Colorado, second: (unplanned and spur-of-the-moment) from Denver to New Orleans, third: from New Orleans to Chicago, and now, I had just completed the fourth … from Chicago to Florida. The final [...]
Maxie’s Five and Dime He was always ‘Mr. Max’ to me. And I was always ‘Kid’ to him. As my childhood years passed, I saw him less and less often. Looking back more than 60 years, while I cannot remember when it was I no longer saw him, I recall distinctly some of our times together. [...]
MY JOURNEY AS A VOTER As a child and then a teenager, I grew up under two fine Presidents … Democrat Harry S. Truman, followed by a Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Ike”. To me, then, the US two-party system seemed up to the task of selecting decent leadership. As Eisenhower’s term was ending, we had a [...]
BEING ALONE In my tent, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, in the middle of Indiana, I was awake and I was alone … not lonely, alone. Traveling across the US on a putt-putt scooter at 40 miles an hour was doing what I had intended to do and I [...]
OKTOBERFEST TRADE DEAL In the middle 1960’s, at Oktoberfest in Munich, I was involved in an unusual trade transaction (at least by Western standards). My first time visiting Europe, I was in my mid-twenties. Fueled by a more than ample supply of Oktoberfest beer, the trade involved a handsome German couple, me the olive-skinned Arizona tourist, [...]