anticipation & preparation: the four corners area

wanderessence1025's avatar April 27, 2018

Early this year, I felt compelled to plan a road trip circling the Four Corners area of the southwest USA. The trip will ultimately encompass four states: Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.  Leaving home on May 1, I’ll drive three 8-hour days across country from Virginia, arriving in Denver May 3, where I’ll begin my perimeter trip.  I’ll return home by May 25.

I started by looking through guidebooks, beginning with DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Southwest USA & National Parks. I read the chapter on the Four Corners, the only place in the U.S.A. where four states meet at a single point. The actual Four Corners is least interesting to me, but all the spots around the perimeter are enticing.

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Guidebooks, maps and nature guides

I also dove into reading novels set in the four states.  I read The Never Open Desert Diner by James Anderson, which takes place on the desolate Utah highways.  I adored Jim Harrison’s books (The English Major, which is inspiring me to write my own fictional road trip novel, and The Woman Lit by Fireflies, a book of three novellas, only one of which, “Sunset Limited,” takes place in New Mexico).  I also adored books by Kent Haruf, whose tales take place in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado.  Years ago, I read Plainsong (Plainsong, #1); I recently finished Eventide (Plainsong, #2) and Benediction (#3).  I just finished reading The Professor’s House by Willa Cather which creates a mystique around Native American cliff dwellings in mesas.  I’m also currently reading Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. The books I don’t finish by the time I leave, like Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor, I’ll take along with me.

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My reading list for the Four Corners

The next step was to get a map and circle all the places I wanted to see.  There are a lot of amazing parks, canyons and charming small towns in this area! I plotted out the roads I’d drive, measured the distances between places using Google maps, listed them on an Excel spreadsheet, and determined where I’d need to spend the nights. I systematically booked all my accommodations. The numbers on the map indicate the places I’ll stop for the night, sometimes for more than one night.

My itinerary is spelled out on an Excel spreadsheet. I hope I included enough time to take hikes in each stop.

  • May 1-3: Virginia > Richmond, Indiana (511 mi) > Kansas City, KN (558 mi) > Lakewood, CO (near Denver) (608 mi).

Mike flies to Denver and arrives May 4.

  • May 4-7: Lakewood, CO > Grand Junction, CO (Visit our son & hike around Denver, Colorado National Monument and Grand Mesa)
  • May 8-10: Grand Junction, CO > Moab, UT (Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park, Canyonlands)
  • May 11: Moab, UT > Bluff, UT (Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Monument Valley)
  • May 12: Bluff, UT > Tuba City, AZ (Monument Valley, Navajo National Monument)
  • May 13: Tuba City, AZ > Flagstaff, AZ (Coal Mine Canyon, Blue Canyon)

On May 14, Mike drives from Flagstaff to Phoenix to fly home, while I continue on.

  • May 14: Flagstaff, AZ > Holbrook, AZ (Petrified Forest National Park & The Painted Desert)
  • May 15: Holbrook, AZ > Gallup, NM: (Second Mesa – Hopi Indian Reservation, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Window Rock)
  • May 16-17: Gallup, NM > Farmington, NM (Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Culture National Historic Park, Bisti Badlands)
  • May 18: Farmington, NM > Durango, CO (Aztec Ruins National Monument, Baker’s Ridge)
  • May 19: Durango, CO > San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway, CO > Telluride, CO (Durango, Silverton, Ouray)
  • May 20: Telluride, CO > Mesa Verde National Park (Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, Four Corners, Mesa Verde)
  • May 21: Mesa Verde National Park (tour in morning) > Pagosa Springs, CO
  • May 22: Pagosa Springs, CO > Pueblo, CO (Crestone & Great Sand Dunes National Park)
  • May 23-25: Pueblo, CO > Kansas City, KN > Richmond, IN > HOME!!

Of course, I had to prepare my journal, which was a lot of work since I’m going so many places.

my travel journal
my Four Corners travel journal
Four Corners journal

I bought a wide angle lens for my Canon EOS Rebel SL-1 so I can challenge myself with a new lens.  I also hope to play around with my camera, taking some black & white photos (inspired by the famous Ansel Adams), and be more aware of point of view.

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Fun stuff to carry along

Here are my INTENTIONS for this trip:

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FOUR CORNERS Intentions

The entire reading list for each of the four states is on my page: books | u.s.a. | I didn’t get to them all, but hopefully I will finish some of them on the journey or by the end of this year. As for the acrostic and the abstract poems, I was inspired to try these poetic forms from The Teachers and Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms.

Of course, I also made a playlist, Four Corners Road Trip, as I’ll be spending long hours in the car.  Here are some of my favorites:

  1. “The Painted Desert” by 10,000 Maniacs
  2. “Oceans Away” by A R I Z O N A, Sam Feldt
  3. “There is No Arizona” by Jamie O’Neal
  4. “Never Been to Spain” by Three Dog Night
  5. “Tune Out” by The Format
  6. “Desperado” by The Eagles
  7. “O, Fair New Mexico” by Rick Pickren

On Wednesday, I bought my National Parks Senior Lifetime Pass, so I’m all set for our national parks!

This coming weekend, I’ll spend packing. Luckily, I’m driving, so I can throw anything and everything into the car.  All my guidebooks and maps, my journal, a coat for cold desert nights, a rain jacket and umbrella, my camera and voice recorder, and hiking boots and clothes.

My biggest challenge for warmer weather is finding pants that fit.  No matter that I’ve been walking more than ever to train for the Camino: my belly and behind keep expanding!  My pants seem to get bigger with each year. I hate myself in shorts but it will be hot, so I’ll wear them anyway. Someone someday needs to invent the perfect summer pants for women of a certain age! The past several weeks I’ve spent way too much time on this task, searching for the perfect pants, with purchases and returns, going to and fro. Argh!

I apologize in advance that I will miss your blog posts while I’m away, unless you link to one of my invitations, which I’ve scheduled for the appointed dates.  Otherwise, I’ll have to catch up when I return! 🙂

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“ANTICIPATION & PREPARATION” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 750-word (or less) post on your own blog about anticipation & preparation for a recently visited or a future particular destination (not journeys in general). If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments. Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, May 24 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Friday, May 25, I’ll include your links in that post.

My next post will be about preparations I made for my month-long trip to Spain and Portugal in 2013.

This will be an ongoing invitation, on the fourth Friday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂  If you’d like to read more about the topic, see: journeys: anticipation & preparation.

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read posts from our wandering community. I promise, you’ll be inspired!

  • Pit, of Pit’s Fritztown News, writes how he and his wife prepared for what he calls a #railtrailsroadtrip – to hit the road for “normal” sightseeing and to add a few more states to their list of states in which they have bicycled at least 10 miles. He and his wife get the car prepared, collect printed maps and pick the scenic routes for their travels.
  • Shia, of Tales from the Romulan Neutral Zone, tells a clever tall tale about getting herself and her military brats ready for a trip to a fancy hotel with horses and a spa in the Austrian countryside.
  • Meg, of Warsaw 2018, writes of preparations for her surprise visit to Warsaw to visit her family and to make sure her grandchildren keep their English-speaking ability.  She is a master of interweaving lists and using mind maps and Gantt charts to plan her journey.

Thanks to all of you who wrote posts about anticipation and preparation. 🙂

the call to place: the four corners area

wanderessence1025's avatar April 26, 2018

When I was 10 years old, our family loaded into a Ford Fairlane station wagon and drove across country to southern Colorado for a reunion with my mother’s family.  My mom had grown up in the small town of Pagosa Springs.  I remember vividly horseback rides in the shadows of the jagged Rocky Mountains with cottonwood trees rustling in the breeze, my Uncle Gibby fishing in the San Juan River and grilling fresh trout over a hot fire.  During those chilly Colorado mornings, he scrambled up dozens of eggs laced with chili powder in a cast-iron skillet. I can still taste those eggs and feel that early morning chill in the forest of aspens and box elders. I can, to this day, summon up the bliss I felt in that place.

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My mom and her two sisters, LaVonne and Barbie, in the southwest USA January 1953

In 1968, at ages 12-13, while the outside world was tearing itself apart over the Vietnam War, student protests and assassinations, I entertained myself by immersing myself in dreams of horses. My best friend was as crazy about horses as I was. She and I galloped, lopsided, circling her backyard, leaping over sawhorse jumps, hitting our behinds with sticks. She clucked and I clucked. Hours and hours and hours.

A classmate’s grandfather, who lived at the end of Wormley Creek Drive, had a stable, a dirt corral with jumps set up, a horse, and a scruffy pony named Maybe, who we were allowed to ride. We all joked: “Maybe he’ll buck you and maybe he won’t.” That pony and I flew over jumps like clumsy leaping grasshoppers, and sometimes, just as Maybe’s hooves hit the ground, when I was as off-balance as possible, he went into a fit of bucking. Many times I hit the ground hard. A couple of times, I hung on to his underbelly, screaming, as he bucked in circles around the yard.

When my friend wasn’t around, or when I had long hours to kill, I would read books about horses: National Velvet; Smoky: The Story of a Horse; Fury and the Mustangs; Misty of Chincoteague; Black Beauty.  On gauzy afternoons, the light low in the sky through fall and winter, I stretched stomach-down out on my purple crocheted afghan, lost in writing: stories of ranches out west, palominos and appaloosas, improbable tales of girls loving horses. Pages and pages of words on lined paper.

In 1971, when I was in ninth grade, my fascination with American Indians, now properly called Native Americans, engulfed me as I hand wrote a 60-page research paper titled: “The Social Status of the American Indian Today,” using 25 sources.  Here are a few glimpses of the paper, which I still have.  Much of my visit out west will be exploring Native American monuments and reservations.

 

My 9th grade term paper
My 9th grade term paper
My 9th grade term paper

I constantly dreamed of venturing out west. I returned to the Colorado Rockies on a road trip with my first husband, but we never made it back to Pagosa Springs.  After leaving Grand Junction, we headed north and drove a big circle around the rest of the country – – Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona — omitting Utah altogether from our journey.

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Colorado National Monument 10/6/79

Watching movies over the years has also planted wanderlust for the southwest in my mind; Thelma and Louise (1991),  Little Miss Sunshine (2006), and 127 Hours (2010), which takes place in Canyonlands National Park.

Living in Oman for two years gave me an abiding appreciation of the desert, until then a foreign terrain to me.  In Oman, I explored desert canyons, treeless rocky mountains, village ruins and a desert camp with the Bedouin at Sharqiya Sands.

 

Sharqiya Sands, Oman
Jebel Akhdar, Oman
Jebel Shams, Oman
Beehive tombs, Oman
Wadi Bani Awf, Oman
Sharqiya Sands, oman
Rocks of Izki, Oman

During my time in Oman, I peeled off to Jordan and walked in delight through the canyons of Petra and the desert of Wadi Rum.

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Petra, Jordan

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Wadi Rum, Jordan

In the years since, from red-rock pictures on Instagram to atmospheric black-and-white photographs by Ansel Adams, the national parks and monuments of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico have beckoned. The desert seems mesmerizing, with its photogenic red canyons, sandstone textures and whimsical shapes, silhouetted cacti, highways stretching toward distant horizons, and cowboys astride horses.

My oldest son moved to Denver at the first of this year.  He got a job assembling products for Home Depot but didn’t much care for it, so he began to search for a butchery apprenticeship. He had mentioned this desire before leaving home in December; I found this quite surprising as he used to be vegan! It so happened, he quickly found such an apprenticeship with a small family-owned butchery in downtown Denver.  Visiting him in his new home is another call to Colorado.

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“THE CALL TO PLACE” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 700-900 word (or less) post on your own blog about what enticed you to choose a recently visited or a future particular destination. If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.  If your destination is a place you love and keep returning to, feel free to write about that.  If you want to see the original post about the subject, you can check it out here: imaginings: the call to place.

Please include the link in the comments below by Wednesday, May 23 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Thursday, May 24, I’ll include your links in that post. If you’d like, you can use the hashtag #wanderessence.

My next post will be about my call to Turkey in 2011.

This will be an ongoing invitation, monthly (on the fourth Thursday of each month). Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read a few posts from our wandering community.  I promise, you’ll be inspired!

Thanks to all of you who wrote posts about “the call to place.” 🙂

nashville: a musical day (with the parthenon thrown in)

wanderessence1025's avatar April 24, 2018

“This is for all those haters in the world,” country pop singer Meghan Linsey said over the microphone at City Winery before she belted out her song “Say It To My Face.”  A former contestant on The Voice, she sported a platinum bob cut and bared her midriff under a cropped black leather top and sheer gold kimono.

Dear lady on the internet
You don’t even know me yeah
But you got a lot to say about my clothes
Little do you know

She went on, the gold stars in her hair glittering under a lavender spotlight:

Say it to my face
I’ll give you the time and place
If you’re talking that talk
You better walk the walk
Instead of whispering in the dark

I wanted to jump out of my seat and dance. Not only did I love the rhythm and tune, but Meghan was singing about something I have hated since the U.S. presidential race in 2016.  People can be all kinds of nasty as long as they’re sitting behind their computer screens.  I daresay most of these hateful people wouldn’t make their nasty comments directly to people’s faces!

The fact of this taking place, a dynamic country music singer voicing my thoughts, seemed miraculous, because anything could have happened, and this did.

She sang other fun songs like “The Permanent Marker” and “Mr. Homewrecker,” all from her newest release: Born Like a Lion, which we bought after the concert to show our support.  Before Meghan came onstage, her backup Tyler Cain sang about his “Suitcase Heart,” accompanied by guitar and keyboard. Meanwhile, I savored a wild mushroom flatbread accompanied by grilled asparagus with hollandaise.  Of course, a rich Argentinian wine helped me relax into the music.

In the crowd, a lady in a tight red velvet jumpsuit played with her tight blonde curls.  Nashville could easily be dubbed the “Curling-Iron Capital” of the country for this iconic look.

Before the concert, we made a quick stop at the incongruous Parthenon, now Nashville’s art museum. Built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition as a nod to classical architecture, the building and its 42-foot Athena statue are full-scale replicas of the Athens originals.

Between visiting the Parthenon and going to the concert, Mike and I returned to the apartment to relax a bit. I had a tickle in my throat, and after resting a bit, I walked through shops in our Hillsboro neighborhood and bought two tin Frida Kahlo cups and a beautiful decorative cross at a hip shop called Pangaea.  Nothing like shopping to make me feel better!

We had finished at the Johnny Cash Museum just before closing time.  I thought Johnny had spent time in jail, but he didn’t; he just felt a bond with the prisoners. His Folsom Co. Jail performance is legendary. A series of photographs showed him as he aged through the decades.  A postcard to his parents from his senior class trip, as well as pictures of him with his friends, documented his childhood. His first marriage to Vivian was a disaster due to alcohol abuse and addiction. June Carter, a famous performer in her own right, saved him and set him straight by taking him back to his Christian roots. The photo shoot from an album cover showed the love they had for each other. He recorded 1,500 songs and was in several movies, including the 1961 Five Minutes to Live with a young Ron Howard, but movie stardom wasn’t to be his destiny.  One photo showed him in front of his 14,000 square foot house, which he eventually sold to Barry Gibbs of the Bee Gees. The museum’s highlight was a room all about “Hurt,” a soulful song that makes my heart ache.  A continuous loop of the music video showed on a TV screen, making me want to linger forever.

Before we visited Johnny, Mike left me on Broadway while he went to pick up the car (our parking time was up), and music assaulted me out of the Broadway honky-tonks as I wandered around. I got lost a while, was tempted to fall off the map into Boot Country.  I never planned on coming back, but Mike snatched me up from Honky-Tonk Central before I could hook up with my soul-mate cowboy boots.

Our lunch at Puckett’s, supposedly an iconic eatery, was an inedible trio of BBQ sliders with bubbles of fat oozing out all over the place. The Mac and Cheese in a skillet tasted like Kraft out of the box. A disappointment all around.

We started our day with a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry; the venue sits outside of town near a sprawling shopping mall. It seats 4,400 fans and has a wooden circle from the original Ryman built into the stage where artists stand to perform. Radio shows from the Opry — a balance of bluegrass, classic country, popular country and even gospel and rock — still broadcast live on WSM, a Nashville AM radio station. The security was so tight the guide had to call a floater to escort me to the ladies’ room. Our tour took us past  living Opry stars’ mailboxes, including those of Dolly Parton and Keith Urban, dressing rooms for the stars, and gold plated names of the members.  Once a singer becomes a member, he/she is obligated to perform a certain number of shows per year.

I bought a T-shirt from the gift store: “Give a Girl the Right Boots / She Can Conquer the World.”

I didn’t get the right boots, or any boots for that matter, so I guess I won’t be conquering the world.  At least not today.

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Meghan Linsey & Tyler Cain at City Winery

Parthenon
statue at the Parthenon

Johnny Cash Museum:

1970 Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash as a child
Cash album covers
Johnny Cash and his house

The movie, Walk the Line, tells the story of Johnny Cash and June Carter, played by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

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Reese Witherspoon & Joaquin Phoenix as June Carter & Johnny Cash in Walk the Line

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Big Time Boots

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Broadway Boot Company

Elvis
downtown Nashville
Legends
Wall art in Nashville

Puckett’s: I don’t recommend it.

Lunch at Puckett’s
Mike at Puckett’s

The Grand Old Opry: Mike strums some chords.

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Mike at the Grand Ole Opry

From the TV show “Nashville”
Star dressing rooms at the Grand Ole Opry
Star dressing rooms at the Grand Ole Opry
Star dressing rooms at the Grand Ole Opry

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“PROSE” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 700 to 1,000-word (or less) post on your own blog about a recently visited particular destination (not journeys in general). Concentrate on any intention you set for your prose.  In this case I described my experience with close attention to using all five senses, incorporating a line from a country song and a poem, and noting one unusual thing and why I found it interesting.

You can either set your own writing intentions, or use one of the prompts I’ve listed on this page: writing prompts: prose & poetry.  (This page is a work in process.) You can also include photos, of course.

If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.

Include the link in the comments below by Monday, April 30 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Tuesday, May 1, I’ll include your links in that post. My next post will be about our last day in Nashville, and, again, I’ll be using the same intentions. 🙂

This will be an ongoing invitation. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

 

 

“invitation” monthly calendar

wanderessence1025's avatar April 19, 2018

I invite everyone to participate in any of my ongoing invitations whenever you post something that fits the theme that you’d like to share.

This calendar will appear as a page on the menu at the top of the blog: “invitation” monthly calendar

I’ll be holding invitations on an ongoing basis as follows: 

Whenever you’d like to join in, simply link your post to my most recent post on the theme, and I’ll link to your post the next time I post mine.  Usually, I request that you submit your post by 1:00 p.m. EST on the afternoon prior to when I will post.

Thanks so much for being part of our ~ wander.essence ~ community!

quintessential nashville {in five}

wanderessence1025's avatar April 19, 2018

Five iconic things about Nashville revealed themselves to me during our visit.

1) Country music venues, from the Ryman Auditorium and the Grand Ole Opry to the Honky Tonks of Broadway.  We also visited the Listening Room Cafe and City Winery to hear live music. And then there’s the famous Bluebird Cafe, but we didn’t make it there.  There is no shortage of music in this town.

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The Ryman Auditorium

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Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge & Broadway

Ernest Tubb Record Shop
Layla’s
The Stage on Broadway

2) Country music history – Between the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Grand Ole Opry and the Johnny Cash Museum, you can find out all you want to know and then some about the history of country music.

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Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Johnny Cash Museum
Johnny Cash

3) Accoutrements of country music stars: From the fringe-trimmed and glittery clothing and the cowboy boots they wear to the guitars they carry and play to what they leave behind: gold and platinum records and album covers galore.

Faron Young’s jacket
Reese Witherspoon’s outfit when she played June Carter
Johnny’s boots
Boots at Boot Country
Chet Atkins’ guitars
Kris Kristopherson’s guitar
Johnny Cash’s guitar
Country boots

They leave behind a music legacy for the world to enjoy.

Gold and platinum records
Johnny Cash album covers

4) Food: from BBQ to Hot Fries to grits to chicken n’ dumplings, you’ll find any kind of southern cooking you can dream up.  Not only that, but you’ll find the food and brews at iconic places like The Loveless Cafe, Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant, and The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden, where we didn’t go.  There are plenty of great dining options in Nashville.  There’s also Pinewood Social, where you can eat, drink and bowl, and Hattie B’s Hot Chicken. We especially loved The Loveless!

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The Loveless Cafe

Strawberry Sippers at the Loveless Cafe
chicken and dumplings
Puckett’s Grocery
Craft beers at Puckett’s
Soup of the day: Beer

5) The 12 South neighborhood: Murals of 12 South and gas stations converted to shops.  There are not as many murals here as I expected, but the ones here are fun.  Mostly, I loved the gas-stations converted to shops.  Draper James is Reese Witherspoon’s “Lifestyle Brand.”

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Wildflowers mural at 12 South

me at Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James
Make Music Not War
Striped wall and Mike – 12 South
I BELIEVE IN NASHVILLE

Gas Stations converted to shops: Imogene + willie for clothing, White’s Mercantile for home furnishings and decor, and The Filling Station for quality beer.

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Imogene + willie

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The Filling Station

Inside The Filling Station
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White’s Mercantile

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“PHOTOGRAPHY” INVITATION:

The photography intention I set for myself BEFORE visiting Nashville was to find five iconic things (in my eyes!) about Music City.  I limited myself to 35 pictures of 5 iconic things. My goal was to focus on pictures, so I kept my word count to 350 words.

I invite you to create a photography intention and then create a blog post for a place you have recently visited. Alternately, you can post a thematic post about a place: photos of whatever you discovered that set your heart afire. You can also do a thematic post of something you have found throughout all your travels: churches, doors, people reading, people hiking, mountains, whatever!

You probably have your own ideas about this, but in case you’d like some ideas, you can visit my page: photography inspiration.

I challenge you to post no more than 20-35 photos (fewer is better) and to write no more than 350-words about any travel-related photography intention you set for yourself. Include the link in the comments below by Wednesday, May 2 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Thursday, May 3, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation on the first and third Thursdays of every month beginning in May. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read a few posts from our wandering community.  I promise, you’ll be inspired!

Thanks to all of you who wrote posts on the “photography” invitation. 🙂

on journey: a road trip to pittsburgh, pennsylvania

wanderessence1025's avatar April 18, 2018

A cold front blew its way into Virginia on the Friday morning in March we were due to leave for Pittsburgh, knocking out our power at 3 a.m. We showered, dressed and ate breakfast by battery-powered lantern and candlelight and then abandoned our house to the elements.

Driving through snow flurries on a slate-colored day, the wind ripped branches off tree trunks. Bare trees like tangled candelabra danced wildly along the road.  Through Virginia, whitewashed silos and barns shivered on the land, along with horses and hay bales. Black cows sat folded on the fields. Wheat fields wore sloppy crewcuts, as if a clumsy barber had hacked away at them with oversized zig-zag scissors.

My Pittsburgh Tunes playlist belted out bluesy songs about working in steel mills or on the Monongahela River, setting the stage for the hard-working, once-industrial city.  Sean McDowell sang:  “Now I’m stackin’ bricks in Pittsburgh Town / I make two bucks a week workin’ on Lime Hill.”

As we crossed the Potomac into Maryland, Irene Cara sang optimistically from the 1983 movie Flashdance, “What a Feeling:”

Take your passion
And make it happen
Pictures come alive
You can dance right through your life
What a feeling

On my phone, I opened my emails to find the Dictionary.com word of the day: phub: (slang): to ignore (a person or one’s surroundings) when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile device.  I told Mike about this word I’d never heard before, and he asked, as I scrolled through my phone, “Hey, are you phubbing me?”

Prickly, urchin-like trees congregated around a red barn near Hagerstown, while Mohsin Hamid said in an online interview about his book, Exit West, “Human life is transient.”  We understood this, and lived it, moving from there to there, suspended in the middle. Life flowed like cool breath over the tired earth.

We passed Sharpsburg, Hancock, Breezewood, and Cumberland through maize-colored fields when, at last, Welcome to Pennsylvania! greeted us by billboard. Phantom Fireworks burst with promise as we sped by.

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I-76, one of the highways making up the Pennsylvania Turnpike

Tarnished-silver clouds hung like heavy draperies over a drab brown landscape spiked with spiny white trees.  Horse farms dotted roller coaster hills. We drove along a mountain ledge overlooking a valley, where a brown weathered barn hunkered down in a snow sprinkled hollow. Stacked lumber settled neatly in a lumberyard near Crystal Spring, and snow blew sideways like a sandstorm.  Uplifts of snow swirled into mini-cyclones, while feathered grasses swayed to and fro in a wetlands area.

Pete Seeger sang “Pittsburgh Town is a smoky old town, Lord God, Pittsburgh… All I do is cough and choke in Pittsburgh.”

Poor Pittsburgh has such a sooty reputation.

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paying tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike

We soon passed the exit for Shankstown, where the passengers brought down one of the planes on 9/11.  Brown igloo-shaped storage containers holding sand for icy roads sat in wait for snowstorms along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

At 11:19 a.m., on the other side of a mountain pass, blue skies peeked through scattering gray clouds and the snow disappeared as if it never was. Farm equipment gleamed at Rolling Rock Equipment and a glowing light spread itself fetchingly over rolling hills.  A white farm-house looked otherworldly.  A billboard for Peace Love & Little Donuts made sweet promises. Maybe there was hope for the weather after all.

As we rolled into the city, the Quebe Sisters sang:

I am a poor, wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world alone
And there’s no sickness, toil, or danger
In that bright line to which I go

It was lunchtime by the time two wayfaring strangers arrived at the University of Pittsburgh and sought out food and warmth at Fuel & Fuddle.

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Fit and Fuddle

A Pittsburgh specialty, Chipotle Polka, offered itself up: mini-potato & cheese stuffed pierogies smothered with sweet onions, bacon and smoked jalapenos in adobo sauce, topped with sour cream, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses; I washed this feast down with a Hitchhiker Trial by Fire beer. For dessert, oddly, the waitress brought us fortune cookies.  Mine said: “The wheel of good fortune is finally turning in your direction!”  I hoped so!

Chipotle Polka
Mike enjoys a Six Point Barrel Aged Duplex
Signs on the wall
Lagunitas
Keystone
Sign out front
Fuel and Fuddle

Our waitress wore an aqua-jeweled nose ring, mismatched dangly earrings and a “Feminist Killjoy” necklace.  When Mike asked her about her necklace, she shrugged, “I guess because I’m a feminist, I’m a killjoy.”

Another server wore a black tank top that said on the back: No crap on tap.  Yet another had her hot pink hair pulled back in a ponytail. It was bustling place, with athletes tossing balls around on wall-mounted TVs. It was tough to leave such a cozy spot to go out in the cold. But. We peeled ourselves out of our seats and headed out to explore the city.

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“ON JOURNEY” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 750-1,000 word (or less) post on your own blog about the journey itself for a recently visited specific destination. If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments. Include the link in the comments below by Tuesday, May 15 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Wednesday, May 16, I’ll include your links in that post.

If you’d like to see the original post about this invitation, check out: on the journey: taking ourselves from here to there.  I’ll be writing about a journey I’ve already taken, as I’ll be on my 25-day road trip around the Four Corners area, and I’ll only be doing scheduled posts during that time.  I’ll still add your links if you want to join in.

This will be an ongoing invitation, every third Wednesday of the month beginning in May. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read a few posts from our wandering community.  I promise, you’ll be inspired!

Many thanks to all of you who wrote posts about the journey. I’m inspired by all of you! 🙂

nashville: nash trash to broadway

wanderessence1025's avatar April 17, 2018

The River Wall in Nashville speaks of the rebellious Tennessee River, and the Tellico Dam that tamed it, and the Lake of Tears that flooded the 18th century Cherokee towns of Tanasi, Mialoquo, and Tuskegee, giving the Cherokee ancestors and even the fish cause to weep.

The tears give way to laughter as we squeeze into the hot pink Nash Trash bus for a two-hour tour. The bus promises warmth on this 20°F winter day, but it’s slow to deliver.  We shiver in our cramped seats. The Jugg Sisters, Sheri Lynn and Brenda Kay, one wearing a pink headband and cat-eye glasses, the other a baseball hat over a curly ponytail, test the microphone: “1 testicle, 2 testicle.”

After all characters on board introduce themselves and tell where they’re from, we admit we’re from outside of Washington, D.C. “You have a shit show going on over there,” says Sheri Lynn.  Yes, we certainly do, I tell her.

They poke fun at a tall man, “Why didn’t you sit in the back?  Nobody can see around your big ass cranium.  How’d your mother ever get you out of her birth canal?” Mike and I crack up laughing as I, though not tall, have the super-sized head dilemma.

The bus finally gets warmed up and moving, and the Jugg sisters tell us that at New Year’s Eve in Nashville, they’ll drop a big musical note.  “In Mobile, Alabama, they drop a moon pie.  Then they do a mullet toss.” We all laugh, and continue laughing for the entire tour until our faces are sore. 🙂

The sisters pass around a tray of Ritz crackers accompanied by a can of Cheez Whiz, which of course I sample. They point out random people walking on the street as we drive through town: “Oh, there’s Blake Shelton. Hey honey!” Or. “Look there, it’s Carrie Underwood!” “Look over yonder, there goes Kenny Chesney.”

The bus goes on, inching its way through traffic in downtown Nashville, past the Eastside Murals, the Nashville Piranhas, the Ryman and Broadway. We make a quick stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and drive down Music Row, street of the famous recording studios.

Later, back at the Farmer’s Market, we breathe in aromas of Philly cheesesteak and Nutella chocolate crepes, Butter Cake a la Mode, coffee beans, Nooley’s gumbo and po’ boys. Ice cream containers stand at attention: Boozy Eggnog, Pistachio & Honey, Brambleberry Crisp. So many choices, but I scarf down chili rellenos with queso sauce, corn, and cabbage washed down with lemonade, while Mike eats Asian chicken.

We walk uphill to the Tennessee State Capitol, then ease our way downhill past the Library & Archives, the Tennessee Supreme Court and the Tennessee War Memorial, where “Occupy Nashville” protestors gathered in 2011 to show support for “Occupy Wall Street.”

We take ourselves on a self-guided tour of the Ryman Auditorium, THE most famous venue for country music stars, known as “The Mother Church of Country Music.”  It looks uncomfortable for the audience, with its semi-circular array of wooden bench seats around the stage.  The stained glass windows hint at the building’s original function as a gospel church.

We snake our way through boisterous crowds on Broadway, a.k.a. Honky Tonk Central, under retro signs such as Tin Roof, Whiskey Bent Saloon, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Crazy Town Live Music, Joe’s Crab Shack, and Boot Country. Electric guitar notes pulse out of the open doors of the Honky Tonks.  A Trump look-alike with an orange wig waves like our so-called president does at his ego-boosting rallies. A hard rock band plays on a grandstand at the end of Broadway, too loud for me, and the lead singer says it’s a song for our servicemen and all the people who keep us safe. There’s no doubt we’re in Trump country.

As this smoky afternoon bends into winter, we make our way halfway across the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge for views of the city and Nissan Stadium, home to the Tennessee Titans, across the river.

It’s one hour before closing by the time we arrive at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, so we get discounted tickets. In too little time to do it justice, we rush through the history of country music from its earliest days to the present. Here, we find special exhibits on Loretta Lynn, Shania Twain, Faith Hill & Tim McGraw and other stars.  These are people who tell their truth however they choose and do it all for the sake of the song.

Too much to take in during our short visit, the glamor of the singers and the genre is shown in displays of western fringe, cowboy hats and boots, glitzy costumes, guitars, banjos, Gold records, Bill Monroe’s mandolin, a car from Smoky & The Bandit II, and Elvis’s gold Cadillac. At private listening booths, we listen to rock-country mixes from Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, and Steve Miller Band.

At Hatch Show Print, where the owners specialize in letterpress printing for music show handbills, I buy a cool poster: Nashville: Music City. I love how the posters capture the magic of country music, as well as African-American jazz and blues.  To fill in the gaps, the company has done small runs for filling stations, laundries, grocery stores, and movie theaters.  This place and the Hatch Show posters are an unusual surprise because of the nostalgia evoked. I realize how much I’m attracted to graphic design and lettering.

We share the free city bus back to the Farmer’s Market with two homeless people loaded down with their belongings: a large African-American man whose pants are falling down and a white woman with a dog.  They are talking up a storm.

In our Hillsboro neighborhood, we have dinner at Kay Bob’s to Amy Winehouse singing R&B. Beer taps hang overhead, and growlers and signs hang over the counter. A sign on the wall says “BEER: Helping White Guys Dance since 1842.”

“Very superstitious / writing on the wall.”

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The River Wall at Bicentennial Mall

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The Nash Trash Bus at the Farmer’s Market

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Nashville Piranha’s

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Eastside Murals

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Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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Mike and I with the Jugg Sisters

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Musica statue in the Music Row Roundabout

Eastside Murals
Eastside Murals
Eastside Murals

Nashville Farmer’s Market:

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Nashville Farmer’s Market

Walking to Broadway through official Nashville:

The Tennesse State Capitol
The Tennessee War Memorial
Tennessee Supreme Court

The Ryman Auditorium:

The Ryman Auditorium
Stage in the Ryman
Hatch Print
Country music costumes at the Ryman

Walking down Broadway:

The Tin Roof
Crazy Town
Whiskey Bent Saloon
Boots!
Cigar Store Indian
Cigar Store Cowboy

Walk across the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge:

John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge
Nissan Stadium
Downtown Nashville

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum:

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Jukebox
Fringe and guitars
flowered horse
fur and fringer
listening stations
Nashville Cats

Hatch Show Print:

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Hatch Show Print

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Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

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“PROSE” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 700 to 1,000-word (or less) post on your own blog about a recently visited particular destination (not journeys in general). Concentrate on any intention you set for your prose. In this case I described my experience with close attention to using all five senses, incorporating a line from a country song and a poem, and noting one unusual thing and why I found it interesting.

You can either set your own writing intentions, or use one of the prompts I’ve listed on this page: writing prompts: prose & poetry.  (This page is a work in process.) You can also include photos, of course.

If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.

Include the link in the comments below by Monday, April 23 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Tuesday, April 24, I’ll include your links in that post. My next post will be about our second day in Nashville, and, again, I’ll be using the same intentions. 🙂

This will be an ongoing invitation. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

 

on returning home from cape may

wanderessence1025's avatar April 16, 2018

A few days after I got home from Cape May, I received the postcard I sent to myself from there.

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State of New Jersey postcard

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Mike poked fun at me for sending a postcard home to myself, but it was a nice reminder of some of the special encounters I had along the way, making me feel like I wasn’t the only person in the world dealing with family problems. I remember snuggling up under heavy comforters in my room at the Pink Cottage, while the wind howled outside, and writing this postcard.  I’ll hold dear this special time in Cape May at a time when I really wanted to pamper myself.  My time there also gave me some distance from my problems, and helped me consider how I can love my son but let go of him and his choices at the same time.  Love but detach.  It’s hard for a mother to do, but necessary.  I can only live my own life; his life is his to live as he sees fit.

It was fun to give the gifts of lotion and soaps from Bath Time to my grown children as stocking stuffers at Christmas (yes, I still do stockings for my adult children!). I still haven’t soaked in the LushUSA Bath Bomb.  I’m saving it for a time when I really feel down. And, once it’s spring, I’ll love wearing my two new scarves.

I had fun editing my photos, deciding on the five iconic things about Cape May and posting them, and also writing my 5 senses experience of Cape May.

On some warmer weekend in the future, I’m going to return. 🙂

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“ON RETURNING HOME” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 500-750 word (or less) post on your own blog about returning home from one particular destination or, alternately, from a long journey encompassing many stops.  How do you linger over your wanderings and create something from them?  How have you changed? Feel free to address any aspect of your journey and how it influences you upon your return. If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.

For some ideas on this, you can check out the original post about this subject: on returning home.

Include the link in the comments below by Sunday, May 6 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Monday, May 7, I’ll include your links in that post.

This will be an ongoing invitation on the first Monday of each month. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read a few posts from our wandering community.  I promise, you’ll be inspired!

Thanks to all of you who wrote posts about “on returning home.” 🙂

 

anticipation & preparation: pittsburgh, pennsylvania

wanderessence1025's avatar April 13, 2018

To prepare for our trip to Pittsburgh on March 2-4, I read two novels and one memoir featuring the city, as well as Moon Handbooks Pennsylvania – the part about Pittsburgh:

These books fueled my imagination and added depth to my visit. Two of the books talk of the elite residents and areas of Pittsburgh, while one covers the working class neighborhoods.  They all three talk about the famous rivers and the impossibly hilly terrain. Annie Dillard’s book is especially good as it captures her childhood in Pittsburgh, very much like all American childhoods, but more privileged.  She’s a great writer and very observant and wise about life.

We also watched the movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which takes place in the city.  The movie made me want to stand up through the sunroof of our car as we drove through the Fort Pitt Tunnel. 🙂

I created a playlist on Spotify for the trip as well.  Here are my Pittsburgh Tunes.  The top five on my list are:
  • “Maniac” by Michael Sembello (from the movie Flashdance)
  • “America” by Simon & Garfunkel
  • “I’m Not Dead (I’m in Pittsburgh)” by Frank Black
  • “Wayfaring Stranger” by the The Quebe Sisters
  • “Lime Hill” by Sean McDowell

These songs definitely give you a feel for industrial Pittsburgh. 🙂

I planned for us to divide our three days as follows (the first and last days would be short because of having to drive there and back):

Friday: Oakland and Points East

  1. Lunch at a Craig Street Eatery
  2. Cathedral of Learning’s Nationality Rooms at University of Pittsburgh
  3. Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History (mainly Natural History to see the dinosaurs)
  4. Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens
  5. Frick Art & Historical Center to see the ceramic exhibit: Revive, Remix, Respond by artists “breathing new life into the ceramic medium.”

Saturday: Downtown & The Strip District / Southside & Mt. Washington

  1. Visit the John Heinz History Center
  2. Walk down The Strip & see Saints in the Strip
  3. Lunch at Pamela’s
  4. Take a self-guided walking tour downtown to see the historical buildings, making our way to Point State Park
  5. Go to Southside and walk down Grandview Avenue for views of the city, including Three Sisters Bridges

Sunday: North Side

  1. Breakfast in the Strip – try Pamela’s if line is too long on Saturday
  2. Andy Warhol Museum
  3. Mattress Factory Museum
  4. The Mexican War Streets

Head home!

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My journal for Pittsburgh

I think I made a few too many intentions for this trip!  I had ordered a voice recorder but it didn’t arrive in time, and I didn’t think to use the one on my phone until too late!

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“ANTICIPATION & PREPARATION” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 750-word (or less) post on your own blog about anticipation & preparation for a recently visited or a future particular destination (not journeys in general). If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments. Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, April 26 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Friday, April 27, I’ll include your links in that post. My next post will be about my upcoming road trip to the Four Corners area: Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

This will be an ongoing invitation, bi-weekly through April, and monthly after that. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂  If you’d like to read more about the topic, see: journeys: anticipation & preparation.

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

the call to place: pittsburgh, pennsylvania

wanderessence1025's avatar April 12, 2018

It was my husband Mike’s idea to take a three-day weekend trip to Pittsburgh as his belated birthday treat. The city is a four hour drive from our home in Northern Virginia, yet we’d never visited. Mike was interested in the historical role of the city in America’s industrial revolution. The city is often known as “Steel City” because of more than 300 steel-related businesses.

Boosting the industrial boom was the city’s location at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers; they merge at Pittsburgh’s point to form the 981-mile Ohio River, the largest tributary to the Mississippi River, flowing through or along the border of six states.  These waterways linked the Atlantic coast to the Midwest, allowing for westward expansion and trade. Over the waterways are 446 bridges, thus its other nickname: “City of Bridges.”

Mike says much of Pennsylvania’s value lies underground, as the Allegheny mountains are rich in minerals. He had recently read Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh, a novel which explores how Pennsylvania is both blessed and cursed by its mineral resources.

Large scale philanthropy also started in Pittsburgh with these titans of industry: Andrew Carnegie called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and Andrew Mellon, Henry Phipps, Jr. and others spent much of their time and money in philanthropic causes benefiting the arts and other causes.

I was a bit skeptical at first. The city was once barely inhabitable. Flowers in city parks died, buildings changed color, and people got sick, all a result of the black smoke billowing from factories, coke ovens, railroads, and homes.  One visitor in 1868 described the city as “Hell with the lid off.” Because of private citizens, especially middle-class women, the city became an early practitioner of public health and environmentalism.

Now travel magazines tout Pittsburgh as a city worthy of attention. The food, craft breweries, universities, the old hilly neighborhoods, the bridges, the Andy Warhol Museum, and other art museums are all enticements.

So, who were those titans of industry?

Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. He led the American steel industry’s expansion in the late 19th century, building Carnegie Steel Company, which he sold to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million. It became U.S. Steel Corporation. He was also a leading philanthropist, giving away nearly 90% of his fortune, or about $350 million, to charities, foundations, libraries and universities. He put a special emphasis on world peace, education and scientific research.

 

Carnegie Institute
Museum of Natural History
Andrew Carnegie plate at the Frick Museum

Andrew William Mellon (1855 – 1937) was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. He helped finance the establishment of Alcoa, the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Old Overholt Whiskey and other companies. From a wealthy Pittsburgh family, he established a vast business empire before transitioning into politics. He served as United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932, presiding over the boom years of the 1920s and the Stock market crash of 1929.  Mellon also became a prominent philanthropist, helping to establish the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, which is now part of Carnegie Mellon University.

Henry John Heinz founded the H. J. Heinz Company, an American food processing company headquartered in Pittsburgh, in 1869. The H. J. Heinz Company manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six continents, including ketchup and Ore-Ida frozen potatoes.  After the Kraft Heinz merger in 2015, it is the fifth largest food company in the world.

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Henry Heinz

Henry Clay Frick (1849 – 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, union-buster and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel manufacturing concern. He also owned extensive real estate holdings in Pittsburgh and throughout the state of Pennsylvania.

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Henry Clay Frick

Henry Phipps Jr. (1839 – 1930) was a steel and real-estate magnate. He was also a successful real estate investor who after selling his stock in Carnegie Steel, devoted a great deal of his time and money to philanthropic works. He founded the Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens in 1893 as a gift to the City of Pittsburgh.

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Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens

You can read more about the city here: Wikipedia: Pittsburgh.

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“THE CALL TO PLACE” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 500-700 word (or less) post on your own blog about what enticed you to choose a recently visited or a future particular destination. If you don’t have a blog, I invite you to write in the comments.  If your destination is a place you love and keep returning to, feel free to write about that.  You have two weeks! If you want to see the original post about the subject, you can check it out here: imaginings: the call to place.

Please include the link in the comments below by Wednesday, April 25 at 1:00 p.m. EST.  When I write my post in response to this challenge on Thursday, April 26, I’ll include your links in that post. If you’d like, you can use the hashtag #wanderessence.

My next post will be about my upcoming road trip to the Four Corners area of the southwest USA (Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico).

This will be an ongoing invitation, bi-weekly in April, and monthly (on the last Thursday of each month) after that. Feel free to jump in at any time. 🙂

I hope you’ll join in our community. I look forward to reading your posts!

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the ~ wander.essence ~ community

I invite you all to settle in and read a few posts from our wandering community.  I promise, you’ll be inspired!

  • Jo, of Restless Jo, writes endearingly about how her call to Poland came literally in the form of a phone call from a family her father had left behind when he was a teenager.

Thanks to all of you who wrote posts about “the call to place.” 🙂