Before we left Nashville, we stopped to admire Reese Witherspoon’s house. Sadly we couldn’t see Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s home because it was in a gated community.
Reese Witherspoon’s house
I sent this postcard home to both of us from Nashville.
I apologize for my atrocious handwriting, but when I write these postcards, I’m usually writing them hurriedly and on the go. My intention was to write about how I see my life from a faraway place.
The best thing I brought home upon our return from Nashville was less snobbishness about and even an appreciation for country music and southern twangs. Our first night in our Airbnb, we watched a Dolly Parton movie in which Dolly’s family and their southern accents echoed the voice of 9-year-old Starla Claudelle in the book I was reading, Whistling Past the Graveyard. We also heard this southern accent on the streets and in the restaurants of Nashville, as well as in the country songs. It suddenly took on a new charm.
I had a bit of a southern accent myself growing up in southern Virginia, but when I moved to Idaho for four years in 1980, people made so much fun of my “ya’ll” that I dropped it quickly from my vocabulary. Living in Northern Virginia has eliminated all traces, I think, of my southern accent.
I learned so much about the history of country music, listening to sound bites at the museums plus singing along to my Nashville playlist. Some songs are sad, some funny, some are full of yearning. All evoke the human condition and speak to feelings we carry around in our hearts.
When we returned home, we watched the 2005 movie, Walk the Line, about Johnny Cash’s early life. Johnny Cash is played by Joaquin Phoenix and June Carter by Reese Witherspoon. We enjoyed watching and extending our appreciation of Johnny Cash after visiting the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville.
We also started watching the 2012-2018 TV series, Nashville, all about people trying to make it big in the music industry, and people who are already big name singers. It is a bit soap opera-ish, but the characters are intriguing and the show has some fabulous country songs. Every time we watch an episode, I add more phenomenal tunes to my Nashville playlist.
We grow every time we travel, and in this case, my world expanded. I brought home a new appreciation for a sub-culture of America that I’d never bothered to understand before. Isn’t this what travel does, opening the boundaries we’ve created between us and them?
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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, June 3 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Monday, June 4, 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 posts from our wandering community. I promise, you’ll be inspired!
When Carol, The Eternal Traveler, returns home from a journey, she writes a fun poetic overview of the loos she encountered along the way.
Meg, of Warsaw 2018, writes about the disorientation of returning to her second home in Warsaw for a surprise visit to her family. Being her second home, she describes it as “both a leaving home and a returning home.”
The somber silence speaks of ages past
when ancient chants and incense swirled in air.
Here monks with bread and chalice practiced mass.
Schoolchildren peek through time-warped glass
at the twelfth century, in gray habits they’re obliged to wear.
Their somber silence speaks of ages past.
Tiny monks cluster in emerald velvet grass,
absorb teachings on St. Benedict and prayer.
Once monks with bread and chalice practiced mass.
Hauling backpacks, the fresh-cheeked monks contrast
with crumbling arches and pillars leading nowhere.
The somber silence speaks of ages past.
Bread and water await them in the undercroft. Cloth mats
checker the vast dirt floor. Soup steams in earthenware.
Once monks with bread and chalice practiced mass.
Roofless walls pray, bony fingers to the overcast
heavens, while God, behind froth-thick fog, hovers, aware.
The somber silence speaks of ages past
when monks with bread and chalice practiced mass.
** September 22, 1999 **
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We went on our first trip across the pond to England in September of 1999. While at Studley Royal, Ripon, we came across the fog-enshrouded Fountains Abbey, founded by Benedictine monks in 1132 and taken over by Cisterians three years later.
On the day we went, the fog added to the mystique. A group of schoolchildren were there doing a monk re-enactment. They dressed in monk’s habits and were learning about the Rule of St. Benedict.
Fountains Abbey enshrouded in fog
schoolchildren at Fountains Abbey
The schoolchildren were to have lunch in the undercroft, supported by 19 pillars with vaulting 300 ft. long. Mats were laid out on the dirt floor and they would eat vegetable soup, bread, fruit and water. These “monk re-enactments” are often done for school groups.
the undercroft
The Chapel of Nine Altars was built from 1203-1247. It is ornate compared to the rest of the abbey.
The Chapel of Nine Altars
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey
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“POETRY” Invitation: I invite you to write a poem of any poetic form on your own blog about a particular travel destination. Or you can write about travel in general. Concentrate on any intention you set for your poetry. In this case, I wrote a villanelle about Fountains Abbey in England.
You can either set your own poetic intentions, or use one of the prompts I’ve listed on this page: writing prompts: poetry. (This page is a work in process). You can also include photos, of course.
Include the link in the comments below by Thursday, May 31 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Friday, June 1, I’ll include your links in that post.
This will be an ongoing invitation, on the first Friday 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 posts from our wandering community. I promise, you’ll be inspired!
Meg, of 55daysinwarsaw, wrote a villanelle about how she’s torn between here and there, between her home at Potato Point in New South Wales and her grandchildren in Warsaw, Poland.
Lynn, of bluebrightly, takes us on a poetic journey in a little red car “down a ruffled road where elk browse,” and through a lyrical list of places along the U.S. West coast.
While wandering around Pittsburgh for three days, we came upon some surprising, impressive and even whimsical art.
Cardinal Red Macchia with Chartreuse Green Lip Wrap (2007) Dale Chihuly at Phipps Conservatory
Angela Sorbara immigrated from Cambria, Italy in 1929 to join her husband Bruno, who had been working in a steel mill and saving for a house so they could start a family. This portrait pays homage to all immigrants who settled in Pittsburgh, making it the diverse city it is today.
Teresa by Angela Fullard at the Heinz History Museum
Isaly’s restaurants and food brands have long been part of Pittsburgh’s identity. This picture shows vintage menus and advertising, as well as other Pennsylvania products such as Snyder’s chips, Heinz ketchup and candy bars from Clark, Boyer and Hershey.
A Celebration of Isaly’s By Liz Jones at the Heinz History Museum
Evelyn Nesbit achieved worldwide notoriety when her husband, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw, shot and murdered Stanford White, a famous New York architect, on the rooftop theatre of Madison Square Garden on June 25, 1906. What followed was called “The Trial of the Century” by the press. Evelyn found herself at the center of the crime and the star of a great courtroom drama. Her husband pleaded insanity.
Trial of the Century by Frank Harris at the Heinz History Museum
Mary Cassatt, born on Pittsburgh’s North Side in 1844, became the first and only American woman to work and exhibit with the Impressionists. She also became a tireless advocate for women’s suffrage, before the concept and term had been invented.
Mary Cassatt by Mark Bender at the Heinz History Museum
In 1932, a “mob hit” occurred when the two owners of Rome Coffee and Bakery, their shop which served as a front for their racketeering business, were murdered. They also were a major supplier of alcohol during Prohibition.
Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli by Lisa Rasmussen at the Heinz History Museum
BINGO! at the Heinz History Museum
Musicians on the street
Mural in downtown Pittsburgh
Mural in downtown Pittsburgh
Mural in downtown Pittsburgh
Andy Warhol was deeply affected by media reports surrounding President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. He began a large portrait series of Jacqueline Kennedy based on images from magazines and newspapers, shown individually and in groupings. By isolating and repeating Jackie’s image, the artist suggests both the solitary experience of the widow and the collective mourning of the United States (from a plaque at the Andy Warhol Museum).
Jackie, 1964 by Andy Warhol
Street mural in the Mexican War Streets
Randyland is the whimsical home of artist Randy Gilson. He began the art of making something worthwhile out of discarded materials. He gathered the bricks for Randyland from homes in the Mexican War Streets that had been torn down. He says, “Randyland is a place for renewing, replanting, recreating, and reimagining what we can be.”
Randyland
Randyland
Randyland
Randyland
The Mattress Factory is a contemporary art gallery on the Mexican War Streets. It supports and exhibits alternative art forms. Solar Grow Room is an indoor work that supports plant germination through solar power. It is meant to replenish plants threatened by overuse of pesticides. The plants will be moved outside in spring to give bee populations natural respite.
Solar Grow Room (2017) by Meg Webster at the Mattress Factory
I found fascinating the personal journals of Greer Lankton, a revolutionary artist who took part in the art scene in New York City’s East Village during the 1980s. Her work is autobiographical and reveals her obsessions as a transgender person and a drug addict. She “explored and questioned the norms of gender and sexuality, as well as the powerful imagery of popular culture and consumerism” (from a plaque at the museum).
Journal by Greer Lankton at the Mattress Factory
Greer Lankton is well-known for her painstakingly crafted doll sculptures that reflect her experience as a transgender person, as well as her lifelong obsession with her body and sexuality. It’s all about ME, Not You is an idealized recreation of the artist’s Chicago apartment.
It’s all about ME, Not You (2008) by Greer Lankton
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“PHOTOGRAPHY” INVITATION: I forgot to set a photography intention for Pittsburgh, so I decided to create a post of photos of the surprising art I found along the way.
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 20-30 photos (fewer is better) and to write no more than 500-words about any travel-related photography intention you set for yourself. Include the link in the comments below by Wednesday, May 16 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Thursday, May 17, I’ll include your links in that post.
This will be an ongoing invitation on the first and third Thursdays of every 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!
Jude, of Travel Words, wrote a number of posts with themes of doors and windows:
Candy Blackham, of London Traveller, created a post about her Photography Exhibition of April 27-28: a collection of photographs on the theme of Canary Wharf, aka West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs in London.
Suzanne, of Global Housesitter x2, takes us along on walks to some beautiful Turkish beaches, Iztuzu Beach and Sarigerme Beach, accompanied by Tequila the dog.
Post-nasal drip, a cough, sniffles, a tickle in my throat — all threatened our last day in Nashville, but a Walgreens stop for cold medicine made it all bearable. Still, walking around frigid Cheekwood Estate and Gardens didn’t help matters. A chill seeped through our jackets, hats and gloves under charcoal skies. Barely a soul was in sight. Perhaps here, we could discuss a monumental loneliness.
We visited resident reindeer, Jolly and Joy. We wandered past bare-limbed trees strung with hot pink lights and through bamboo at Shōmu-en (the Japanese “pine-mist garden”). Seen from the viewing pavilion, raked gravel patterns mimicked flowing water and drifts of smokebush hinted at morning mist rising between pine-clad hills. We wandered past a water garden and other formal gardens of dogwood, perennials, herbs, and boxwood. We circled the mansion past the Swan Lawn and Fountain and finally dipped into The Cheekwood Mansion, perched on the highest point of the property, where we saw a museum exhibit called “Snowbound” of strange happenings on paintings and in snow globes.
The history of the Georgian-style mansion is tied up with “good to the last drop” Maxwell House Coffee, introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek (1852-1935). During the 1920s, Leslie Cheek and his wife, Mabel Wood, invested in the new coffee brand and made the Cheek family a fortune. The house, decked out for Christmas, was once used by the Cheeks for their history-themed parties celebrating bygone eras: a Victorian Stable party in 1933 where guests wore hoop skirts and monocles, and a B.C. party where they wore togas and laurel leaves. Prohibition (1920-33) didn’t stop the festivities despite the restrictions.
Newspapers from the era hung on the wall, taking us to a past before my time: “Posse kills Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.” “Billions Lost in New York Crash.” “Hear Amelia’s Faint Calls.”
We braced ourselves to finish our walk through Stinking Cedars and large-leaf magnolias, crape myrtles, and six model trains scooting around on elaborate tracks through an array of caves, mountains, forests, villages and bridges. Further afield, we meandered through the Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail, where we encountered Crawling Lady Hare and High Back Wind Harp Chairs, and then stood inside a glass covered bridge and breathed in the scent of pine.
We stopped at the Greek Cafe for lunch but my hummus, grape leaves, tabbouleh and pita were too cold for such a winter’s day. Mike’s warm falafel sandwich was more enticing, but it wasn’t mine to eat. I sometimes have a common attraction to unattainable objects.
We stopped in at Parnassus Books but didn’t spy Ann Patchett, although I took away a pile of books in support of independent bookstores. At 12 South, we searched out murals, but we didn’t find as many as I hoped for: I Believe in Nashville. The blue-and-white striped walls of Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James boutique. Make Music Not War. The Flower Mural. Nashville Script.
I found myself drawn to the gas-stations-converted-to-shops: Imogene + Willie, White’s Mercantile, and The Filling Station, a Growler Store with beer-to-go where we stopped for a flight of four beers with names such as Czann’s Toasted Pecan Porter, Calfkiller Brown Recluse, and Yazoo Hefeweizen. After returning to our apartment, we gobbled down some decadent peach cobbler we picked up from a food truck. Mike went out to meet his cousin Peggy for coffee while I stayed in our apartment and nursed my cold.
We topped off our last day in Nashville by going to The Listening Room Cafe to hear Bonner Black and Friends, the “friends” being Liz Smartt and Sam Brooker, part of the group, Little Feather. I inhaled the smoked bacon aroma from both my Turkey Apple Crisp Sandwich and Mike’s Fried Green Tomato BLT while lyrics darted through the air like hummingbirds.
Little Feather sang “Bend with the Wind” about growing up in Kentucky:
I was burning down the road at 24
Chasing dreams and slamming doors
With no one to catch me if I fall
Like my heart been hit by a wrecking ball
Now I’m learning to bend with the wind
Sometimes Bonner sang alone, sometimes Liz and Sam sang together, and each sang separately too. “I throw my middle finger out the window” sang one of them, followed by Sam singing the cute “I Picked a Real Bad Time to Fall in Love,” about hitting on a girl at a bar only to be intercepted by her 6’10” boyfriend, along with other misguided attempts at love. Bonner sang of her hometown, the “hell-forsaken Tennessee hills.” And Little Feather sang one of my favorites, “Hillbilly Love Song:” “Hey ya’ll, hey ya’ll… How did I lose the girl I used to be?”
I couldn’t help but wonder, how did I lose the girl I used to be?
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THE DAY IN PHOTOS:
Cheekwood decked out for the Festival of Lights
bamboo garden
Japanese garden from the viewing pavilion
the water garden
plants at Cheekwood
The Cheekwood Mansion
Cheekwood Mansion
staircase at Cheekwood
Christmas tree at Cheekwood
Dining room
Maxwell House Coffee and the Cheek family
card table at Cheekwood
Newspaper headlines from the era
Hear Amelia’s Faint Calls
Posse Kills Clyde Barrow and Bonnier Parker
Stock market crash
“Snowbound” by Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz
“Snowbound” snow globe
“Snowbound” snow globe
“Snowbound” snow globe
Cheekwood Mansion
Cheekwood Mansion – an American Country Place Era Estate
Trains at Cheekwood
trains at Cheekwood
trains at Cheekwood
train station at Cheekwood
trains at Cheekwood
The rest of Cheekwood
Crawling Lady Hare
Cheekwood Gardens
Cheekwood Gardens
The Glass Bridge
me in the Glass Bridge
Highback Wind Harp Chairs
Parnassus Books
Parnassus Books
Twelve South neighborhood
12 South Mural: I BELIEVE IN NASHVILLE
Wildflowers mural at 12 South
Me at Draper James
Mike and the striped wall
MAKE MUSIC NOT WAR
Nashville Script
Corner Music
Gas-stations-converted to stores.
Inside The Filling Station
Beer for sale at The Filling Station
Imogene + Willie
Peach cobbler food truck.
the peach cobbler factory
The Listening Room Cafe.
Liz Smartt and Sam Brooker of Little Feather, and Bonner Black (left to right)
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“PROSE” INVITATION: I invite you to write a 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, May 7 at 1:00 p.m. EST. When I write my post in response to this challenge on Tuesday, May 8, I’ll include your links in that post. My next post will be about Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I’ll be trying to meet some of my intentions: discovering the overlap between history and everyday life, finding the essence of a place and what is surprising about a location (I definitely made too many intentions this time!). 🙂
This will be an ongoing invitation, once weekly through May, and the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month thereafter. 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!
Pit, of Pit’s Fritztown News, writes about a day on the Wabash Trace in Iowa, where a series of mishaps and a less-than-stellar restaurant experience makes for an amusing tale.
Meg, of Warsaw 2018, is seeing Warsaw through fresh eyes this time around, and admits that she doesn’t know everything. She’s also very intentional in her explorations.
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.
Guidebooks, maps and nature guides
I also dove into reading novels set in the four states. I readThe Never Open Desert Dinerby 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.
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.
Fun stuff to carry along
Here are my INTENTIONS for this trip:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Petra, Jordan
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!
Jude, of Travel Words, writes about her deep and ceaseless yearning to emigrate to the Land Down Under, and the convoluted path her life has taken in the process.
Pit, of Pit’s Fritztown News, writes about why he and his wife were called to Greenville, South Carolina to see the solar eclipse and participate in a bike ride, but ended up diverting to Casper, Wyoming because of a cloudy forecast for Greenville.
“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.
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.
Reese Witherspoon & Joaquin Phoenix as June Carter & Johnny Cash in Walk the Line
Big Time Boots
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.
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!
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!
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.
The Ryman Auditorium
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.
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.
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.”
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!
Meg posts in her blog, FIVEMONTHSINWARSAW, a thematic collection of Old Town doors in Warsaw.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Jude, of Travel Words, wrote about the her trip to the southwest of the U.S.A., west of where I’ll be going on my May road trip. I love how she thought of film and song titles along the way.
Pauline, of Living in Paradise…, wrote about her road trip to see autumn colors in Tenterfield, New South Wales, with some misadventures along the way.
My path less traveled. Rediscovering self after surviving the abuse that almost sunk me. Goal of strengthening and thriving on my adult legs. 👣🙏🏻 #recovery #forgiveness
This blog is for those who wish to be creative, authors, people in the healing professions, business people, freelancers, journalists, poets, and teachers. You will learn about how to write well, and about getting published. Both beginning and experienced writers will profit from this blog and gain new creative perspectives. Become inspired from global writers, and find healing through the written word.
Explore, discover and experience the world through Meery's Eye. Off the beat budget traveler. Explore places, cultural and heritage. Sustainable trotter.
shareable tales of Meery is Meeryable
~ wander.essence ~ 
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