You can't take it with you...?

J-cat on the keypad:

So the rockabilly/punk song goes..."You can't take it with you".  As I was standing in the cold night air, huddled behind the Aggie Theater in Ft. Collins, Colorado, the lyrics about what is really important in life made me smile.  Kind of cliche, kind of trite, but also pretty right on.  My good friend from way back in Santa Cruz, Anatola, knew just what I was thinking since we'd been having these conversations for a while, trying to figure out what is really important in life...? Spending time with close friends like her, for one, and listening to great music from our teen years, like Social Distortion, who was ripping it on that new song at the crowded Aggie.  

Social D's lyrics and my time reminiscing and talking about future ideas with Anatola inspired a series of thoughts over the next several weeks of our trip, most of which are somehow related to our travel experiences though I am still trying to figure out all the connections and whether there is an overall lesson.  During this phase of travel, we drove from Colorado to Utah, camped and hiked in Zion National Park, made a pit stop in Las Vegas, hung out in Los Angeles, drove up to Santa Cruz, and then flew up to Seattle to re-visit the beautiful Pacific NW.  Since then we've driven and taken trains down the coast from Victoria BC to Seattle to Portland, and we are now in Humboldt County, California.  Liam and I are both feeling energized by being "back out west", and we have thrown around many ideas about how to meld our desire for adventure and travel with an inclination to bond with family and friends.  Visits with people all over the country have got us thinking about lifestyle choices and how to find long-term satisfaction....and that got me thinking about Wendell Barry.

There is an essay by Barry in the collection entitled "What Are People For?" in which he writes about the evolution of family roles and the way family interacts with society. He wonders about the negative aspects of mobility and unrootedness in modern life...he seems to suggest that a more rooted, community-focused lifestyle would do better by our children and offer us adults a more grounded, communal existence. Though I was initially turned off by his patriarchal tone, so much of what he talks about resonates with me lately.  I think about the supportive community of friends and family in Fayetteville and how I felt like somebody would be there for me if I got sick, if I lost my job, or just needed someone with whom to walk and talk. It's common in Fayetteville, and probably in many other small towns and tight-knit neighborhoods, for friends to band together around somebody who had become sick or just needed help. Several times during my four years living there, I attended benefit concerts, poetry readings, and potlucks in support of a friend or friend's child who needed help, be it physically, emotionally or financially. One of the most touching and beautiful examples of this was the network of loving friends, including my mother and father-in-law, who grouped around Nick and Ginny Masullo. Nick was an incredibly blessed person in too many ways to name and he left this world too soon...but from my perspective, I found it wonderful that he had fostered such deep friendships with people in his life, friends who would do anything for him and Ginny and lent a helping hand during the last years he was with us. Similarly, my parents and a close group of Santa Cruz friends took loving care of our family friend Geno in his last months.  I can only hope to have such a loving support system.  

Having reflected on all that, I am getting to a point that has been brewing in my head for weeks now:  We ALL need that kind of loving support system, we really do, no matter how independent and self-sufficient we think we are.  **We are not islands!**  I am a very private person, but our travels are teaching me something: We are social creatures who need community and are enriched by diverse friendships and family interactions.  Even when those interactions are difficult or painful, it is up to us to generously put ourselves out there and offer support, or maybe to know when we need to accept support.  This is the kind of energy I want to take with me in the long run.  And, like it or not, this "support of the soul" is not going to come from your bank account or your job. I don't count on either of those to be around and give me a comforting hug when I'm old and gray. And since I'm working on that every year (thanks for the early-gray genes, Mom!), this issue seems to come to the forefront of my thoughts and discussions with Liam and others, particularly along this fantastic journey of continual uprootedness!  

All of this is still simmering in my thought-process, and it hasn't led us down one particular path or another.  But, Liam and I are asking questions of ourselves about how to deal with modern life...how do we create a lifestyle that has a more communal feeling...how do we draw in the skills and experience offered by so many of our friends and family members? We are freshly re-aquainted with our "network", spread all over the place, and I am feeling inspired about the possibilities. 

This inspiration is leading me to think that one of the most precious things you CAN take with you is the love and generous energy you have shared with family and friends, or even with a stranger in need.  Such caring actions or words create concentric circles of good energy that ripple on through the years, and these warm memories will stay with you forever (at least as long as you can remember)  Back to this journey and how it all relates:  beyond a practical need to seek job opportunities, one of the primary motivations to start this long adventure and leave our cocoon of comfort in Fayetteville was to offer our energy and design/construction/landscaping skills to my parents in their relocation to Hawaii.  Our time of transition offers us the opportunity to help my parents in their time of transition, so to speak.  We began the process two years ago with my design drawings and then Liam, my brother Elijah, his girlfriend Karla, and my mom and dad all pitched in to build the house frame and make the land livable. There is still a lot more to do in order to get my parents moved in to their tropical abode and I'm excited to arrive and get to work for them.  We've been traveling for almost 2 1/2 months now, and while the continual excitement of being on the road is still enticing, I'm ready to settle in for a while and give back some love and support to my family.  It should be a great project, and I know it'll make for some lovely memories that I will take with me.

ps - we are flying out to Hawaii in one week!...If you're looking to get ahold of us, that's where we will be for at least the next 3 months, same ol' cell phones should work fine.  Aloha to all :)

To the Pacific

Lee-dog on the Mic:

We're now sitting in Casey Andrews and Lisette Polny's cozy living room, where we've been sleeping for the last few nights. We zoomed into L.A. three days ago, on the evening of Sep. 30. Memories sparked by familiar geography entered my consciousness as we drove out of Las Vegas and into the desert. Driving toward Pasadena, I remembered my time here 10 years ago. This is my first time back to L.A. since living here just after college.

Backing up a bit to our stay in Colorado, I'll give a brief overview. We spent a couple of nights in Denver with Dan, Michelle, and Claire Nesson. What a treat--and what a little sweetheart Claire is. Brother Ben met us at Dan's, and I soon gave Jessie a ride up to Fort Collins, where she visited with Anatola and Brent Swan (old Santa Cruz pals) for a few days. Meanwhile Ben and I headed to Buena Vista for some time in the Arkansas River Valley. Ben and I chilled, went for a hike to Ptarmigan Lake, sipped beer, and partied in downtown BV before I headed back to Fort Collins to catch up with the Californians. After hanging with Jessie, Tola and their boys at Oktoberfest, Brent and I had an awesome day fly fishing on the Big South River, a tributary of the Poudre.

Departing FC we were bound for the Pacific after a two night stay in Zion National Park--a truly enchanted, spectacular place. Jessie and I took a thrilling and vertigo-inducing eight mile hike to Observation Point, which overlooks Zion Canyon. A blustery night forced us to pack up our tent around midnight and sleep in the back of the car. The next morning we took a short hike and watercoloring expedition, and then jetted toward Vegas and L.A.

Now we're here, overlooking the San Fernando Valley from Casey and Lisette's Mulholland Drive bungalow. We're getting the true L.A. experience: a chic salon haircut for me, hiking in the mountains overlooking the valley and downtown, and trying on clothes at Lisette's fashionable "three dots" office.

Like trying on cool t-shirts, this trip is an opportunity for us to try on different places. We've been highly motivated to consider the questions: Where could we live? and What could we live with? We've reached conclusions about what type of habitat we'd enjoy. Walkability, tasty and eclectic dining, good music scene, an open-minded populous, educational opportunities, minimal reliance on the automobile--these are all attractive aspects of place. Areas where we differ: Jessie loves the energy of the big city (i.e. NYC and San Francisco); I like to visit these places but would prefer to live in a place where I can find a quicker and easier escape to the freedom of the natural landscape--and away from the madness of men and machines. We both loved Fort Collins; we both dislike Vegas. Parts of L.A. are fun, but the enormous sprawl and lack of easily accessible public transportation is uninviting. Seattle is great, a little large for my taste, but the mountains and ocean are only a short drive away.

Ultimately, though, I've come to the conclusion that the comfort of place is often more related to comfort with yourself and with those around you. And, we've encountered so many places on this trip where we've felt welcome, at home, and surrounded by loving friends and relatives. Additionally, we're very at ease with each other and continually adaptable. These qualities of place combined with our grounded, loving relationship allow me to conclude that we could truly make any number of places home. Thankfully, we have some exciting ideas for where that might be--The Big Island, The Pacific Northwest, The Front Range? Across the Pacific? Where will it be?

Luckily we have plenty of time to answer this question--and many adventures in between...

next post: Jessie shares a story of friendship and punk music in beautiful Colorado...

So, where are you guys from?

Jessica here:

Since we last wrote, our travels have taken a decidedly westward bent and we've covered some serious ground in our little Subaru including a 14 hour trek from Ithaca, NY to Chicago...oy vey! A funny realization is now sinking in...we really are "homeless." No house, just a mobile concept of "home"....familiar music, food & scents create a comfort in each new spot. Of course, we chose this, and it feels quite liberating. Some things I miss...our kitty Zooey greeting us at the front door, a kitchen of our own, bed linens of our own. But...no house repairs, no mortgage, no daily routine...sweet freedom! The funny thing is, when asked where we're visiting from, the only logical answer is "that blue Subaru Outback". I get strange and annoyed looks, but, hey, makes me chuckle. Streamlined down to a small carload of stuff and a road atlas...I could get used to this, at least for a while.

At the moment, we're sipping coffee and munching the last of our NY bagels in Angie Head's cozy Chicago living room. Angie is a friend from way back in Fayetteville and we've appreciated her generosity despite a busy work schedule. She served up tasty red wine upon our arrival, much welcomed after navigating the hellacious nighttime highway thru Gary, IN. Next day we skipped the roads and travelled downtown on the awesome "EL". Chi-town has delighted us with sunny, warm weather and great lounging and strolling along the lakeshore. This is one of the few cities that neither Liam nor I have visited....it's pretty darn beautiful this time of year, though I'm thinking it'd be a different story come December.

So, backing up about three weeks, in an effort to represent all the great stops on our journey, we had an action-packed two weeks in NYC and Boston. Especially fun was leaving the car in NJ and travelling north by train. Dining car, reading, relaxing as the scenery whizzes past...I LOVE trains. Arriving in Brooklyn we were excited to catch up with Liam's cuz Sara who welcomed us into her lovely Carroll Gardens apartment. We dove right in to good NY chow at a nearby Thai restaurant....Tom Yum soup, yummm. Well nourished, we set off to walk across the magnificent Brooklyn Bridge...what an experience! Our gastronomical adventures continued with local microbrews at a Brooklyn pub and of course, a huge Coney Island hot dog, devoured with gusto by one very happy Liam. A highlight for me was rollerskating on the crazy little rink at Dreamland, right on the boardwalk at Coney Island. Despite the painful wound inflicted by their awful rental skates, I loved getting back on my wheels! Tried not to take out too many innocent children on my loops around the track...hehe. More highlights from NY include gin & tonics and jazz at the Carlyle for my birthday, walking through Chelsea and the West Village on the impressive Highline trail, hanging out with cousins Colene & Jeff on their midtown rooftop terrace, working the lanes at Brooklyn Bowl with cousins Chad and Sara, dancing to a blow-out show by Toots & the Maytals, and of course, chowing on ever-satisfyingly-cheesy-crusty NY pizza. Yummmmm.

After a week of thrills and spills in NYC, we hopped a train up to Boston and arrived at the comfy home of Liam's aunt Carol. We can't express enough thanks for Carol's generosity...gourmet lunches at Gloucester beach, BBQ picnic on labor day, tickets to see the Red Sox at Fenway Park!...such fun. Another beantown highlight: the extreme sport called "Bob Nesson's walking tour of Cambidge and Boston." Seriously, this was such a cool experience for us. History, geography, urban planning, film studies, landscape design...it was all inclusive and Uncle Bob knew we'd be up for the hike. I've always found Boston to be a confusing city to navigate, but the walking tour really established a great sense of the city's layout for me. Also got to see Aunt Kathe, albeit too briefly, for tasty Chinese fare and a fun discussion of Hawaiian Hula...next time I'm hoping for an extended dance lesson! So, the adventures continued with a train ride up to Beverly, Mass, about an hour north of Boston. We visited Uncle John and stayed up late talking about old times in the Conway family...so many cousins, stories, characters...somebody needs to write a book about this amazing family.

After a quick visit back to NJ and more great times with the Bowers family, we were on the road again...headed for upstate NY and a visit back to my alma mater, Cornell. Memories came flooding back from undergrad years...what a treat to share them with Liam. We rented bikes and tore all around town & campus, stopping to swim in waterfalls, hike the ravines, devour some Cornell Dairy ice cream, and hit up my old haunts in Collegetown. I was stunned all over again by the beauty of the area, enhanced by sunny weather and leaves just starting to turn yellow, red, orange....my goodness, the old cliche is true. Ithaca IS gorges. Got me thinking about settling down there, maybe having a home base?...but no, westward ho!!

next post: Chicago tales and Colorado stories...Pacific ocean, here we come!!!

Catching Up to the Start

Liam here...

As we comment on the succession of our experiences, we'll also backtrack to the start in order to create a more complete picture of our journey. Today we're in Beachwood, NJ staying with George and Margaret Ann Bowers, Jessie's uncle and aunt on her papa's side (Margaret Ann is Andy's sister). It's a slow, relaxed morning, as we stayed up late feasting on a fabulous meal George spent most of the day preparing: a hearty veggie lasagna, garden salad, garlic bread, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Thanks uncle George! Our cousins Jake & Ryan, along with their lovely ladies Diana and Robyn (respectively) were also present at the feast; boisterous laughter carried into the neighborhood around Beacon Avenue well into the night. Much thanks to the Bowers for the cheer and generosity. Tomorrow we're off on our trajectory westward but hopefully not before we get out on Barnegat Bay's gorgeous waters!

So, now for the backtracking part....we've just returned to NJ, where we left our Subaru in the Bowers' backyard for two weeks. Happily car-less, we traveled by train, bus, boat and on foot in and around New York City and Boston. We caught up with aunts, uncles, cousins & old friends, made new friends, and created lots of great memories. I thought we'd run through some of those memories here (a sort of online journal...) full of delectable meals, drinks, and music that we encountered from the start of our trip.

On August 15, following a heartwarming send-off dinner at Ralph and Kate's, we drove away from Fayetteville to the motivating beat of Thunder Road (pure serendipity that it popped up on our ipod shuffle...). After stopping to pick up a Yakima roof box, generously loaned by good friend Brandon Simmons, our loaded down Subaru crossed the Mississippi River over the DeSoto Bridge to Memphis, leaving sweet home Arkansas behind. After six hours of restless sleep in a run down Howard Johnsons near Blue Goose, TN, we were psyched to get back on the road to Ferrum, Virginia, home of our dear friend Allison Harl and her baby boy, Eli.

Allison directed us to take scenic and winding Shooting Creek Road into Ferrum, along which we were impressed by sweeping views and thickly verdant valley ravines. We were reminded of the views and "yokuls" of the Ozarks. Allison greeted us at the end of her driveway on Franklin Street with tiny Eli nestled in her arms; she and Jessica walked from the roadside to Allison's front porch. With a widespread smile, I drove down the drive to park the car. What a pleasure to see Allison taking so naturally to motherhood. Soon after our arrival, Eli fell asleep in his "old man" slumber, and we caught up over locally produced wine and a tasty spinach, garlic, and feta quiche that Allison baked. The next morning we looked after the surprisingly calm two-month-old Eli while Dr./Mama Harl went to an English Department faculty meeting of the soon-to-commence Ferrum College fall semester.

After three days in and around Ferrum highlighted by a Chateau Morrisette Winery tour, a gourmet potluck at Allison's with a great group of local friends, and a hike along the Pig River, we headed for Bowie, Maryland, just 4 hours northeast. We pit-stopped for a hike along the Appalachian Trail, jogging through warm rain on the return hike. Once we reached Bowie, a leafy suburb of Washingtion, DC, we poured out of the hot car to greet Clare and Bryson Spangler and some hefty, cold margaritas that Clare, awesome hostess that she is, had just blended. It was my birthday, a memorable 33rd on August 19. We were thrilled to catch up with Bryson and Clare on their back deck, while their 1 year old boy, Brodie, slept upstairs in his room. Bryson surprised us with a homemade chocolate cake, a thoughtful greeting from old friends. We reminisced about previous fun times, from years past in Seattle and Alaska as we sipped maragaritas. Remembrance with old friends is the best kind.

The few days around the DC area were filled with walking, talking, pictures on The Mall, and eating ice cream. Unfortunately Bryson got sick moments into a delicious blue crab feast; he had to retire for the evening and after midnight Clare took the poor chap to the emergency room for some reviving fluids. However, he was happy to know his misery didn't keep us from a fun night chilling on their back deck, or from getting a fabulous lesson on the proper method of drinking scotch with Scotswoman Clare. Cheers for the hospitality Clare and Bryson! On this leg of the journey, we also caught up with my cousin Billy Young and his sweet girlfriend Rachel. He was about to start law school at George Washington U--a smart guy and an engaging conversationalist. Thanks for introducing us to your hip DC neighborhood, Billy and Rachel!

Saying goodbye to great friends, leaving Bowie, heading across the Chesapeake Bay into Delaware, we soon arrived at Primehook Beach. There we were greeted with beer and delicious honeydew melon after being led by Paul and Douglas down a short boardwalk to their Delaware Bay beachfront gazebo. A cool breeze blew as we caught up with Paul, Jessie's dad's best friend from college, and Douglas, Paul's partner. We were entertained by memories of Paul, Andy, and Pam and their gang cavorting around Maryland, Delaware, and NYC in their teens-20's. Douglas' loquacious, engaging stories were the source of many smiles and memories after our visit to this unique spot on the bay side of a beautiful wetlands preserve. And the purist crab cakes and locally grown veggies were phenomenal - thank you Paul and Douglas!

After a night in their antique filled beachside bungalow, we drove south to Assateague National Seashore and camped in the dunes after a four mile beach hike. Treated to a pink, orange and misty blue sunset, swarms of mosquitoes at dusk, tofu dogs and wading into the Maryland breakers, we slept a bit restlessly in the cozy tent. Getting up the next morning, jarred awake by a baja-style driving session on the beach, we were off for points north: New Jersey, New York, and Bean Town!

Now off to enjoy the late summer warmth in Toms River on our last East Coast day.

next post: jessie dishes on food, tunes and rollerskating in NJ, NY and MA...

Delectable Enjoyments of the Best Kind...or, Is a Theme Forthcoming?

We are nearing the four week mark of our travels...adventure...journey...exploratory transition phase. It's still challenging for us to describe, without some hesitation, just what we're doing, but we sure are having a blast, whatever the overarching theme. Since selling our house in Fayetteville, leaving behind the office/college life, unloading many of our possessions, storing what little remained, housing our dear kitty Zooey with Liam's parents, the reality is well underway. In this beginning trajectory, we are allowing the conception of our journey to materialize...hence, a title in process.

So, to begin, we thought of addressing our forming "theme." At various points over the past four weeks we've had conversations, privately and with friends, about a theme for these blog entries, and of course for the journey as a whole. And we've all thrown out some promising ideas. But how do you assign a theme to something that is in the process of unfolding, on a day to day basis? Part of the allure of travel, as we discover, is the physical and emotional experience of embracing the unexpected. It's a process that we affect and are affected by. And we've already butted up against many preconceived expectations, ill-formed plans, disappointments, and, best of all, enduring beautiful surprises. Like the thrill of blasting an old Ice-T album as we tore down the unfamiliar roads along the Blue Ridge Mountains, or the double rainbow that beamed out of the rainy sky over Bowie, MD, or the huge harvest moon that rose over the NY skyline as we picnicked in Central Park....this could go on and on. And as we all know, any little disappointments fade in memory and relevance.

Some of our most unforgettable moments along this journey have revolved around food and music shared with friends and family. Home cooked meals, restaurant delicacies, street side vendors... friends' aged CD collections, iTunes selections ready for download, street musicians serenading subway riders, and a jazz trio in a dark bar on the upper east side. Delectable enjoyments of the best kind! Beginning in Fayetteville with dinners straight from summer gardens and a delicious send-off feast, we have been overwhelmed with kindness and loving hospitality along the way, welcomed into the homes of close family, distant relatives, dogs, cats, babies and dear friends alike. Our journey is becoming a thread of experiences, of good meals, conversations and music, shared with all of YOU. Literally, we often look at each other and repeat the same feelings again and again: we are so very lucky to have a wonderful family and treasured friends who show us such kindness. We only hope to return the good energy....and to to keep it going.

With love,

Jessie & Liam

Coming soon: Recounted memories of delectable goodness from the past four weeks....from Arkansas to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York & Massachusetts. Off now to catch a train up to Beverly, Mass....and so it goes!