Why I am going?

  One of my favorite places -  one of adventure and mystery and reflection  and learning and unlearning – is the library. It welcomed me when I first came with my mother as a young boy of 5 to check out books.  Thorton W. Burgess and her wonderful personification of animals,  and Theodore Driesel in literary disquise draw me in even as an adult.  A public library was and is like the  Grand Library of Alexandria for me. 

 

Here I begin my journey that I have dreamed of for most of my adult life. “There is no frigate like a book to take us worlds away” as Emily Dickinson often assures me of what I have already discovered.  After reading Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon soon after its publication in 1982, I too wanted to leave home behind and travel in whatever vehicle I had for several months.  He left when his life was turned upside down with loss of job and wife in the same week.  Perhaps I never felt my life was turned upside down enough to leave everything I know.  Now that I am 68, I best not wait.

Those who know my life well, may certainly disagree. They would possibly see several points where that was true. A catalog of those times will not help the narrative here.  The only focus I have now is today where I get a little closer to my dream of hitting the road. At this time in life, divorced for four years and sober for two, I have had several challenging health issues and now seems to be the time while I can still walk freely and almost breath freely before I disintegrate back to the earth further. Somehow with reason cast aside I purchased a 2020 Nissan Frontier with a king cab and bedliner a year and a half ago. Payment and insurance run almost a grand a month. Rather than rue my extreme expense for retired transportation, I have chosen to celebrate and to use this luxury to take my trip. Nothing can be done about the payment and insurance since both my credit score and recent driving record are poor.

 

Also I have taken in the most gentle dog I have ever known, Trooper, and that he is.  Sitting in church one Sunday four years ago, someone stood up in the choir and asked if anyone wanted a dog. His master was going to the nursing home and could not take him. I shot my hand up and he brought him to me on Tuesday. We were an instant fit – he is graying and so am I.  He was 77 in dog years then and I was 64.  He loves to walk with me in the park. However I walk five laps and after two he starts walking to the truck, and safely aboard Trooper is happy to let me finish. Riding in the truck looking out the window or sleeping is a joy to him and to me.  GG ( the name I use for God) has blessed me with a truck and a travel companion and a love for people and travel. John Steinbeck also took a long road trip with his dog Charlie and made me aware, “We do not take a trip a trip takes us.”  I have not even left yet and it seems very true. The stars are aligned – we leave in one month.