Nottingham, UK
I slept until 11:00, and then met Becca at 12:38 at the Broad marsh Bus Station to catch the Barton bus to Willoughby on the Wolds. Our British Countryside class walked around it, looking at how houses fit in or detract from the village. We will go back later for a better study individually, because it was cold, wet, and windy. I bought Tori Amos' "Under the Pink" on the way home, and we stopped for tea at a large cafeteria style restaurant. We stopped in a few more stores, and got home in time for dinner. Becca and I went to a movie called "Remains of the Day." They were having a wap downstairs when we got home. They were playing two drinking games called Zoom and A--hole. Despite my better judgment, and my snobby attitude towards drinking, I joined them.
1994
Boulder, Co
This is not where I want to be right now, but I'm stuck here, snowed in deeply.
I don't want to be the....Stay there until you are relaxed. I'm going to be the one who ends up hurt. I see everything foggy. There is a rip in my contact. I'm only wearing one. I'm coping. I'm coming into a situation that I don't understand, and see very little of. I only hear whispers when they both are around. They are polite to me. Everyone is. I'd rather no one was polite, and then I'd be able to know who they really were. It is impossible to understand anyone who reveals nothing.
I can't write any fiction so real. The human condition is so close. I see people crumbling all around me constantly and I can do nothing.
I've decided that Boulder is just a place to watch sports and sell drugs. What else would you want to do? I go to bed tonight on the couch of the enemy. I have no contact, except that I am here now and can't get out of it. If I walked out now, where would I go?
I know of a woman. who escapes
She is a tootsie pop, a caramel corn
An apple cider. an icicle
Has got no place to go. button.
1995
Crown Railroad Cafe, Flagstaff, AZ (09:00 on a Monday)
I was here last night, then for the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravey, smothered in whatever that chicken stuff is. I had swarn it off, but this place reminded me so much of past favorite places, that I could not resist. I'm having Omelette #61 with green chilli, chorizo, onions, and jack cheese. They will also bring me grilled potatoes and biscuits and gravy. Lunch and breakfast all in one again. Coffee is more of a ritual than it is good in any of the breakfast places I've been to yet. Oh, they've got three early 90's Tekken 3, DieHard, and a modernized 1941 game. They have a few different styles of trains running overhead, but I only see one engine, and that is currently pulling along german cars, its a german engine 1:25.5 size. The cars all have local advertizing, like Norwest Bank.
The Space Shuttle tragedy is all some stations cover these days, although after today I would assume after the funeral services today, they will give off full time coverage. I have to wonder what happened to Lacey? She was the big story for such a long time. I started to write a little song...
20 Miles
I'm 20 miles from nowhere
20 miles from being home
'Bout 20 miles from leavin'
where I'm sittin' all alone
20 miles from someone
20 miles from being missed
20 miles from lovin'
20 miles from being kissed
After breakfast in Flagstaff, after I decided to swing back around for a picture of the outside of it for memories and the name, I found 17 and sped out of Flagstaff, stopping to refill my gas-tank again. This time $11.50. The first was the same, so I spent $23 on gas here, and I'll have gone over 700 miles. Wow. It was a full tank to start with. Anyway, I passed up old Route 66 to Los Angelas, now called US40 in that direction, and took 17 to a turn-off to 169 and then 69, to Prescott, AZ. I spent an hour or two there, window shopping, had a double espresso and a lemon and sugar crepe. Then I noticed the Prescott brewery and had a pint with lunch of their Liquid Amber and a small taste of their stout and their IPA. All were good. I ate cheese enchiladas and refritos. I walked around for a while through town, stopping at a post office and a tourist center. I took a leisurely pace out of town.
I stopped at another rest stop for the view, got a can of soda, finally turning off at New River, got my bearings, and headed off for Carefree Highway, which I eventually found, along with Cave Lake, and Carefree, and my way to this site, where I have no phone service. Since it was nearing 17:00, I had to get a camp set up quickly and could not decide on a place or if I was really supposed to be here. I asked the host, who lives 10 miles up the road and seemed to have no idea what goes on here. He said I could camp anywhere out here. Of course there are no amenities at all, but who needs anything when you are on a nice rocky beach that stretches forever. There is not supposed to be much wildlife here. Rodents and birds, probably snakes, but I suppose they hibernate.
South Bartlett Cove, or Sandy Beach Cove, maybe it's Sandy Bartlett cove. Anyway I'm here. It's not really much of a camp ground. It's a beach. I've got my last four fire logs burning, they have been over an hour or two. Orion is sitting high in the sky above me, I'm laying against a big rock, the flames are two feet high, well one and a half at least. I don't really know all of these constellations. I think I see Draco, but I'm uncomfortable so I must turn where I can read an write.
The fire is still going strong. I'll give it a half hour more, I guess. I'll wake up early, that is if I get any sleep at all, then pack up, look at this beautiful place in the daylight, then rush into town to call Jill ASAP. And mother, she is probably worried. I hope I make it out here through the night, relatively alone and unprotected. At least I have a car to get into if I hear anything. It is right next to my tent in the sand. I felt compelled to flash my car lights once in a while during the night. When the coyotes started calling, barking, howling, singing and dancing for all I know. I was quite comfortable, warm, dry and happy. It was beautiful, but a bit scary. This flashing of the lights with the auto lock key chain was comforting. I didn't honk, thinking that it might arouse the suspicion of the people staying closer to the lake. But there were no bite holes in my tent when I woke the next morning.
The small clipping of the moon is just disappearing over the mountain I descended to get down to this lake. Three and a half miles from the main road. 11 miles from another and 5 miles from Carefree Highway. It cost $4 to have a vehicle here on this lake. $6 for a boat and a vehicle and $2 per person I think. It's a whole lot warmer than it was last night in Flagstaff or the Grand Canyon. My water froze in my car seat in Flagstaff. Not completely, but mostly. It is getting colder now, but I'm right beside the fire, so I'd better tough it out and maybe get a jacket. I'm just wearing my new long underwear shirt, a hat and a scarf.
I can still see the moon when I stand up. The full circle of it although most of it is dark. All the stars are intensifying their brightness. Moonstars. There is one light pole half of a mile away. All else is darkness. I do know that there is a group down near the water with boats, a few trucks, and a camper. They had lights on the lake a while ago, now gone.
2003
I was the only one to show up for the birthday party on the wrong day. There was an Opera House board meeting on a big decision. We met the gang "downtown" for drinks, where I read Amaretto out of Rachel's mind. Foxtrot caught a bat while we were gone and ate it's back.
2010