Saturday, April 2, 2011

B is for Bedouin

I used to be nomadical.

Or was it diabolical?  I forget.

No wait.  I remember now.  The diabolical was revoked in 1988 after that nude beach "incident".  Nomad it is.

At one point everything I owned fit into a 1974 metallic green flake Plymouth Duster.  On a moments notice I could slip out of one place and into another faster than you can say Witness Relocation.  I meandered to Montana and back with only a box of books, a tent, a toothbrush and a couple changes of clothing.  I was gone three weeks.  I would drive to Chicago or the Smokies for the weekend on a whim for pizza or mountain air.

The Duster gave way to a pink Sundance (much cooler sounding than the piece of shit lemon it turned out to be), then a little white Honda Civic that racked up almost 200,000 miles of American backroads before calling it quits, and now a kinda tan CRV closing in on 80K.

My stuff stopped fitting in my car somewhere back in the early '90's.  Probably about the same time that I settled in one location for longer than a year.  The amount of stuff, it turns out, is directly proportional to how long I have lived in one place.

It was probably about that same time that the nomadic adventures stopped.  I missed those.  And I am trying to see if I can coax them back.  About a week ago, I saw something about the cherry trees in DC and thought how much I had always wanted to see them.  A little Bedouin voice asked "What's stopping you?"  Ironically this year - absolutely nothing.  Oh there are the usual budget concerns, but really compared to the absolute zen of the cherry trees, the budget pales.

So, after debating it ad naseum, I just said WTF, threw some stuff in my car - as little as possible - and left.  Not quite as sleek a caravan as I used to be able to do, but better than any trip in YEARS.  Yes, I brought the laptop so I didn't get behind in the writing.  And the GPS, so I didn't get too lost.

I imagined an uneventful drive thru OH, WV, PA and MD jamming to my favorite travel tunes, which it mostly was.....except for the BLIZZARD I drove thru on the PA turnpike.  Really?!?  A blizzard in April?  Part of me wanting to wimp out, pull in to a hotel, and quit the adventure.  Luckily the rest of me mutinied and kicked that part out.

So here I am in Frederick, MD.  About 45 minutes from DC where, I will now embarrass myself by admitting, I have been only once.  Unintentionally, on my way thru to Delaware.  Kinda jacked about having a whole day to explore or just park my ass under a tree and let the blossoms cascade around me.  Mostly excited to be somewhere new.

That bedouin is nodding his head.

4 comments:

  1. I hope the only additional snow you encounter is the cherry blossom kind! Happy travels!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, lucky you - to be free to pack yourself up and take off wherever, whenever.....!

    Thanks for this post - felt like I was on the journey with you! :-)

    SueH I refuse to go quietly!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd love to free enough to park myself under a tree and let the blossoms cascade. love your post

    ReplyDelete
  4. I used to dream of living in a camper so I could just wander wherever the road takes me ... now I'd need a semi truck just to haul my books. :-)

    ReplyDelete

 I have written a lot about my belly - series of poems dedicated to it. I happen to like my belly. Always have Oh, I know it's not what ...