Road Trip

Sadly today’s young people will probably never know the romantic draw of a name on a map.  Some names just beg you to travel to that dot on the map and discover what secrets will unfold.   Boulder, CO held its mysteries close  but called to me even as a teenager.  When I had the opportunity I packed all my possessions in my minty green Mustang and headed west.  I had no promise of a job and knew no one who lived in Boulder.  Didn’t matter….had to go there and I was not disappointed as I discovered the Boulderado, McGuckin’s, mountains, The Hill, hippy sandals, Boulder Creek, Pearl Street, The Bus Stop (not that I went there),Chautauqua, and the Boulder Book Store.  Found a job nearby, made friends, and stayed for thirty years.   

As a child Thanksgiving usually involved  a road trip, usually icy.   About every other year, my parents would pack my sister and I into whatever second hand vehicle we had at the moment to drive north to Duluth, MN from Fremont, NB.   The names Storm Lake, Worthington, Windom, St. James, and Mankato still bring back memories of driving  during dark snowing nights.  The names have a certain sweet poetry about them.   Cannot remember the towns themselves, just their promise as we passed through that we were getting closer to a warm house with relatives and a Thanksgiving feast.  

The wildest Thanksgiving trip though was not north, but east to Des Moines, IA.  I don’t think my sister was with me but I think my grandmother was with as we visited one of her cousins, Hazel Baker Ragsdale, for Thanksgiving dinner.  We drove through white out blizzard conditions on black ice all the way there.  Very tense. Des Moines hadn’t been calling out to me in the past and since that trip, has fallen completely off my map.  

On a trip back from Duluth to Boulder my sister and I became bored driving through the prairies of western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota so begin making a list of all the towns with a color in their name.   A partial list includes: Vermillion, Gold Hill, Sundance, White Clay, Redfield, Blue Earth, Black Duck,  Black Hawk, Blue River, Grey Eagle, and Butterfield.  Who wouldn’t want to visit a town with one of those colorful names.  Had evening meal in Gold Hill and Sundance,  shopped in Black Hawk and White Clay, and I think I need to visit Black Duck and Blue Earth.  

Other names have a certain panache that entices you to visit:  Saddlestring (fictional but should be a real town), Chugwater, Sleepy Eye, and No Name.   But alas,  today you pick a destination because of friends, relatives, or business; turn on your GPS and listen to your guide say turn right, turn left, stay right, and recalculating, as you speed along the interstate and main roads, missing all those wonderful names  and places that are dots on maps…places of hidden treasures and curious things and interesting people.  

youth dreams freedom

but then not satisfied with wandering

takes on responsibilities

then some in middle age gaze over the fence at the open road

now old, a place of my own

shouts for me to come home

to rest in the comfort of the familiar

books, ephemera, beauty

now my house is not my  home

that is yet to come

  

seasons

once, before i knew better, i would look forward to spring....warm days, flowers sprouting, beautiful sunshine, and a certain laziness in the air.  i finally figured out most of that describes fall.   spring is bright light squeezing through bitter clouds, shivering in your spring wardrobe under layers of sweaters pretending you are not cold.  it is always chilling rain during sports meets.  

autumn is the golden time with dust motes floating through lemonade air.  well, it is supposed to be like that.   this year in western South Dakota it is biting winds with the hint of winter snows.  but the grass in the back yard likes it.  but i think the green looks a little sharp, not the laying down and playing in the grass kind of grass.  time for people to drag out mittens, scarves, and snow boots.  

my daughter and my granddaughter accompanied me on my road trip from riverside, ca to boulder, co.  our first morning breakfast on the road was at Starbucks complete with electronic devices.  in fact, we stopped there confident that they would have internet available.  daughter still had some postings to do to finish the academic year.  so here we are.  two iPads (mine black and granddaughter's in the orange protective case) and one super powerful laptop (under granddaughter's iPad),.   

even though Leslie was almost five at the time of the picture, she already knows her way around the device. she will grow up quite literate when it comes to computers and their offspring.  some people may think that she is too young but the more fluent you are in any skill, the better off you are.  and her life is not all computers.  

i was born just before the eniac was  built under the direction of the war department.  it was very huge and was quite limited in its activities.  i think the average car today is smarter than the enaic.   in my lifetime i have witnessed the size of the computer diminish and the power of the computer sharply increase.  i was so excited when i had my first computer and was able to 'dial-up' the internet.  now i think i am addicted and probably spend too much time with my fingers on the keyboard.

but oh the possibilities... i can draw, check information, play games, collect information and pictures, read books, make books, watch movies, do my banking, find my ancestors, write, and a thousand other things i haven't discovered yet.  more addicting that coffee.  well, coffee is a close second, especially Starbucks.  

reality

even in old age there is much to be learned about oneself.   i recently found out that some people truly hate it when i state that what they believe or want to believe is true is not.  one should not knock done another person's  idea of truth (especially if it is a cherished belief and most emphatically if it is a long held religious belief).  they hate you for it and you do not change their minds.  and besides, they want their statement valued.  i am beginning to think life is not about truth but something else altogether.  

so now when someone says Chrysler is owned by Ford when it is really owned by Fiat, i just keep silent. or that all the major car companies made Jeep at one time or another i don't respond even though i am pretty sure that GM never made a jeep.  other car companies like Willy's, Chrysler, Kaiser, AMC, did and one man was involved in all those companies.....Chrysler.  Ford did make jeeps at first because  the government didn't think Willy's could produce enough, but they were made to Willy's specifications.  

Chrysler's story is really interesting.  in the beginning Chrysler worked for GM but then was involved in many other car companies before forming Chrysler corporation.   (Willy's, Kaiser, Maxwell-Chalmers, AMC)  Chrysler company has been in and out of many other car companies.  hard to keep track, but they have had or still have association with Mitsubishi, Lamborghini, Daimler-Benz, and Peugeot. and now they belong to Fiat.  

So now jeep is made by an Italian company.  i still like jeeps and if it wasn't so hard to get into the jeep wrangler i would still have one.  i think it is my favorite car of all the cars i have owned.  totally illogical.  

Neal and Jennifer

ancestry tree of women for a story