“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon
I have accomplished the goal of reading! Yes reading. The other day I finished a book I had started before my journey even took place. The book was Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. Essentially the book is about a man who after some failures in his personal life, decides to take this journey across the back roads of America. I figured this book was quite appropriate considering I was about to do the exact same thing (only I allowed myself to travel on freeways if need be).
So why did it take me over 2 months to finish this book? For one, I was on the road having my own experiences and just living can take up so much of ones time. I think another reason however, was that I didn't want the book to end, just like I didn't want my journey to end. But now, I don't think journeys ever really end. Everything you do and everywhere you go is just an extension of the greater journey of living.
So those words taken from Blue Highways, "you are what you are right there and then...No yesterdays on the road" gives a new thought. Give the meaning of "on the road" a larger scope, and don't let anyone including yourself, especially yourself, judge what you're going to do and what you are capable of doing based on what you have already done. We are all capable of letting go of yesterday and focusing on what we are "right there and then."
So with those words of wisdom from William Least Heat Moon and an accomplished goal finally checked off my list, it's on to the next.
Currently, crocheting my own scarves and other little pieces have been something I do in my spare time. As well as learning one new song on my guitar will be my next goal. I'll let you know when that happens.
And the job search continues in Raleigh, North Carolina! Hm, thought I'd have one by now.
So far Raleigh is turning out to be a fun place to be. I've already met a few friends and had some interesting nights! Like when I met two retired police officers at a bar. They told me about the old days and catching criminals. I even got some advice from an old guy. Literally.
On a piece of paper one of them wrote:
Advice from an old guy:
*Bullet point memories on trip
*Come back to it to find story
*Have fun
Good advice old guy!
Here are some bullet points of things I remember from my trip so far.
*New Mexico beauty
*Get me out of Nebraska
*South Dakota fire on plains
*Partying with South Dakotan college students=fun!
*Minnesota=English countryside
*Oh Canada!
*Yogi bear does exist!
*I just stuck my foot in contaminated water, great...
*Wisconsin cheese curds
*The great ocean of Michigan
*Grand Rapids you stole my heart, and my sobriety
*The Great Cleveland Escape
*Met a man named Pappy in West Virginia. Typical.
*Beauty. My name is Appalachia.
*Virginia is for lovers
*Chased by a chicken, what else is new
*The importance of family
*North Carolina! Take your shirt off, twist it like a helicopter!
*Met retired police officers
*Made bullet points of trip
*Still making bullet points of trip...
Thanks for the advice! I'll come back to these someday and hopefully remember what I was talking about.
As I complete the first half of my adventure, I find myself in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Job hunting! My favorite! If you didn't catch it, that's sarcasm.
It's time to replenish the gas fund so that I can continue on the road. In the short 4 days I've been here I've already been applying for various positions in day care, pet sitting, retail, and office work. By next week I should be living the American dream of minimum wage work!
I have yet to really explore the city, but when I do I'm sure I will have a couple of good stories to tell. Until then I think I'm going to use this blog to talk about traveling and the many ways to do it.
A constant on this trip has been people telling me how awesome they think what I'm doing is and how much they wish they could do the same thing. Well you can. And maybe I have some advice that can persuade you to believe that you can.
Traveling isn't just about going to exotic islands to lounge around or spending thousands of dollars to get somewhere, it's about opening yourself up to the world and all the endless learning and information you get from it.
When we lose someone that we care about, we are forced to face our own mortality.
I lost my grandma to cancer on September 4th. Everyone knew it was coming but you can never really be prepared for when it actually happens. She was a beautiful woman and she really cared about her family. Family holidays won't ever be the same without her. She was the last grandmother I'll ever have and I know that she was proud of me. She told me before I took this trip little pieces of advice on how to stay safe, so that's how I know she was just like any other caring grandma. I've been following your advice, don't worry!
Rough week on my family.
September 13th, my aunt suddenly passes away. She was another beautiful woman and it was a shock to hear about that. I can remember the last I love you and the last hug from her because I saw her while I was in Colorado for my grandma's memorial. I'm glad I got to tell her though. She was one of those people that made you feel special. I remember when I was growing up in those tough teenage years where it's easy to lose confidence, she would tell me what a beautiful young lady I was turning into inside and out, and you knew that she really meant it whole heartedly. She focused on the best parts of people.
So what happens when you lose people you love?
You keep their memory and their spirit alive and you live for them, with as much love of life as you possibly can.
First stop after the Appalachians was Roanoke, Virginia.
This city was bigger than I had imagined it. The downtown area has trains coming and going through the middle of it and they had a large farmers market lining Market street. I found a bridge crossing over the train tracks. It was a memorial bridge to Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace."
I had imagined a small town feel and a southern kind of charm. What I got was more of a busy city kind of vibe. Then again, I explored mostly the downtown area. It just shows you that expectations are usually something to avoid.
I decided to head to my next stop of Staunton. One of my uncles lives there so I was glad to have someone I knew in the state.
This smaller town is spelled S-t-a-u-n-t-o-n. My assumption was you pronounce the U. I've since learned that local are very quick to correct you that this is not how you say the name. It's pronounced Stan-ton (with a longer A sound). Anyway, this town has so much going for it! The houses here have that old southern charm I was looking for. Most of them are huge two or three story houses made of red brick with colorfully painted shutters and Boston Ivy plants growing up the sides of the houses, trees, yards, mailboxes, everything! I even came across a log house that looked like it had been standing for decades but was still housing a family.
I was taking my time walking around these neighborhoods and happened to come across a white chicken waddling in one of the yards. I thought this was funny because this town isn't very rural or anything like that but here are these chickens in the front yard. I walked by them and I noticed the white one was shuffling towards me. I kept walking and turned around to see it was now running towards me with an intimidating look. So I jogged off a little and saw it was now coming straight for me as fast as it's little legs could take it. So I started running. While I was running to save my legs from being pecked to death, I could not help but laugh because I was just thinking if anyone was watching this encounter how hysterical it must look! Being chased by a chicken is my punishment for all the chicken nuggets I've been eating this week.
Before the killer chicken event, I went with my uncle and his girlfriend to visit battlefields around Fredricksburg. It was strange to stand in a place where so many people lost their lives.
I also enjoyed the afternoon with my uncle and his girlfriend and her kids. They are great hosts and have so much energy and life that it's hard not to have a good time around them.
(My uncle, Asia, and Isaiah)
(Go dogs, go!)
(In the woods)
(A beautiful spot where a whole small settlement used to stand during Civil War times)
There is so much to do here and so many amazing sights here in Virginia it's been hard to bring myself to leave! This trip just keeps getting better and better as I learn how to take every single moment and savor it.
(Hiking in the mountains alongside a waterfall)
Thank you Stephanie and Richard for inviting me into your home and showing me how wonderful the state of Virginia truly is!
"Virginia is for lovers". If I had to guess why they came up with that for a state motto, it probably would be because it's easy to fall in love with this part of the country. Virginia is part of so much American history and it shows everywhere. Around every corner is another historical sight. It is so green here and there are flowers I've never seen before and a million butterflies!
My favorite part of the trip in this state was driving through the Appalachian mountains. I went off the curving highway onto some random back roads I decided looked interesting. I don't remember ever seeing another road that looked so enticingly beautiful. I followed a road that continued alongside a creek deeper into the mountains. I came across a tiny town, if you could even call it that at all. It looked more like a random place that a couple of families decided they could build some houses in. I saw a sign for a Cowboy Church. I just couldn't pass that up considering I had no idea at the time what a cowboy church even was or looked like.
As it turns out it was just a bunch of old run down looking buildings and someones trailer they were living in. They had a pen for a small rodeo. And that is a cowboy church.
I saw this house that had a couple dozen plastic pink flamingos decorating the lawn. I got a good chuckle from that. Ah, the joys of not having a Homeowners Association. Things just seem to have more character, more personality, more life in these parts.
And the animals I encountered along the way were interesting as well. Some were enjoyable sights, others, like the insects, were a little more bothersome.
I don't quite know where this horse came from but he seemed to know his way around pretty well.
I also came across a cute little dog just wondering around the road. Animals here seem to know where they are going and are free to wonder anywhere they please.
I came up to a small stone bridge that crossed over into someones plot of land and I decided I was going to sit on the bridge and take in the fresh air. I think I lasted less than five minutes when I started to get attacked by gnats and some branches broke close by in the dense trees. Assuming it was some large animal I didn't want to come into contact with, I got back in my car. Now, I have to tell you that it was actually pretty comical looking back. I'm sure I looked ridiculous swatting gnats frantically off my face and jumping at the slightest sound. Poor city girl.
Everything here has a mysterious and old feel to it. It's kind of interesting to stand somewhere and wonder who was there before you and how long ago that was.
The Appalachian is something not to be missed, if you ever get the chance.
These hills are alive with the sound of Country music!
I had so much fun learning about this area and discovered some amazing places along the way. First stop was Parkersburg, WV. I spent the night there in my car in a rest stop. I woke up the next day and heard about a honey festival that was going on that day in a park not too far from where I was at. Inside, there was music, tables fully stocked with different kinds of honey, and glass cases filled with buzzing bees working hard to make their honeycombs.
I stopped to talk to a man at one of the tables and asked if the photo (above) was him and sure enough it was. He said that he would be doing a performance in a couple of hours, so I decided to hang around and watch him put hundreds of bees on his face to make a giant "bee beard".
No suit, no gloves, no nothing. He just went into a mesh tent with thousands of these little honey bees and put a hollowed out block of wood with the queen bee inside and strapped it to his chin. The bees swarmed his face, neck, and shirt. He had obviously been doing this for years and was as calm as could be.
I asked how many times he got stung this time and he answered only a couple. Brave soul.
At the festival I also watched a band playing bluegrass music under a tent. The day was hot and humid but that didn't stop the band members, also brothers, from cracking jokes and having a fun time playing banjos, fiddles, acoustic guitars, and bass instruments. Here is the band the Sheppard Brothers playing at another festival (which I found on YouTube).
Drinking sweet tea and listening to bluegrass was so relaxing. I don't know about you, but I love this kind of music. It has a charm to it that just puts me in a content mood.
Next on the agenda was heading toward the state capitol of Charleston. In my experience with cities, this was not a very large one. For West Virginia, however, it was their largest. I decided to get a room at a hotel and stay there for the night. My room overlooked the Kanawha river and it was a gorgeous site. I watched from my room at the sun went down and a barge carrying coal floated by.
Another beautiful day in West Virginia and one more to go.
The next day I headed down the old highway 61 and followed what they called the Midway Trail. I stopped in quaint little towns in the hills and went further and further into thick forest covered in vines and moss. It was an amazing drive and I couldn't have been happier having decided against going on the interstate in favor of taking the long way. (Thank you Robert Frost).
The first stop was a small church called Virginia's Chapel. Built in 1853, it was a gift to William Tompkin's daughter (Virginia). This church was used by both sides during the Civil War. Surrounding the church was a beautifully old graveyard. The kind of graveyard that haunts and carries mystery.
Carrying on down the historic highway, I stopped to eat and met a man that told me all the interesting places to see in West Virginia and how amazing the state really was. I could tell he had a lot of pride in his state. I followed him up the road to a small waterfall where three rivers met. He told me about how during the Civil War, the Confederates gathered on one side and the Union on the other and they shot cannons at each other. It was the pool of water that got me the most interested, however. The man told me that there were catfish the size of trucks down in that part and that no one goes in that lake without a shark cage. The water didn't look it, but apparently it went down 70 feet or so. Now, I'm wondering if he might have been exaggerating some, but I wasn't about to test if the catfish down there could eat me whole or not.
Another amazing sight was traveling in between these hills that had whole sections of trees and bush completely hidden and entangled with some type of vine. It truly was amazing to see how fast things grow out east compared to the western prairie I was raised on.
The last sight I stopped off at before I was to head into Virginia was The Mystery Hole. A random little shack in the hills that catches the eye with half of a Volkswagen Beetle stuck into the side of the building. I parked in the lot and bought a ticket for the tour into the mysterious hole where the law of gravity seems to bend and alter your perceptions.
There were two others on the tour, a very enthusiastic young couple. We watched as water went uphill and flamboyant manikins begged for our attention. It was a funny experience. I had the strange perception that I had gone back to 1969 and had taken too many drugs. I went back to the car and said goodbye to the couple. Before I left though they offered me a drink. I declined and realized why they were so enthusiastic.
A beautiful state full of random adventures to be had, West Virginia is a place I'll not soon forget. I've decided I'll have to come back for the changing of the leave and to meet more interesting people. And so I headed toward the Virginia State line and into the Appalachian mountains, onward to the next adventure.
