Loneliness, solitude, isolation, seclusion, ...
All these words crossed my mind as we were and are in the middle of our long journey today, and far away from home, wherever we call home.
Whether it is West Orange NJ, Napa CA, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Antwerp Belgium, we are very far away from all these places.
When an animal leaves the nest, a certain amount of stress or nervousness settles in, along with awareness of potential dangers and fear of unknowns. As humans, we cannot differentiate ourselves from this, and we also carry some discomfort from leaping into the unknown or from leaving the comfort of the everyday home.
I think another post touched on this subject too. Are we afraid? Or are we confident and secure? From instinct point-of-view, we are certainly afraid. It causes stress and other (normal or) abnormal attitudes.
Anyway, when I overcome my instinct, and rely on logic or on emotion, I conclude that I have many things I love with me.
My wife is with me, and wherever I go, as long as she is with me, I can easily call it my home. I sometimes wish more people I love would be with me to join the trip, and to share this wonderful (but somehow frightening) experience.
The greyhounds seem to think similar, and consider Alexandra and I part of their secure environment. As long as we are near, they seem to feel fine and relaxed, whether it is in the car or in the hotel. But as soon as one of us steps away, they get nervous and stressed. What do they consider their home?????
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Wide open space, big endless sky and beautiful land
Today was a day of wide open spaces, huge sky (it looks bigger which is something I always heard people say about this part of the country) and land that is just breathtakingly beautiful. We saw real cowboys on horseback, riding through the fields and we even stopped at a Cowboy Historic Town, which made me think a lot of my dear brother-in-law, Flavio. No pics of the cowboys girls, sorry. (I was driving...)
We drove 350 miles through North Dakota and another hundred and something through Montana. ND is beautiful, the road is wide and you can see miles ahead.
The cargo trains are amazingly long and move very very slowly, I have a video of one of them because it would be impossible to show it through still picture.
There are sunflower fields, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and it reminded me of a colleague from work back in NJ, who planted sunflowers in her garden with her son.
Here is another funny picture to show how things are from a different dimension here. See our car and trailer compared to our neighbor in the parking lot, hehehe.
We came across Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND and saw a very beautiful Canyon formation named "Painted Canyon". It was a very nice surprise. We stopped at the Scenic View rest stop and took a few pictures. The Greys enjoyed the break and, as usual, they cause a commotion wherever we stop. :-)
Are we there yet? No, baby, two more nights and three more days.
We drove 350 miles through North Dakota and another hundred and something through Montana. ND is beautiful, the road is wide and you can see miles ahead.
The cargo trains are amazingly long and move very very slowly, I have a video of one of them because it would be impossible to show it through still picture.
There are sunflower fields, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and it reminded me of a colleague from work back in NJ, who planted sunflowers in her garden with her son.
Here is another funny picture to show how things are from a different dimension here. See our car and trailer compared to our neighbor in the parking lot, hehehe.
We came across Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND and saw a very beautiful Canyon formation named "Painted Canyon". It was a very nice surprise. We stopped at the Scenic View rest stop and took a few pictures. The Greys enjoyed the break and, as usual, they cause a commotion wherever we stop. :-)
Are we there yet? No, baby, two more nights and three more days.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Road Work Ahead
I am convinced that the United States is just a huge highway that is always under construction. Since we left Nj, and even in NJ, the number of miles of roads under construction is enormous. Today it was in Minesota.
I was sad to leave Wisconsin, it was a very nice state. Nice and wide roads, friendly people and delicious cheese. That is us, leaving the hotel in the weee hours of the morning:
Today we were back to messy roads and crazy drivers, and funny trucks too. Have you ever seen an inclined truck trailer, well here is one:
.
Not much happened today, just a long and boring drive. So I will close with another shot of dear Shooter in his "Are we there yet?" pose:
I was sad to leave Wisconsin, it was a very nice state. Nice and wide roads, friendly people and delicious cheese. That is us, leaving the hotel in the weee hours of the morning:
Today we were back to messy roads and crazy drivers, and funny trucks too. Have you ever seen an inclined truck trailer, well here is one:
.
Not much happened today, just a long and boring drive. So I will close with another shot of dear Shooter in his "Are we there yet?" pose:
North Dakota
About a month ago, somebody suggested to someone else the theory that maybe nobody lived in 'North Dakota'. This resulted in the someone else looking for license plates from North Dakota, during my recent drive from NJ to the Niagara Falls. No luck, or theory not proven incorrect: no license plates from North Dakota, despite seeing plates from just about anywhere else.
Finally, a month later, the theory has been proven wrong. ND (North Dakota) does exist, and there are persons living there. The below 6 pictures as proof of cars with ND license plates.
I have to say that it took us a long time before we saw even one. The first one was observed only 75 miles before entering the state. And even after entering the state, the majority of the license plates were still not from ND (most of them from Minnesota).
We will stay the night in Fargo, ND (in honor of the movie). Tomorrow, we will cross the state, and it already feels like we will be crossing the end of the world. If we don't make contact with the world tomorrow, we will have been sucked up by this vast nothingness of ND. I hope we survive, and I hope Montana will bring even more excitement.
The trip so far
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=15+Cleveland+Terrace,+West+Orange,+NJ+07052&daddr=Youngstown,+OH+to:de+forest,+wi+to:fargo,+nd+to:miles+city,+mt&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=43.83693,-85.52352&sspn=23.504567,44.296875&ie=UTF8&ll=43.834527,-85.957031&spn=23.504567,44.296875&z=5
This includes tomorrow, already planned because there aren't many options in MT to stay the night with 2 dogs.
This includes tomorrow, already planned because there aren't many options in MT to stay the night with 2 dogs.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Cleaning the pallet
As I am in the car for many hours every day, limited to the car, Alexandra, the dogs and our surroundings, I feel the process of 'cleaning the pallet' taking place.
As I am leaving NJ, where I spent 12 years of my life, I appreciate this period of living in vacuum, 'in between': not in NJ and not in the new place either'. It allows me to reflect, and give the past proper closure.
I usually try to 'process' history by extracting the important things and forgetting all little details. Easier said than done, because I frequently find myself remembering some stupid details and forgetting the 'big picture', especially when I get angry or emotional. I hope and feel that these 7 days will be very useful for me, giving me time to settle NJ before jumping into CA and allowing me to face CA without unnecessary judgements from prior NJ experiences. Kind of like closing the door before opening another one.
Obviously, the greyhounds deal with it differently and probably more intelligently: they just lounge in the back of the car, and reflect on their own state of mind, as you can see in the attached picture. A brain hard at work...
As I am leaving NJ, where I spent 12 years of my life, I appreciate this period of living in vacuum, 'in between': not in NJ and not in the new place either'. It allows me to reflect, and give the past proper closure.
I usually try to 'process' history by extracting the important things and forgetting all little details. Easier said than done, because I frequently find myself remembering some stupid details and forgetting the 'big picture', especially when I get angry or emotional. I hope and feel that these 7 days will be very useful for me, giving me time to settle NJ before jumping into CA and allowing me to face CA without unnecessary judgements from prior NJ experiences. Kind of like closing the door before opening another one.
Obviously, the greyhounds deal with it differently and probably more intelligently: they just lounge in the back of the car, and reflect on their own state of mind, as you can see in the attached picture. A brain hard at work...
Things to do in every state
As we started out our journey, we gradually made a list of things that needed to be done in every state where we drove through; sort of a checklist of what needed to be done (you could say: stuff that needs to be done to conquer the state).
Well, that was quite easy when there were not too many states to do in one day, but today, visiting 4 states in one day, was quite an achievement.
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin all were conquered.
We are tired, and tomorrow is another day, probably with only one state to conquer.
I wonder what checklist the Lady and Shooter have for each state: number one and number two perhaps?
Well, that was quite easy when there were not too many states to do in one day, but today, visiting 4 states in one day, was quite an achievement.
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin all were conquered.
We are tired, and tomorrow is another day, probably with only one state to conquer.
I wonder what checklist the Lady and Shooter have for each state: number one and number two perhaps?
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