We haven’t posted in three months, where does the time go? We had been waiting for…… hmm, not sure what we were waiting for to post. Maybe, for something to happen?
Two years plus of waiting, waiting becomes part of the daily routine where today is not much different than yesterday or tomorrow. You forget who you told what, even though you only talk to maybe 3 other people. You worry about further boring already bored people. Yes, you both did Wordle in 4 steps, now what, so what. Tomorrow, again.
How we’ve spent the Pandemic years. Going in circles! (Links to the beginnings of the circles, https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/driving-to-the-end-of-the-rainbow/ & https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2021/10/01/what-have-we-just-done-again/ We left Eugene July 2020, one July and a half year later, we are now in Olympia, 200 miles north of Eugene. In between we’ve made 4 cross country trips, and two partials (Amherst to Minneapolis and back). Overall, at least 18,105 miles criss-crossing, although your mileage may vary.
I’ve been everywhere, man! Masked, distanced and vaccinated x3 .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNj6spCtUE0
We landed this past December in an apartment sublet in Northampton, which is near Easthampton, Southampton and Westhampton, Massachusetts lacks name creativity. (https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2020/08/18/our-year-of-living-dangerously-continues/ ) These are the not the fancy Hamptons. (see New York)
For 7 weeks we entertained ourselves with daily walks through downtown Northampton, prettier and twice as big as downtown Amherst, so 4 blocks instead of two. https://chosenfugue.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/so-thats-why-its-called-new-england/ Nearly everyday, weather, permitting, we drove the 10 miles to Amherst to spend time with our daughter, son in law, granddaughter, grand-dog and grand-cats.
Smith College, alma mater to Sylvia Plath, Gloria Steinem, Julia Child and Nancy Reagan(!), a lovely college situated right downtown about 2 blocks from our apartment, is often thought to be the gem of Northampton, but true pride is that Northampton is home to the largest Pin Oak tree in New England. We visited it a few times, it got bigger with each visit. Here measured in Monicas http://www.ents-bbs.org/viewtopic.php?t=7569
The other immobile celebrity in town was Sylvester Graham, he was planted in the local cemetery. Sylvester is known for the creation of the Graham cracker and his strange sexual ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Graham Something to think about next time you have s’more. We visited his site a few times, as well. He’s still dead.
It had been a pretty mild winter, until it was time for us to leave. We were delayed by storms that blocked all exits. After a 5 day slumber party with Ione, we hit the road, fast and furious between storms. (Ione’s favorites for the dance party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CziHrYYSyPc & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWLUhqNYRLg )
Not a two-month slow crawl this time, as we did when we headed east in the Fall, but rather five days of snow flurries, wind gusts and enough < 10o temperatures to keep our water bottles, lentil soup and sardines frozen. We entertained ourselves with bad audiobooks, finding songs that were about the cities/states we were driving through and playing our personal radio game (play the song and then ask each other “would you change the station if this song came on?”), hence all of the links here so you can play along.
Due to the constant cold, it was concluded that it was not the best time to sleep in the van, so we returned to our habit of staying in places at least two towns away from where you would actually want to stay. It is not just quantity but quality and the return trip was limited in both. Each day and night were memorable, a creepy crawl through inconsistency in weather, covid precautions and motel hospitality. We followed our updated travelers’ adage… “Red State at night, driver take flight, Red State in the morning, driver take warning.” A summary:
First 2 nights did not bode well for the rest of the trip. Youngstown Ohio, stayed at the “Motel 6 Inches of Snow” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1PrUU2S_iw. Neither did St Clair, Missouri (St Clair, who would sing about it, but at least Missouri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X3hdFWmerQ )
Could not resist the name of Shamrock, Tx on Route 66, perhaps we should have. (it was pretty dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1UlYm4ttQA )
Galloped all along the Navajo Trail from New Mexico to Holbrook AZ. Should have said “Whoa” and stayed in Gallop, NM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LTiKJlB62g
After driving through the dismal expanse from Ohio through Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma, the absolutely stunning, awe-inspiring geography of west really does take your breath away. Pictures from a car really don’t capture it.
We thread the proverbial needle, 11 hours of driving a day, successfully covering 2,706 miles until ironically Needles, CA when the undercarriage panel of the van engine fell off. We dragged it for a mile until the off ramp. We found a gas station with a mechanic (kind of 1960’s thing, like our motels). He did not charge us to remove it, nor did the guy who re-attached it in LA, these gestures helped to clear up the gloom as we entered blue skies, our destination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cQH8vpbr04
En route, we avoided restaurants and markets as much as we could, relying on what we brought with us and horrible free breakfasts . Anything on a cracker followed by insta-pot perfect hardboiled eggs with mustard + goat cheese, followed by disgusting egg + potato (that is not butter, those are eggs), followed by hotel nachos (nachos?). Our meals seemed to reflect our absolute mindlessness as we crossed the country for the 4th time.
Initial destination reached, we thawed out for a few days in LA . We resumed our mad pace, heading north and managed to see 2 cousins, 3 siblings, and 1 niece in 3 cities in one afternoon (all outside, all masked).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnV7dTXlXx
Wrapped up this adventure leaving California, passing by Shasta, a bunch of other smaller volcanos and entering Oregon at Klamath Falls again, pictures do not really capture how very beautiful it is.
Oregon waved us off graciously with a rainbow and we returned to our Olympia apartment, which kind of felt like home, although the van feels more spacious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsccjsW8bSY
We entertain ourselves with daily walks through downtown Olympia, twice as big as downtown Northampton, so 8 blocks instead of four. Evergreen State College, alma mater of Kathleen Hanna, Carrie Brownstein, Matt Groening and Macklemore (!), situated about 2+ miles from our apartment is often thought to be the gem of Olympia, but true pride is that Olympia is home to the “largest spruce tree” identified as such on google maps. Somehow we missed it, walked right past it, but we did see the moon tree, after walking passed it multiple times https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_tree.
Did we tell you that the largest Pin Oak in New England is in Northampton?
Enjoying the radio game? Here are some other travel related favorites of ours from the trip (the game is actually endless). NYC, this is our listen to every day song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hKFZFcg7Cs, Memphis or Alabama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubBpu3MHmtM or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjDI1oouS8w, Alabama or Arkansas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGzUmKpx9fk, Georgia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe6DE9BXWeY, Sedona or Arizona https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8wifV5RYr8, Duluth or all of Minnesota (which version!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je4Eg77YSSA or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NwxarwMgW8 ?
And the all time classic often sung while landing at LAX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzrkDGxZexA
Chosen Fugue 
I love following yoh travels on social media and this blog. Hoping you will stop by to say hello to us in Vallejo CA the next time you drift by.
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That would be nice, we will try next time we come through.
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Keep truckin
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