By the time this trip concludes sometime next week, I will have traveled 7, 615 miles.
Off to catch the final show of The Empress tonight. I'm impressed with everyone's growth in this show and the continuing daring originality of Hampshire theatre work that has been in full display.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
The Return to New England
I endured a 15 hour train ride from Ohio to the Berkshires yesterday in order to return to my home state, disembarking in Pittsfield, MA (of all places...) some eight hours behind schedule thanks to the Amtrak train that kept pulling over for freight and then going at frustratingly slow speeds before pulling over again and so on. It probably would have been more interesting if it hadn't been raining the entire day across OH, PA and the northern cities of New York State. The train pulled into Pittsfield a little bit after 7pm in the rain.
The transportation center had already closed for the night as one other man and I got off the amtrak train. I didn't want to hang out with him after he said that he'd been on the trains since Provo, Utah, and had come to the Berkshires to find God. I thought they did that just fine in Utah. So instead I decided to walk along one of the main streets in Pittsfield to see if I could find a coffee shop, since it was only 7:30pm. Fat chance. There were lights along the road, but they were all tied to stores that already had closed for the day and 1-2 upscale restaraunts that weren't ideal places to wait for potentially up to two hours. Eventually (quickly) I ended up at a Brooks Pharmacy to buy a card and get cash back a minute before it closed at 8pm. The girl behind the counter called me a cab to take me over to my cousin's school in a different part of town. I stood outside in the light rain with my baggage and awaited the taxi's arrival.
They said it would take 15 minutes but it was there in five. Oddly, the driver even stopped the ride mid-way so that I could get smaller bill change, since he didn't want to make large change for me. But he carried on anyway and $11 later I was dropped off at Miss Hall's School, right back into the uppercrust world of New England boarding schools. I rang the bell with my bags and a prickly-looking older woman said, "How can I help you?". I said "I'm Nellie's cousin." She said in a disbelieving tone, "How should I know that?" I replied, "Well...her father is my mother's brother..." and she said "That would make you her cousin. Let me see if I can find her." A few minutes later Nellie appeared and all was righted; within the hour we made it back to the house in the continuing rain.
I didn't realize how exhausted I was after the travel yesterday, and slept soundly through to nearly noon today. It was refreshing to get a full sense of the continuing fall season by gazing at the Connecticut hills after lunch. The afternoon took us into New York state just over the border to Millbrook, driving by my mom and aunt's old college campus, which, sadly, is now a creepy-looking (but mysterious, not foreboding) complex of old buildings that have fallen into disrepair and await eventual development renewal. But when that actually will happen is anyone's guess, since the college closed in 1978 and the buildings are still there looking exactly the same, but neglected. Sad.
Am moving on again tomorrow back to Hampshire. The Empress, The Crazy Pitches, friends, nostalgia, video editing and a taste of the Amherst fall are all awaiting there.
The transportation center had already closed for the night as one other man and I got off the amtrak train. I didn't want to hang out with him after he said that he'd been on the trains since Provo, Utah, and had come to the Berkshires to find God. I thought they did that just fine in Utah. So instead I decided to walk along one of the main streets in Pittsfield to see if I could find a coffee shop, since it was only 7:30pm. Fat chance. There were lights along the road, but they were all tied to stores that already had closed for the day and 1-2 upscale restaraunts that weren't ideal places to wait for potentially up to two hours. Eventually (quickly) I ended up at a Brooks Pharmacy to buy a card and get cash back a minute before it closed at 8pm. The girl behind the counter called me a cab to take me over to my cousin's school in a different part of town. I stood outside in the light rain with my baggage and awaited the taxi's arrival.
They said it would take 15 minutes but it was there in five. Oddly, the driver even stopped the ride mid-way so that I could get smaller bill change, since he didn't want to make large change for me. But he carried on anyway and $11 later I was dropped off at Miss Hall's School, right back into the uppercrust world of New England boarding schools. I rang the bell with my bags and a prickly-looking older woman said, "How can I help you?". I said "I'm Nellie's cousin." She said in a disbelieving tone, "How should I know that?" I replied, "Well...her father is my mother's brother..." and she said "That would make you her cousin. Let me see if I can find her." A few minutes later Nellie appeared and all was righted; within the hour we made it back to the house in the continuing rain.
I didn't realize how exhausted I was after the travel yesterday, and slept soundly through to nearly noon today. It was refreshing to get a full sense of the continuing fall season by gazing at the Connecticut hills after lunch. The afternoon took us into New York state just over the border to Millbrook, driving by my mom and aunt's old college campus, which, sadly, is now a creepy-looking (but mysterious, not foreboding) complex of old buildings that have fallen into disrepair and await eventual development renewal. But when that actually will happen is anyone's guess, since the college closed in 1978 and the buildings are still there looking exactly the same, but neglected. Sad.
Am moving on again tomorrow back to Hampshire. The Empress, The Crazy Pitches, friends, nostalgia, video editing and a taste of the Amherst fall are all awaiting there.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Cleveland Calmness at Case
Aside from being a little too wired these past couple of days (three computers at my friend's house to access, and now at Case Western's library where there are even more computers) this has been a nice "bridge" day and a half of laid back time to rest up, and also see a little bit of Cleveland itself.
Case Western has lived up to its geeky reputation with a lot of technology students roaming around campus. I was more interested (and pleased) going into their theatre building and seeing photos of my four friends from BADA who are recent Case theatre graduates all over the lobby area. Their recent production slate is impressive and my friends seem to have gotten theirselves in the middle of all of them (just like I did for myself at Hampshire...) from Look Back In Anger to The Philadephia Story to The Pillowman and more. Unfortunately, those friends who I think are still in the area have been hard to reach, but if we don't make connections now, there will probably be another time. Not sure what the rest of the day will bring ... maybe a movie, maybe more exploring of Cleveland, we'll see.
Case Western has lived up to its geeky reputation with a lot of technology students roaming around campus. I was more interested (and pleased) going into their theatre building and seeing photos of my four friends from BADA who are recent Case theatre graduates all over the lobby area. Their recent production slate is impressive and my friends seem to have gotten theirselves in the middle of all of them (just like I did for myself at Hampshire...) from Look Back In Anger to The Philadephia Story to The Pillowman and more. Unfortunately, those friends who I think are still in the area have been hard to reach, but if we don't make connections now, there will probably be another time. Not sure what the rest of the day will bring ... maybe a movie, maybe more exploring of Cleveland, we'll see.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
the Road Life goes on by continuing to Cleveland
I have continued eastward on my own this evening after a restful and also busy few days in Ann Arbor.
Will be staying with a close friend from home for two days and then getting up early Tuesday morning to take a train to visit relatives in northwest Connecticut, and then continuing back to Hampshire on Wednesday.
Ann Arbor was winterily sunny today when we took an early morning trip down to a farmstand that seemed like an exact combination of Atkins Farm in Amherst and Goodale Orchards from home; we picked a shopping bag's worth of apples in their orchard and also treated ourselves to an impressive variety of fresh cider donuts. The apples tasted deliciously fresh back at the house and may have been made into a pie later in the day!
Unfortunately, getting out of Ann Arbor turned out to be the most difficult travel connection of my entire trip thus far. I was all set to take the 4:10pm bus heading east to Detroit and then make a connection there for a different bus heading east to Cleveland. 4:10 passed and one bus came by bound for Chicago (westbound) which appeared to be normal. Time started to pass in the sketchy bus station and I didn't really notice, until suddenly it was 5pm. Then the bus clerk just happened to find out that our intended bus had broken down in Kalamazoo and was running three and a half hours late, which would have meant that I'd arrive in Cleveland at 12:30am. This was not acceptable to me and the other customers, and the clerk begrudingly agreed to call a local cab company who specializes in covering Greyhound's ass to drive us as a group to Detroit, for an extra $15 per person. It was the only option so we all said "sure". A few minutes later, the guy pulled up in a sketchy older minivan and loaded us in. He said in a grizzly tone, "I hope you all don't mind going fast on the highway, cause that's the only way we're going to make it in time."
And so I found myself buckled in to this van heading east on I-94 at speeds between 80 and 90 MPH towards Detroit. Luckily, I don't get carsick often, and the speed limit in Michigan hovers around 70 on most of the highways. However, the constantly blaring radar detector and sense of racing against time did get to me as I sat there with my cellphone cupped in my hand, focused intently on getting to Detroit in time for the bus.
Amazingly, the official bus waited and we did get there in time, buzzing out of town on I-75 southbound in the most appealing time of day (light-wise) to see the depressed urban modernity of the Detroit skyline fade with the sunset. The bus crossed the state line and the landscape shifted into the mystery of the dark Ohio Turnpike, before the familiarity of being among friends once again in a new place, one step closer to eventually going home to MA.
Will be staying with a close friend from home for two days and then getting up early Tuesday morning to take a train to visit relatives in northwest Connecticut, and then continuing back to Hampshire on Wednesday.
Ann Arbor was winterily sunny today when we took an early morning trip down to a farmstand that seemed like an exact combination of Atkins Farm in Amherst and Goodale Orchards from home; we picked a shopping bag's worth of apples in their orchard and also treated ourselves to an impressive variety of fresh cider donuts. The apples tasted deliciously fresh back at the house and may have been made into a pie later in the day!
Unfortunately, getting out of Ann Arbor turned out to be the most difficult travel connection of my entire trip thus far. I was all set to take the 4:10pm bus heading east to Detroit and then make a connection there for a different bus heading east to Cleveland. 4:10 passed and one bus came by bound for Chicago (westbound) which appeared to be normal. Time started to pass in the sketchy bus station and I didn't really notice, until suddenly it was 5pm. Then the bus clerk just happened to find out that our intended bus had broken down in Kalamazoo and was running three and a half hours late, which would have meant that I'd arrive in Cleveland at 12:30am. This was not acceptable to me and the other customers, and the clerk begrudingly agreed to call a local cab company who specializes in covering Greyhound's ass to drive us as a group to Detroit, for an extra $15 per person. It was the only option so we all said "sure". A few minutes later, the guy pulled up in a sketchy older minivan and loaded us in. He said in a grizzly tone, "I hope you all don't mind going fast on the highway, cause that's the only way we're going to make it in time."
And so I found myself buckled in to this van heading east on I-94 at speeds between 80 and 90 MPH towards Detroit. Luckily, I don't get carsick often, and the speed limit in Michigan hovers around 70 on most of the highways. However, the constantly blaring radar detector and sense of racing against time did get to me as I sat there with my cellphone cupped in my hand, focused intently on getting to Detroit in time for the bus.
Amazingly, the official bus waited and we did get there in time, buzzing out of town on I-75 southbound in the most appealing time of day (light-wise) to see the depressed urban modernity of the Detroit skyline fade with the sunset. The bus crossed the state line and the landscape shifted into the mystery of the dark Ohio Turnpike, before the familiarity of being among friends once again in a new place, one step closer to eventually going home to MA.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Arrival at Ann Arbor
We're here and it's snowing quite a bit!
But I like the town, too. It has a lot to offer with a college town vivacity twice the size of Northampton and Amherst, and just as much character.
But I like the town, too. It has a lot to offer with a college town vivacity twice the size of Northampton and Amherst, and just as much character.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Chicago
...is much more hospitable than I was expecting it to be. The windy city has lived up to its name in a good sense, and we got to make the most of the town last night by going out after a long day of driving. Later today we're on to Ann Arbor!
Monday, October 09, 2006
dispatch from: Lincoln, Nebraska
This town defines sketchiness, with wide streets that give way too much room for cars and a sense of desparation among some of the locals we have seen here, to get out of their lives and on to something more.
We've stopped here for the night on day 3 of the cross country roadtrip. The first night was in Ontario, Oregon, the second on familiar turf for me at Shambhala Mountain Center, in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. The sights in between have been unforgettable, of course, with many moon-like landscapes near the mountain highways gradually giving way to flatter great plains of the midwest. It's been enough to give some sense of the people and the community beyond, and I feel inspired that so much of this country is indeed remaining undeveloped, but also a sense of concern and loneliness for seeing so much isolated landscape: what do those people who are here do with themselves, and do they dream of a better life elsewhere like the one on the east coast that I will eventually return to in MA? I've been taking plenty of pictures and video footage to capture those moments to last.
Tomorrow will take us to Chicago for a small-scale Hampshire reunion and seeing the city, followed by Ann Arbor, Michigan on the next day. On the road to new (eastward) horizons.
We've stopped here for the night on day 3 of the cross country roadtrip. The first night was in Ontario, Oregon, the second on familiar turf for me at Shambhala Mountain Center, in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. The sights in between have been unforgettable, of course, with many moon-like landscapes near the mountain highways gradually giving way to flatter great plains of the midwest. It's been enough to give some sense of the people and the community beyond, and I feel inspired that so much of this country is indeed remaining undeveloped, but also a sense of concern and loneliness for seeing so much isolated landscape: what do those people who are here do with themselves, and do they dream of a better life elsewhere like the one on the east coast that I will eventually return to in MA? I've been taking plenty of pictures and video footage to capture those moments to last.
Tomorrow will take us to Chicago for a small-scale Hampshire reunion and seeing the city, followed by Ann Arbor, Michigan on the next day. On the road to new (eastward) horizons.
Friday, October 06, 2006
The last day in Portland
Closing up shop today...
heading on the road tomorrow.
Am continuing to enjoy being in this city and soaking up the west coast spirit. Though it will be a new adventure to begin the journey east, and see what the heart of America is all about.
heading on the road tomorrow.
Am continuing to enjoy being in this city and soaking up the west coast spirit. Though it will be a new adventure to begin the journey east, and see what the heart of America is all about.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Portland time
It's been gratifying to take a few days and just be low-key especially after the intensity of this past week. I have appreciated the art of being a local in this city and not being a tourist. Spending time with friends here has also been enjoyable throughout. I also have already had one reunion with some Buddhist friends from the past, with another possibly coming up later this week, and it's always nice to be able to draw on those connections wherever I am.
I saw Portland's notorious rain for the first time this evening; it's been mostly sunny with some clouds thus far since arriving Monday night. This neighborhood of the city (Belmont) is also particularly bohemian and liveable.
I saw Portland's notorious rain for the first time this evening; it's been mostly sunny with some clouds thus far since arriving Monday night. This neighborhood of the city (Belmont) is also particularly bohemian and liveable.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Scenes from the Road - in reverse chronological order
Dusk on the southern Puget Sound
Seattle skyline and glimpse of waterfront
was this Thik Nhat Hanh on the Space Needle???
Seattle skyline from the Space Needle
Arrival in Seattle
Portland area from the air
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge
Hairpin Turns in Marin County
Point Reyes National Seashore
A midnight snack in SF
Dusk falls on the city by the bay
Interstate 280 near San Francisco was one of the most beautiful highways I have ever been on
Central Californian Coast
Playing in the surf
Santa Monica State of Mind
Beverly Hills Scene and Mind-Set
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