travel time

"Up from Needles and over a burned range, and there's the desert. And 66 goes on over the terrible desert, where the distance shimmers and the black center mountains hang unbearably in the distance."

~ The Grapes of Wrath

I'm currently reading "The Grapes of Wrath"-
the classic by John Steinbeck.
 Unfortunately I have never picked it up~ until now.



















Part of Route 66 lies just past this train track- the last section of the "Mother Road" before the families would finally end their cross-country journey. It's desert. It's barren.
And supposedly....hope lay just beyond this last stretch of the road.


All I could think of while passing by the Route, was that
it's too bad "The Grapes of Wrath" didn't wait for a few decades.


Travel would have been much kinder to all them folks now.

Rocket Girl

I was listening to this song the other day, feeling sorry for myself.

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(I have it playing on my ipod when I run...thinking the title alone should inspire me to run faster....having "rocket" in the title and all.

{I know it doesn't work when I look at my pace, but it was an idea to inspire speed...})

Anyway.

My mood has been melancholy as of late.

I haven't been inspired, or felt a moment of elation in anything that normally thrills me,

and I feel as though I have lost my "upbeat-ness" somewhere out there.

I feel  I'm that Rocket Girl....traveling away into far unknown places.....

or places that aren't usually seen by the average person.

~if only in my mind.~

How about China?

I want to run along the Great Wall.....

take in the gardens and walk the bridges.

Then there are the plains of Africa.

A safari or 2....catching glimpses of never-ending plains where exotic animals roam.

And Mt. Kilimanjaro is on my list to hike.

Even a trip "Down by the Bay" would be lovely.

A row in my Rowboat amongst the reeds and cattails....

catching sight of a fish leaping from the water or strange birds diving for lunch.

My dream....Italy.

Where laundry is hung between homes and the pieces flutter above your head in the sunlight.

Flowers in the open window sills....music and wine and the best of Italian food.

The Swiss Alps. 

I've wanted to go there ever since I was in Grade 6 and had to do a report on those mountains.

To climb, or ski, or just listen to a yodel as the sound bounces between the peaks.

After the song ends and the pictures in my mind slow down a bit...

I stop.

And realize something.

All those places I dream of.....yes....are actually out there somewhere.

But those scenes can be found right here in my backyard.

And I get to see them all for free.

~~~~~

~all photos above taken from right here...

where I  already am.~

crazy ride life & 10km Race Report

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Can I actually call a Race Beautiful?

It was.

In the dark- 

an almost full moon over head, city lights in the distance, with about 1000 head lamps bobbing through a beautiful treed trail overlooking a peaceful reservoir of water.

My son and I toed  the line together, and then I shot off.

(I thought like a rocket;)

Turns he was only seconds behind me- 20 to be exact!

(Picture 1: How he warms up)

(Picture 2: before I beat him;)

(Picture3: 2nd place medal)

We both set records in this 10k.

I beat my time by 3 minutes, and he set his first time ever for a 10k as he has never done this before!

(Like I said~if he trained...)

So for all of you who had no faith I could beat him....I did.

And 20 seconds ahead of the 16 year old is pretty good for "late 30's" mother;))

(Or so I like to think...)

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 now....
I'm off to the great U.S.of A. with my daughter for a few days.

(She wants to shop. I may sit on a bench and...People Watch.)

:)




Wherever this crazy ride of life may be taking you...have a wonderful week!

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Getting There

~A 4am start~

~ A 9 hour drive through scenes like these. ~

~All to get to a destination like this.~

~Worth every minute.~

My Travel List of 2010.....

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel's sake.  The great affair is to move.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

(Vancouver Island)

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(Cherry Picking Week- Greenbluff, Washington)

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(Mexico)

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(somewhere in Arizona)

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(Grand Canyon)

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(Edmonton, Alberta)

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{The Canadian Rocky Mountains}

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(Sedona, Arizona)

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(The Backyard)

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Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

~John Howard Payne

No place like it.

~~~