On tour without instruments

Monday, May 18, 2007
Lancaster, PA to Ada, OK, via Tennessee on I-40

Everyone slept in until about noon. Nothing cures grogginess like a fresh pot of coffee—and bocce. The weather could have been better: sunny, humid, around 90 degrees, not even a zephyr in th air. The house is perched on a hill with the backyard sloping upwards towards a dell....... nah it was more like a glade. Graham, Aaron, Chris, and I balled on the bocce battleground, which was anything but bland and boring. B. The game continued uphills, around the house (fortunately not through it), past fences and retaining walls, the neighbors yard, and rolled about 1000 feet down the street. This was a game that Abbie Normal invented. If it were not for our plans, I would have stayed there all month playing bocce and jamming out.

We said our goodbyes to Robert, Deb, Aaron, and Sammi-Chan. There's never enough time to hang out.

We balled the jack towards Ada, OK, where Graham's family lives. It wasn't possible to get there in one night but we needed about 11-14 hours of driving per day despite that. For energy, we stockpiled delicious Isaac's sandwiches. I made sure to get ones I have never had before, Rose of Sharon, Pipit, and the Texas Wren which are Portabello mushroom sandwich, Chicken salad sandwich, and another chicken breast sandwich. They name their sandwiches after birds; ya see what they did there? I remember spending a lot of time looking for Isaac's on Chocolate Lane, more like Chocolate Rain

Conversation came in bursts on this stretch, not that it was awkward or anything. Because we would be trading the roles of driving, passenger, and backseat, we delegated duties to each other. The driver obviously drives, and is to concentrate on not fucking up, and to listen to the navigator, the passenger, who is to give the driver perishables and directions; the backseat person does the same thing as the navigator, but it more like the navigator's secretary.

The vistas and landscapes were incredible, I would have never noticed or cared about the Blue Ridge until that day, it just seemed significant. Chris pointed out the layers in the horizon. From PA to VA/AK the views went from mountainous to verdant. It would only get better.