Monday, March 17, 2008

Part One of, “My night at the top of the world.”


Blog nonsense.
Went out and found a water purifier today so next trip we can avoid the crypto and whatever. A good day for a ride and I got a few more pics of the local merchants I have been finding supplies at.
I have as of yet not been able to get back into the state of mind I found yesterday. The creative process being what I am interested in exploring I thought I would share a little on the subject before I post the first part of that story. I am enjoying blogging and the linking thing is very interesting. Something audaciaray said on twitter got me to thinking, “working with video is interesting in a different way than working with text.” Working in Blog is a subset of text that is unique from standard prose. I think about the telling differently in some ways. I think it has the potential to be very creative but it also has a tendency to break my focus. Looking for the link I have lost the train of the story but that can be part of the fun. The synthesis of original and sampled material can work well but I think it will take a great deal of practice for me to do it well.
I find that I am a bit verbose in some of these posts and I think in this case size is important. Too long can work against readership in an ADHD world 700 or 800 words should be a max I am thinking. On that note here is Part One of, “My night at the top of the world.”
It was a bad time for me. I was heading to Newport News to stay with my dad. He had colon cancer and needed more help than my sister or his wife were willing to provide. I had flown out to see them and hung out for 3 wks and they talked me into moving in with them for the duration. I needed to store the motor home and if I was going to deal with my family for any length of time I needed to get some Green. It was a stressful time as I was also giving up tobacco. The quitting smoking stuck after about 6 months of off and on with the help of nasty skin patches and gum. At least as far as tobacco anyway. There were no storage spaces that I could find in a hurry so I took the rig east and stored it in Hampton roads. I will get to my eastern adventures in the future but I felt it important to set the tone a bit before I take you to the top of spine of the dragon.
In Le Morte d’Arthur Merlin refers to a rocky mountain range in Britain as the spine of the dragon. The men that built the transcontinental railway thru from the west, mostly recruited in southern China brought their legends of dragons to the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the valley before it. As a teller of tales I feel free to blend those legends into my own as I tell the story of a cold dark night of the sole spent on spine of America’s dragon.
Vail pass on I 70 is 10,666ft and near its top there is a rest area that I had all to myself on this particular night. The contrast from my day was profound. I had driven thru Arches National Park or as I like to call it Wiley Coyote National Park after the roadrunner cartoons. Out of Utah and up the Rockies it gets greener and fresher and the sky becomes a deeper purple blue as the sun sets in the backup cam. I like driving at night when I am trying to make time and because I didn’t want to get were I was going I had stalled as long as I could without sticking it to my sister. That and when you stop in highway rest areas in a motor home the freakin trucks run their engines all night but they leave early so I like to pull in late.
I will post part two in a few days in which our hero comes to a decision. No mean feat for a world champion procrastinator

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