Its been a little more than two months since we returned from our eleven thousand mile road trip. Shortly after returning I sold Donato to a friendly Puerto Rican man who shared his life's stories and a drink of creamy coconut milk mixed with rum. I imagined our journey in the van continuing with Donatos new companion, Felipe. Felipe told us that he had previously survived a half dozen heart attacks. He smoked, and drank, and rode around his first floor apartment on a electric wheelchair. Well advanced in years, I hoped that he would take a spur of the moment final trip to someplace warmer, friendlier. Home now, the ground frozen, the sky, winter blue streaked by wispy white winter clouds. The December chill turned into a January freeze and I turned 30. Employed, again and back in college. Art is my anchor now and I'm finally reading classic stories like The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick. I am drawing and building sculpture and discovering ceramics. Busy but happy and already day dreaming of the Southwest, of the rusty rock formations of Utah along route 128. Another trip is already taking shape in my mind and I find myself scanning over vans on craigslist. What comes next is unknown to me. Like the sharp turns on the back roads of Mendocino California, everyday is new and requires a certain amount of technical navigation to get through. I'll make it I think. I only hope that I emerge on the other side of this year in the position to drive west again, no plan, no worries. Gas station coffee in giant travel mugs and Flying J truck stops that serve as hotels, showers and grocery stores. At times the trip was hard, but after circling the country with three people of the same breed, I see myself as somehow less sure of myself. My memories of the road are real, yet exist in a fictional realm in my mind. States blend together into a unified landscape full of history, thick with life. I tell myself that spring is fast approaching and fall asleep at night with the desert stars burning bright behind my eyelids. More travels soon, but for now, my dreams will have to do.
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