Ballad of a Traveling Buddha

October 6th, 2006 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

I’d been carrying him for more than 10 years — a little rosewood, pot-bellied, traveling Buddha with a big smile and a hobo sack slung over his shoulder on a stick. I don’t remember where he come from, from whom, or exactly when he joined me, but this didn’t matter after our first few years together. Throughout the U.S. and Central America, he journeyed with me through several generations of backpacks, stood guard on many a hospedaje window sill, and, perhaps, protected me from road gremlins as I made my way.
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Rocky Mountain Arrival: Howdy from the Hogback

September 26th, 2006 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Colorado greets us with winter, the first snow on the first day of fall which, apparently, has been cancelled this year. It is frosty on the Front Range, the sky as milk-white as my iPod, which means it is dumping in the mountains. Two feet of powder in Vail and Beaver Creek! The September 23 Denver Post shouts jubilation from the ski industry and frustration from aspen leaf lovers, their annual golden foliage show cut short by the cold.

Tay, my Colorado native wife, shrugs it off as not unusual. It has snowed on her birthday plenty of times, she says.
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I gots dem Interstate-70 Bleary-Eyed Blues

September 23rd, 2006 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

…from my thinnin’-hair head to the bottom of my gas-pedal shoes. Though I dread the impersonal, thundering girth of a road like I-70, I also appreciate its value, not only for connecting people and cities and states, but also for reminding me of how big this country actually is.
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Keepin’ it Tranquilo in Middle America

September 21st, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Pushing through West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana on blue highways is both a nice break from the I-70 main vein and a refreshingly weird slice of Los Estados Unidos. We drive past high school football games, yard sales, bingo halls, and a hundred churches. There are frontyard forests of local election signs (”Pudge Richardson for Sheriff!”); there are exits for Turkeyfoot Road and the Dixie Highway. There are towns named Rabbit Hash, Gnaw Bone, and Stoney Lonesome.
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Roadtrip Ho! To West Virginia

September 20th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

The welcome sign to my birth state used to shout “Wild Wonderful West Virginia!” Now it says “West Virginia: Open for Business.” Yes, the Mountain State’s mountains are now home to corporate centers, the FBI, and the ubiquitous strip-mallization of the country in three shades of beige and a billion billboards. But it ain’t so bad while speeding through green tunnels, a lot of nature left to conquer, and it’s nice to hear Grandpa say “you’ve made my year” over and over, so happy he is with our visit and the chance to get out and drive around Clarksburg.
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Raise the Blue Peter! Setting Sail for Middle America

September 19th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

When the Blue Peter, a nautical flag consisting of a white square against a blue background, is raised by a ship in harbor, it means, “All persons report on board as the vessel is about to proceed to sea.” In other words, it is the sign that the vessel in question is “Outward Bound.”
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Ready, set, . . .

September 19th, 2006 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

Part of roadtrip/moving preparation (besides all the packing) is recalling the last time I drove cross-country, NorCal to NYC. I also discover things like this short roadtrip film, and the urge to glue a Buddha to the hood of the rat and see if he makes it to Denver.
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