Home Again...at the end of every Journey
I arrived back home a month ago today...it was supposed to be 8/24, but the afternoon when I was on my way from Pendleton, OR, to stay in Longview, WA, and check out what had happened in Astoria, OR, since the last time I was there...I saw how close I was to home and just came the rest of the way, by a circuitous route up the Olympic Peninsula, along the Hood Canal.
I think I did an excellent job of staying with the Journey almost all the way...there was so much to see and think about, so many friends and family to look forward to meeting with. Even the subtle changes along the highways were interesting, going from Western Sentinel Evergreens to Eastern Washington pink/gold/smokey desert...across the top of the country, with fracking and sad grids of dusty trailers and no living thing in sight...the Magnificent Windmills, rolling green, packed humanity, New England Villages, Maine seacoast, then down the Delaware Water Gap, across the truck-packed hills and highways of Pennsylvania, Midwest--lush to high desert, mountains close and far, sagebrush, dramatic thunderstorms when all I could do was keep going and hope the lightning missed me, gas stations further apart, the great ribeye in Real West, the sweet Rugged Country Lodge in Oregon and home along the Columbia River Valley.
Thirty-Seven Days, 8.000 miles, and I didn't even begin to see all there is, but maybe hit the high points for my own self. I saw places I've lived, including one that has been turned into a park, family and friends...I apologize to the considerable number I missed. Drove through Glacier National Park and saw snow, but didn't have time to stop. Collected salty water from the Atlantic and a couple of weeks after I got home, Hugh and Connie and I drove over to Rialto Beach to mingle the Atlantic with the Pacific...I baptised some of the Vermont Granite from Barre that now lives in my back yard, along with a turtle of the four directions and a ceramic head from Bill Kobe in MN and a cement leaf from Anne Arthur in Michigan....we all talked and looked and ate...such riches! Each day I spent some time away from the Interstates, small tastes of communities.
Why did I do this? Experience? Life Review? To discover my next project?...I'm not any more clear about the next phase of my life than I was before I left, except: 1) if the Cross-Country Trip was Heroine's Journey 2, the rest of my life is Heroine's Journey 3, and 2)The Journey is the Destination are still good words to navigate by.
There are a lot of railroad/river/road arrangements across the country. The ones that appeal to me most are the ones that remind me most of Vermont, where I was born and where a part of my heart will always live. This top left corner of the Olympic Peninsula is where Home is now and will be as far ahead as I can see...there was no place else I wanted more to live, although it was hard to leave VT...people and places...mostly the north half. The first 4 weeks after I got home were full of family visits and enjoying the tourist attractions of my own neighborhood...and preparing work for shows...maybe that's what I "do" now.
Now that I'm home, I've gotten back to being with family and friends here, good food, new art, even though I see that I'll never achieve the level of fame I might have thought at times I wanted...enjoying the process is good enough for me...
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| Mom, the day before her 90th birthday, big family party and new great granddaughter |
I think I did an excellent job of staying with the Journey almost all the way...there was so much to see and think about, so many friends and family to look forward to meeting with. Even the subtle changes along the highways were interesting, going from Western Sentinel Evergreens to Eastern Washington pink/gold/smokey desert...across the top of the country, with fracking and sad grids of dusty trailers and no living thing in sight...the Magnificent Windmills, rolling green, packed humanity, New England Villages, Maine seacoast, then down the Delaware Water Gap, across the truck-packed hills and highways of Pennsylvania, Midwest--lush to high desert, mountains close and far, sagebrush, dramatic thunderstorms when all I could do was keep going and hope the lightning missed me, gas stations further apart, the great ribeye in Real West, the sweet Rugged Country Lodge in Oregon and home along the Columbia River Valley.
 |
| A typical Road/Railroad/River arrangement, with the river on the other side of my car |
Thirty-Seven Days, 8.000 miles, and I didn't even begin to see all there is, but maybe hit the high points for my own self. I saw places I've lived, including one that has been turned into a park, family and friends...I apologize to the considerable number I missed. Drove through Glacier National Park and saw snow, but didn't have time to stop. Collected salty water from the Atlantic and a couple of weeks after I got home, Hugh and Connie and I drove over to Rialto Beach to mingle the Atlantic with the Pacific...I baptised some of the Vermont Granite from Barre that now lives in my back yard, along with a turtle of the four directions and a ceramic head from Bill Kobe in MN and a cement leaf from Anne Arthur in Michigan....we all talked and looked and ate...such riches! Each day I spent some time away from the Interstates, small tastes of communities.
 |
| The coast of Maine 8/6/14...black dots below the horizon are surfers waiting for a storm wave |
Why did I do this? Experience? Life Review? To discover my next project?...I'm not any more clear about the next phase of my life than I was before I left, except: 1) if the Cross-Country Trip was Heroine's Journey 2, the rest of my life is Heroine's Journey 3, and 2)The Journey is the Destination are still good words to navigate by.
 |
| Pacific, Rialto, 9.6.14 I touch the Western Shore...with Hugh and Connie--just realized they were a month apart |
There are a lot of railroad/river/road arrangements across the country. The ones that appeal to me most are the ones that remind me most of Vermont, where I was born and where a part of my heart will always live. This top left corner of the Olympic Peninsula is where Home is now and will be as far ahead as I can see...there was no place else I wanted more to live, although it was hard to leave VT...people and places...mostly the north half. The first 4 weeks after I got home were full of family visits and enjoying the tourist attractions of my own neighborhood...and preparing work for shows...maybe that's what I "do" now.
 |
| Hurricane Ridge.9.6.14. I was so quiet a squirrel used my left shoulder as a Springboard |
Now that I'm home, I've gotten back to being with family and friends here, good food, new art, even though I see that I'll never achieve the level of fame I might have thought at times I wanted...enjoying the process is good enough for me...
 |
| New Multi-level Wall piece, finished today
The pictures, writing, souvineers, memories from my trip will furnish raw material for a long time to come. Stay Tuned! I'll be posting again regularly now on both blogs, here and at Hot Flash Women
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posted by Pamela at 6:49 PM
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