The Writes of Passage

Continuing this week up I-25 through Denver into Boulder to visit another old friend. I’m starting to see what Kerouac meant calling the landscape here an “endless poem”. Such a strong sense of space to breathe and think. Will definitely need to come back and explore it more someday. Hopefully soon.Until then, it’s on down I go the entire length of Texas, top to bottom, to Austin. Spent a full day and overnight driving like the wind, like “something, someone, some spirit was pursuing [me] across the desert of life and was bound to catch [me] before [I] reached heaven.”Maybe it was the ghost of one of these crazy Cadillacs in Amarillo.Reached Austin and got to stay put for a whopping two whole days exploring the wonderful world of all things weird, uncommon, BBQ’d, booted, and batty, all while waiting for a forecasted thunderstorm that mysteriously never came. “It was a rainy night. It was the myth of a rainy night.”Stumbled upon a small show at the Museum of the Weird and somehow found myself volunteering to assist the performer who was sending electric current through his body to turn on a light bulb!Another thing Austin boasts, in my opinion, is some of the best 24 Hour Fitness gyms in the country. One in particular, because it actually had a punching heavy bag available. They never have those! That just made my day.

After Austin, I drove over to New Orleans for another two-day long visit, which still somehow seemed like not enough time. I’d reserved one of those days for the New Orleans Jazz Festival. The festival ran for two extended weekends, but I could only go one day. So naturally I chose the day Diana Ross would be performing. She sang “Ease On Down The Road” from The Wiz! So worth it!Also discovered a new favorite artist Judith Owens who covered some of my favorite songs and artists beautifully, as well as her own hilarious original hit “Secondhand Sexbot.”But the day before, I’d had perhaps a little-too-fun-filled day. It started with brunching in Jackson Square,shopping in the French Market and wandering the French Quarter,a classic cemetery tour,and epic donut lunch in the Garden District.I nearly called it an early night then, but decided to take myself out to dinner at Coop’s, where I couldn’t help but make some new friends who kept me out till all hours afterward drinking and dancing to all the great big band music of Marigny’s historic Frenchmen Street. Living my inner Kerouac. “‘I just won’t sleep,’ I decided. There were so many other interesting things to do.”

So I was understandably a little stumbly the next morning as I tried to rally and navigate the freshly inclement weather (the event parking all flooded!) to get to the festival fairgrounds. Just another humorous adventure on this wacky and wild journey of mine.