Road Trips

Tomorrow I head to a retreat in Virginia. I have no idea where the retreat is, not even sure of the town's name, something "Hill...." I am intrigued by the location, the hills of Virginia, and that is why I'm going. I plan on taking a plethora of reading material,look forward to sitting and staring, and eventually meeting new people. I'm sick of the same old same old, I just need a break.

A road trip appeals to me. You drive and pass through towns that carry on without you every day and that fascinates me. I mentally travel everywhere during the day and to actually travel, can't wait.

It's the road trips taken as a child that's created this. I love night traveling. The pulling up to a gas station and drowsily looking out the window at the lights so insanely bright. The listening to your mother paw through her cavern of a purse, the sound of the plastic as she touches everything trying to locate the cash to hand to your dad waiting by her window. The smell of gas intoxicating and obnoxious all at the same time. You could just take it in because you are sprawled out in the backseat with no expectations to pump.

The lights of a town or city during the night are so enchanting. The lights indicate life yet no life to be seen as we pull in for gas at 2:00 a.m.

How about the place you've never been to which looks interesting in the night because of a lack of light. You wake up and the mystery is revealed, so different than imagined. That's what I enjoy about nighttime arrivals.

You finally arrive, the sound is consistent every time as the keys are extracted . Your mother collects her plastic purse which again squeaks with a predictable sound and the security of coming home is topped off by your dad carrying to your bed.

Tomorrow, I travel as an adult,I will not be carried in, Dad will not be there but the memories will travel alongside me all the way to the hills of Virginia.

The Dream

Last night in my dream my father was driving us in a oversized station wagon to go tubing. This was not tubing on a lake, not on a river but tubing on the ocean. As dreams often lack sense, there was snow on the ground and we were heading in the wrong direction. He decides to turn around on a train track. We're fearful that the car is going to get stuck on the tracks in the distance we see a train coming. I feel panic, we're going to be hit by a train. Finally my Dad skillfully manuvers us off the tracks and rescues us out of that dangerous spot.

The house by the ocean where we will tube is on a cliff, you have to walk down to the shore to put in your tubes. I am nervous about this entire set-up, tubing in the ocean, it does not seem safe.

I wake up, I am elated, my dream has ended.
I have a sinking feeling, and the thought hits me, there are too many people who will wake up minus the elation. The unthinkable, the nonsensical has become reality. One beautiful Sunday afternoon a Tsnami has crashed in on their dreams and made their safe world a surreal nightmare.