Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 05:08:06 -0700 From: Charlie Ford To: type2@bigkitty.azaccess.com Subject: Part Three..The Southwest Venture In Austin I did a job for an AmeriCorps program and made back the money the fuel pump costs me, that plus some. At this juncture of the journey, suffering my first breakdown, I almost turned back. I was in a campground in Smithville, Texas and was feeling really lonely. I was the only one the park and it was cold and rainy. The next morning, after a rough nights sleep, I called Mary Anne in Athens and she helped me through. Now that is what friends are for. I stayed in Austin five days living in the backyard of a guy I met at a grocery store. Charles Whittenberg offered me his home and his hospitality without concern or remorse. He lived in the rougher district of Austin but I always felt safe. Those people are poor, but they aren't any worse than anyone else I had lived around. Just a different culture. I learned a lot about diversity appreciation that week. I moved on, still having some minor problems with the Mothership. A place called VW Underground got it running pretty good and I headed out across west Texas toward Clovis, New Mexico. A 50 mile an hour headwind was coming right into the dish of my spare tire that hangs on the front of the bus. I figure I must be going the right way if the wind was fighting me this much. West Texas is the definition of eternity. That along with the NBA Playoffs. Really about all you see are a few villages and fields. Strip malls and Walmart stores are here and there but nothing of any real size. Tumble weeds are popular and cow pens housing 21,000 head are a familiar sight. If your ever through that part of Texas you need to stop at one of them. If for nothing else but the smell. It's an aroma buffet. Finally came New Mexico after two days of hard driving, or in my case sailing. I tacked with the wind till the border came to me. I followed a Walmart driver almost all the way the second day of the trip. he gave me a guided tour of the area as we drove along. he told me of the history, and of the present. He didn't say much about the future as I remember. West Texas is about like southern Georgia when it comes to change, it happens slow and almost un-noticeable. The changes on the road also happen slow and without notice. By the time I had turned the corner in Austin I had started to feel more relaxed and easy. I drove along the long straight highways listening to my engine and thinking about all the things I left behind. I had stopped thinking about them in the stressful way I had been just a couple of weeks prior. now I thought about them without so much confusion and agony. The desert southwest which really begins in West Texas serves to make one more a part of the landscape than any other place I had ever been. pretty much it is just you, your vehicle and your thoughts. You look out over the flat terrain and imagine what it might have been like 100 years ago when the cowboys and Indians roamed the land. You think about how rough it may have been to travel in this baron country on a horse. The Walmart driver filled me in on the area I was driving through. I camped in a state park just above Clovis. I was once again the only person in the campground, but unlike Smithville, Texas, I felt alive and for the first time like I was on an adventure. I woke the next morning to the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I stirred around 6:00 AM. I slid open the sliding door on my bus. The Sun was just beginning to glow on the eastern horizon. The higher it rose, the more beautiful and defined the colors became. There were pastel greens, yellows, blues, and a whisp of pinkish red that filled it all in. It was if God himself had taken brush to pallet and was swishing his hand back and forth across the morning sky. I sat there and watched the entire show. I made me a cup of coffee and gave praise to the morning sitting in the door of my bus, in my underwear. Life was better, definitely better. That day I was to cross the Sangre De Cristo mountains. Just on the other side of them lay Taos, New Mexico. I have a friend that lives there. Ted Allen is one of my favorite folks of all time. He is a holdout longhair that believes in serving others just as I do. he and I met each other in the beginning days of National Service. I looked forward to seeing him. Also in Taos I had made contact with another guy named Steve Davis. Steve owns a rafting outfit that does the rapids on the Rio Grande. He had been referred to me by Bruce Cline of Washington DC. Bruce said he might have some work I could do for a few days, but it was nothing more than a shot in the dark. It turned out to be a missed shot. I ended up spending two weeks in Taos. I had some more engine problems and after getting that fixed I was on my way. I headed on down to Arizona where I have some cousins that live in Winslow. Plus I wanted to stand on a corner in that fine city and see if a girl in a flatbed Ford would slow down and take a look at me. Well that didn;t happen and the visit with my cousins turned out to be fairly disappointing. the children of one of the men that I have always heralded as a hero were treating him, now an old man, like dirt. they will one day get there due. I moved on to the Grand Canyon. That was a most enjoyable experience. The Mothership was running well and the sight was a joy to behold. It is so hard to explain just how marvelous the canyon is. It is the only place I have ever seen that just honestly takes your breath away. From the top rim the Colorado river at the bottom looks like a ribbon laying on a red kitchen floor, when in fact it is large and raging. I hung out there for two days and moved on down the line. Next stop Vegas, or hell, both fit equally. Las Vegas, Nevada is one of the worst places I have ever been. It is full of beggars and liars and gambling. It wreaks of stink and the only beauty it holds are the lights at night. I personally don't prefer all the glimmer, when underneath lies the truth of the lie. If they didn't have electricity no one would go there at all. There is a joke I heard that goes like this: A guy pulls into a casino parking lot in Vegas. as he gets out of his car two fellows step out of a VW bus, walk up to him and asked "hey man, you got some money to spare for us to buy some food and gas?". The gentleman looks at them and says, "Well what say I give you $20.00 or so and then you go into this casino and gamble it away like you did the rest of your money". The guys from the bus reply "Oh no, we have gambling money, we just don't have food or gas money". That just about sums the attitude of Vegas up for me. You see people all on the streets asking for money. if you give it to them they usually go straight way and drop it into a slot machine. The place sucks if you ask me. I was happy to leave it. Thanks for tolerating the ramblings. Part Four coming soon................. Charlie Ford "79" Transporter, dressed for the road The Mothership The"Turning 40 Nostalgic VW Service Tour, and Search for the Beginning of Wind". http://www.slurpee.net/~keen/charlie/charlie.html "Wider still and wider.....shall thy bounds be set" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the list, send an UNSUBSCRIBE message to TYPE2-REQUEST@TYPE2.COM -------------------------------------------------------------------------