Writing Class #4

March 27, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

(As a final prompt for the writing class I am enrolled in, we are asked to think about signposts along the way. This is my entry.) The Tour Guide I take a seat at the back of the open wagon, and wait with a handful of others for the tour to begin. The country air […]

Whiskeytown Lake

March 26, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

“What kind of vehicle are you driving?” “That four-wheel drive pick-up,” Ric says pointing out our truck. “Then I recommend you follow this trail, here,” the attendant at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area’s Visitor centre suggests. “It’s a gravel road and can be narrow at times, but if you take it slow and easy, there […]

Redding, California

March 25, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Redding is a mid-sized town with a population of 90,000. Our camp is set atop a hillside, and the scenery is beautiful, with mountains as a backdrop and tall trees beginning to bud. We have found spring. I have not quite recuperated from our trip to San Francisco, so we decide not to venture very […]

Pacific Coast Encounter

March 22, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

We drive through San Francisco’s waterfront, noting the interesting architecture and impressed by the artsy feel of the place. Like most big cities, San Francisco has its share of homelessness, and many officers on foot patrol can be seen talking to people in make shift tents, or others sleeping in cement flower boxes. It is […]

San Francisco Love

March 21, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Due to the rain, we decide just to drive through San Francisco and then swing back along the coast and pass by Half Moon Bay before heading back to our camp. Of course, neither of us has been here before, so we have no idea what to expect. The city is spectacular. We enter through […]

Turning North

March 20, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

It is raining the morning we pick up the RV – heavy dark clouds hovering overhead. Some days, it feels like my skin offers no barriers, for the damp weather seeps into my body and plays havoc. And then, just as we ready ourselves for the road, the sun breaks through and a rainbow lights […]

RV-Disabled, Take Two

March 19, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

It is Tuesday morning and we are sitting in the truck, in the parking lot of a repair shop waiting for news of our RV. The tow company who rescued us off the highway in the early hours of Sunday morning, and delivered us to a nearby motel – RV and all – moved the […]

Writing Class #3

March 17, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

The prompt for this week is to consider the vulnerability of new growth and what it takes to protect it, tying it into nature. Here is the edited version, after the instructor’s suggestions. Rebirthing It came in the peak of summer that most optimistic time, when sunshine equates with health and bodies glow with exertion […]

RV-Disabled

March 16, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

“The bus is ready to be picked up,” Ric announces as he gets off the phone. It’s ten a.m., earlier then we’d expected the repairs to be completed, so we decide to forego the site we’d booked for tonight, just twenty minutes away, and start the journey north today. As it goes, 10:00 turns into […]

Some Days Are Just That Good

March 15, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

We return to the hotel room only to find our keys no longer work, so while Ric goes off to the office, I sit and look up at the bright California sky and say: “Thank you for this f***ing amazing life,” and then immediately apologize for the expletive, but sometimes it is just called for. […]

Monday Mood: Exhausted

The events of the past few weeks, plus the rain, seemed to have caught up with me. Day’s goal: rest, rest, and more rest. (Photo mine)

End the Fray

This breach –this ever-widening gapfear inducedpits usagainst themas if humanitycan be dividedsalvationa selective process. We need a balmto soothe societalwounds, a tonicto calm the angstuntil clarityquells the uproarand kindnessreplaces this sin. (Poem originally appeared June 2019. Image my own)