off the grid...

i gotta say. i don't know what it is about that magical line that divides CA from OR. but it felt like the second i crossed it, i was renewed. i'll never get tired of driving those roads in southwestern oregon. with cali behind me, the old leash (most people call them cell phones) got turned off and stuffed to the back of the glove box, which of course, holds no gloves.

with a smile that wouldn't leave, i traversed lower oregon, stopping from time to time to snap a shot with my trusty box camera. napped in the shade by the side of the road. spent too much time buried in the atlas, while driving (arg!). wrote a bit of poetry. somthing that, i hate to say, but, i don't do enough these days. but sure-as-shootin (that wasn't as nearly as fun to write as it is to say), put me in the woods on a summer day and i'm bound to tear up slightly and want to write poetry.

before i leave you with the poem.

a few other things that happened today. almost ran out of gas, again. got lost twice (not really lost, just didn't know where i was). a guy asked me if i was a carpenter, because of the reality sticker on my car...lucky guess. sang really loud in the car. talked about old cameras and building log houses with a 91 yr old grampa. spry guy for 91. drove a tractor. admired a full moon (a blue moon actually). and listened to a sad-sweet irish tune on an old fiddle.

it was a good day.

but this poem sums today's drive better...

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the hills and valleys
rise and fall
in a simple comforting rhythm
like ocean waves
imitated in green

i slide through on these paved paths
as if i was walking on mountain water,
rocky and treed

i cannot find a shred of sadness
in this clear blue air
for the breeze only brings a smile
even in my solitude

these roads, now familiar trails,
whisper their surrounding beauty

and like old friends we sit together
in silence
watching the world fly by