Okay, I just read my memory jogger from my Memphis posting.  I need to cover songs in the head (not to be confused with "Songs in the Key of Life" by the brilliant Stevie Wonder).

"All Things Must Pass"  - While I don't know the lyrics, I kept repeating the refrain...  All things must pass; all things must pass away

Perhaps this is just a reminder to LIVE.  That I will be, as Robin Williams put it in 'Dead Poets Society', worm food someday.  I wish I could say that I do live each day to the fullest (Carpe Diem), but I must be honest in admitting that I have spent many a day telling myself, "I'm going to do insert name of important or perhaps mundane task here today."  But all I manage to accomplish is listening to music, completing the Sudoku puzzle, and perhaps washing the dishes.  This falls squarely under the category of regret.  Before I left upstate NY, my brother Danny, who I love, well, like a brother, and I were talking and he was in a philosophical mood.  Now, my brother is one of the all time great guys.  I have had more fun with him in the course of my lifetime than everyone else I know combined.  We've hiked, biked, motorcycled, snowshoed, canoed, kayaked, swam, motorcycled, camped, partied, laughed, cried, road tripped, bone cruised, cross-country skiied, heck, we've even golfed together.  In all of those years, in all of those moments, we've talked a lot.  (Okay, most of the time, I talk and he listens - he's a lot quieter than me...)  But I can probably count on one hand the number of those conversations that have been deeply philosophical.  Don't get me wrong - we don't just laugh and argue and talk about stuff, we have great talks - but deeply philosophical conversations are rare.  So, he tells me just before I leave, the two things you should not live with are regret and envy.  Amen, brother.  I am trying...  And I love you.

All things must pass; all things must pass away

"American Tune" Paul Simon

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home
I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right
For lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re traveling on
I wonder what went wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong
And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was

I wanted to share all the lyrics with you from this song, because I sing this a lot when I am riding, and I did so on my last cross-country trip in 2002 as well. 

As usual, I seem to land on the chorus:

And I dreamed I was dying
And I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty

When I sing this song, it is not with regret, sorrow, mournfulness, etc. No, it is sung with a smile on my face, and often a tear in my eye; just like the one running down my cheek right now...

I dreamed I was flying...  When I am riding down a backroad, and I'm the only person around, the sun is on my face, mother nature is on full display, and the endless road unwinds before me...  I feel like I am flying.  That my soul rose unexpectedly and was looking back down at me...  And life is good :)

I love being on the road.  I love being me.


"Dixie Chicken"  Little Feat

You'll be my dixie chicken and I'll be your Tennessee man, and we can live together down in Dixieland.

I was singing this song on the way to Memphis last week.  I assumed it was because of the opening lyrics to this Lowell George classic...  I see the bright lights of Memphis and the Commodore Hotel, but I wonder if there is more to it than that.  I have really begun to love the south and could see myself living here.  I've never felt like I fit in California, even though I was comfortable with who I'd become after my last CC trip (this will be my new shorthand for Cross-Country trip).  When I returned to CA in 2003, I was transformed.  I no longer felt compelled to race traffic all over town, to engage in reckless, aggressive driving (I had even semi-retired the dreaded 'dirty look' that many clueless drivers were exposed to over the years).  Over the course of the next 10 years, though, something happened.   Even as I crowed that I no longer felt compelled to be first in line, aggressive driving, impatience - and 'the look' crept back into my forays on the freeway and even the side streets.  (Just ask me about the time I hit a parked bus!!)

IF I do settle back in California again, it will NOT be in the city.  I am a country boy at heart.  Okay, I don't drive a pickup truck, own a gun, chew tobacco or listen to George Strait, but that don't mean I ain't country. 

Which brings me back to the south.  I love the people, the pace, the kindness, the wonder, the simplicity (don't misunderstand that word, please - I'm not saying simple-mindedness; I've enjoyed some of the most intelligent, warmest conversations with people here, it's genuine), the music, the food, the people.  Yes, I know I said people twice!

A contrast:  Riding through Trenton, NJ on my way to Billy's house, I was viewed with distrust, disdain, and disregard.  In Mississippi, everyone sees me and waves (okay, not everyone).  Yesterday I stopped on my way to Tupelo and was taking a picture of a river.  I was on the middle of a bridge and I heard someone yelling at me.  This African-American gentleman was coming out of his house and just wanted to wave at me, so he yelled to get my attention!

Now there do appear to be a few downsides to the south.  It appears that you have to special order shock absorbers for your car with beefed up driver side shocks.  In the collateral count of corpulent corpses to be, Mississippi is the clear winner.

"Please Come to Boston" Dave Loggins

This is an old 70s song about two people who clearly love each other, but they can't seem to get together.  The ultimate in "Geographically Undesirable" as we used to hear on that dating show with Chuck Woolery.

"Tupelo Honey" Van Morrison

I think these last two songs refer to someone I met at the Blues festival in Clarksdale.  She is warm, funny, beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, tactile, open, caring, reflective, sweet, southern, sensitive, kind, cute, fun, fit, fabulous, she's as sweet as Tupelo Honey...

Time to go.  I'll write again when I can.  Still so much more to say and to share.

Much love.