“Blue Highways” by Tad Desanto
After more rain threatened my escape from the Secret Dreams music festival, I left just in time. It was still dicey getting out. The van started patching out as I tried to drive the slight incline. Back up, try again. No go. There was nothing for it but to try another alley in the sea of cars and tents. I backed down, drove on the flat grass coming to the turn saying, “please be a gravel road..” And it was, but I had to get to it. The van was spinning and spewing rocks behind me near the tents, but I couldn’t slow down or it would be all over. I got to the gravel road, but a steeper hill was ahead with people on it. I kept up my too-fast speed for the area, beeped my horn and and the people begrudgingly moved aside just in time as I succeeded in topping the rise. The worst was over. On the way out I saw other cars mired in mud. I’m sure had I stayed the night it would have been an all day affair getting off the grounds. Festival organizers are brave.
My next stop was seeing my friend Ned in Morehead, KY, so I just went straight there, arriving at 11pm. The plan was to meet the next day, and since I had just used “Morehead” for directions, it took me to City Hall, a little squat building across a single lane bridge. Seemed like a good spot for my first attempt at “Boondocking”, which means finding a spot and camping there for free. In New Zealand it’s called Freecamping, which is a much better term. I have to admit I expected flashlights and a knock on the door all night, but there was only the pleasant patter of more rain on the roof.
Ned was free at 12:30, and I was up early, so I gave myself the cultural experience of a big southern breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel.
I had plenty of time to kill, so I went to another cultural icon, Walmart. I left with probably the smallest cart of the day, a jar of pepper. Still more time, I went to Lowe’s and got a replacement extension cord for the one I drove off from the last campsite with still attached to the van. (Thankfully by the time I noticed, the adapter Ken had made for me was still attached, waving in the wind). Still more time, I took myself to church! I had thought this might be a fun thing to do when it worked out on the trip, to meet people afterwards and have free snacks. The sermon was very interesting, a history lesson in how music was used in the church from the third century to the present.
I met Ned at China Cafe, an all-you-can-eat buffet. (I was aware I was being brave as I piled unidentifiable food items onto my plate; happy to report no negative consequences.) As they say, it was as if no time had passed, but it was 40+ years. We bounced around from topic to topic, and then I was on my way to Louisville to see my first real girlfriend Ellen and her husband Tad. She opened the door and again, 40+ years melted away. We were in college together and in a relationship for more than a year. We had a delicious dinner and talked until bedtime. Tad is an artist, and told fascinating stories of other local artists; if so inclined, look up Patrick Donnelly Groundhog Archaeology and/or Albertus Gorman Falls of Ohio. This blog isn’t a diary, and I don’t intend to describe how every day goes, so I’ll spare you things like, “..then we took a walk, I took a nap…” etc. But I did have my first Reuben sandwich in 20 years.
Much of this first part of the trip is around seeing people I know in different states, however long it has been since I’ve seen them last. I’m being mindful not to write personal details from our conversations, and mostly leaving them as first names only. One never knows… but I’m sure Ellen won’t mind my sharing the song I wrote with her in mind at one point in the interim years, “Tell Me You’re Doing Well”, a letter to a former love. It’s nice to know the answer is yes.