from Kansas to Georgia

I was talking to my dear friend Ruthie today while motoring along I-70 through Missouri. I shared that it didn't make a lot of sense to be catching up with cherished friends after a 14-year absence and then excusing myself to huddle in the basement and write about it. Bilocation remains a dream, but perhaps that is for the continued desire to multi-task. Sort of Whites Out the present moment. My time with Carlisle and his wife Geri (plus their dog and two cats) was heart-warming. I would have preferred more time outdoors in their rural orchard (Coyote Oaks) but alas my wimpy California limitations had me lunging back to the air-conditioned car after even 15-minutes in the 95-degree direct sun withering heat. Cold I can dress for and huddle against. Extreme heat demands acclimation. You can only take off so many clothes and then it's still a meltdown. I nod to the generations of prairie farmers who have a non-coddled intimacy with their land. 

Carlisle is a magnificently talented multi-creative who has lived several lifetimes in this one, from professional recording artist to landscape architect to creator of Vantage Quest... well, I'll leave many things out, I am sure, but currently he is a therapist, author and turning his 80 acres into a space for sacred gathering, a vineyard and soon a home. 

He's building it from scratch (photo at right with a mind of its own):

It is hot in Kansas. I wilt in the heat. I knew I'd be catapulted into one of my 'no nevers' on this trip and it is a worthy venture (if at times very uncomfortable) to push this envelope. I'm not a ditch digger. I can find air-conditioning eventually. I can walk in the still sultry dusk and hear cicadas, see fireflies and a few bats, catch sight of wild bunnies in the overgrown neighborhood yards. The local laundromat vending machine had Hostess Sno-Balls. A meeting room I visited had Decoupaged plaques on the walls straight out of the 70's. Midwest towns have more taxidermists than the Bay Area. 

Parts of the Kansas landscape via I-70 remind me of the Grampian region of northern Scotland. I'm startled to have noticed this, but there's a beauty to Kansas that I did not expect to encounter. Missouri flew by in a blur. I drove 12 hours (around 550 miles) today to arrive in Mt. Vernon, Illinois before I reconnect with my dear friends Susan and Klaus outside of Atlanta tomorrow afternoon. A birthday gift of a Wynton Marsalis concert and seeing them again are pushing me to not drive smart but with adequate vitamins, hydration, prayers, rest stops and judicious use of sugar and caffeine (plus beddie bye time soon), I think I'll make it in one piece. I'm spacey, grateful and very excited!