Can't Get There From Here: On the way to Truro

Lily and Andrea doing KOA style Pilates.

Lily and Andrea are taking showers. Alone in the breakfast nook I am having the same breakfast I always have. Yogurt with fruit, 2 pieces of toast and tea, A Beethoven piece for solo piano is playing and sun is shining on my toast. This feels like the opening of a good day.
Yesterday I got a call for Grad. Student who had read an article that I had published called the Up Side of Dyslexia. She is Dyslexic and wants to be an art critic. I am always pleased to know that someone is reading the stuff that I have written? We had a good conversation and I hope that I bolstered her confidence. I love modern art history and whenever I get the chance to have a conversation that can go somewhere I am a happy guy.

Being by the ocean yesterday brought me back to why we are taking this trip. Up to this point Andrea and I have had some great moments and amazing deep sessions of laughter. The fights have been part of this mix also. We are seeing our daughter in a way that gives us a better understanding of who and what she is and what she may become. Yesterday was Columbus Day and Lily spent hour’s skyping her friends. Andrea and I sat out side listening to music, writing and drinking wine in the shade. The laughter was none stop from inside the RV. Lily was lonely and it was time to have her get together with her buddies from Adda Clevenger and Ocean Shore. What a good feeling to hear your kid explodes into laughter.

Being by the ocean yesterday seemed to start the conversation between Andrea and about what do we want to do from here on out; not with the trip but with the next part of our lives? After driving 4,000 miles cross the country and seeing the best of what America has to offer it is the ocean that says home to me. Andrea and I start a conversation that will last the rest of this trip and beyond. The trip has broken the patterns that seemed to make changes very difficult. I know that after we return we will continue to make decisions that instigate change and enter us into the our next phase.

We know the Ocean will be near.

Lily will be spending less time with us and getting ready for her own life.

Andrea and I will continue our search for a home that suits our taste (neither of us like Victorians.)

I will be moving my art focus back to gallery and smaller scale work.

Andrea and I will continue to try and make stuff happen.

Andrea and I are together because we see reality as flexible and dreams as practical.

Oct.11 and 12

The trip out to Provincetown was reminiscent of driving North in Minnesota. The proportion of land to water is reversed. Our camp site was in Truro about 6 miles from Provincetown. Nice campsite with neighbors that we connected with. This will be the first campsite people we have talked with in 5 weeks?

I think the RV thing is kinda like moving to suburbs. It is an activity for people who really don't like people.

We rode our bikes down to the beach and along some cool sandy trails. The beach was empty and calm. Lily entertained herself by the shore. She is at her best when she is by the ocean. In the afternoon we unhooked the rv and drove into Provincetown. What an interesting place. The main street is so narrow we had to pull in our mirrors and hold our breath. The local buses are custom made and narrower than normal. The history of place and its unique geography make for some of the best water to land to home

settings I have ever seen. Tiny 250 year old shacks that were floated across the bay and perched on the shore. We loved it. The place is totally gay and Commercial Street is like a very happy Carmel on acid. We took a tour of the city because we couldn't drive it and the tour was excellent. We had a great dinner at Napi's and cruised back to the RV where we experienced 12 hours of rain. The only upside

to this was a great memory from my grad school days. The original California College of Arts and Crafts

in Oakland had a funky cafeteria with a tin roof and no insulation. The cafe was staffed by moms in white cafeteria garb. The moms cared for us kids and the air of home was strong. When it would rain the sound in the place lulled the occupants into a warm blanket that we all shared. Even the moms would slow down and let us turn off the lights so we hang out and be dreamy.

We left our camp site at 8 with Lily wrapped in a down comforter half asleep. We head down Cape Code and headed to Plymouth, Mass. We were going to stop at 12 Winter St. The birthplace of Jan Johnston. Jan was my friend Reid's mom. She passed away not long and her ashes were scattered here.

It felt good to stop by and pay our respects to one of the brightest, most articulate, funny, well traveled and beautiful women I have ever known. If there was ever an opportunity for a mom swap I would have gone for Jan.

We drove through Plymouth and headed West on highway 44. On this 2 lane road through Mass, Road Island and Connecticut we finally found fall and it was spectacular! Who says dayglo is not a color found in nature?

And we got Lily's pictures from her photo shoot.