Take The Wheel

Up before the sun... I left California... on the wings of anticipation. Out the 91 fwy... The song blasting through my speakers was "Go Tell It On The Mountain". Perfect Serenity.


I leaned into the rising sun... Figuratively of course... With arms outstretched... each fist filled with sand, that was slowly slipping through my palms and blowing away in the wind... I was FLYING... and for the first time in a very long time... I felt totally FREE.

That which was slipping away was ALL the confines of "conventional norms"; all restraints of SHOULDS and OUGHTS... breaking out of the borders and parameters that never really suited me anyway. Think about it... what is the "norm"? It IS what MOST people do ~ the mean or mode of statistics ~ meaning it is simply what the majority of the population does. i.e. it's the "norm" to get married (heterosexual) because that is what most people do. it's now become the "norm" to divorce too... Just because it's the "norm" doesn't make it "right" or "healthy" or oR OR... 2000 years ago, the "norm" age for a woman to marry was 13! AND she typically married a man much older (20+ years). Nowa days that would be called pedophilia. So... who needs "conventional norms" anyway? Who needs to be put in a box?

I was a woman, traveling alone... However, I must say... I had a brilliant idea ~ I put the passenger seat back, a pillow at the head rest, a pillow on the seat and a blanket over it ~ to appear to be a passenger.

Leaving OC behind me... 4 lanes, became 3, then 2 and I was clearly NOT in California anymore when the rest stops did NOT have seat covers. And of course my mind... I had LOTS of time to think...

ONE: Signs. Do they ever think about what the signs are really saying?

"Prison ahead, do not pick up hitch hikers" There were so many ~ that was my entertainment ~ finding stupid signs...but my mind is drawing a blank at the moment.

TWO: What ARE those little doors on the back of the big trucks? You know what I'm talking about? They're little trap door things about a foot tall... for what?

I was zoooommming right along (going about 100 mph on the open road) when my tire did the hobble wobble thing. Oh NO! I was out in the middle of NOWHERE. ALONE. Then the song was "Jesus Take the wheel". I suddenly changed my mind about flying. You see, I don't want to fly because I don't want to be eaten by sharks. But out in the desert, I'd be eaten by vultures ~ which would be a slow, painful death. If a shark is eating my flesh, I prolly died before I hit the water. So then... I'll fly. As my life flashed before my eyes... I reverted to my "dramatic" thinking ~ "would anyone even know I was missing?" "have I left anything unfinished; need to reconcile anything with anyone?" Pulled off the road in Arizona... called my Dad, who didn't answer his phone. Did this and that and made it to my niece's place... She has 3 cats that LOVE me and I have asthma... nice. With the tire looked at, I continued on to New Mexico.



Alas... I made it here safely and I'm loving this hotel room! Good night from New Mexico!