Ithaca, NY--> Buffalo, NY--> Upper Penninsula, MI--> Three Lakes, WI--> Minneapolis, MN--> ,,,
I wish I could grab ahold of your hands through the computer, and pull you over into Minneapolis, where we are right now... and then rewind time to share with you what it's been like for the past few days. We can fast forward into the exciting bits, the tenuous chunks of magic and challenge that characterize travel, life on the road.
We are slowly making our way to Montana and the Rainbow Gathering.
So far on our journey...
Spent the first night in Buffalo. Hot room with cold fan blowing, sharing room with my friend Arielle. Woke up early before everyone else to do my morning yoga practice: delightful, next to small city garden, with flowers blossoming, and the sound of a small stream's trickle flowing in sync with the flow of my breath.
First day, drove all the way up into the Upper Penninsula of MI, where we found a camping spot around 1:30 AM in National Forest, then stayed up late talking and laughing, then moved camp at 3 AM due to an approaching thunderstorm, set up tarps against the van, the thunderstorm blew down my camp, I moved into the car, couldn't sleep due to mosquitoes so studied instead, then went back out at sunrise for yoga practice on wet muddy Earth, the sweet smell of junipers and sweet-grassy plants, and dawn birdsong.
Second day, we went for a swim in Lake Michigan: five naked bodies floating in a huge oceanic lake, with warm sun blinking down on us, ticks waiting in the grass, and anemone awaiting collection a few miles down the road. Then we drove to Wolf Lake in WI to camp for the night. I hung my mosquito net and made my bed atop some sphagnum moss right above the lake, sunrise a red glow, toning down into night waning yet-still-full moon rising up to illuminate the lake, and stars glittering in sky and on lake, and fireflies weaving in and out of the whole painting landscape. Loons calling in the distance, frogs, birds, and bugs singing me to sleep in a cloud of mosquitoes surrounding the edges of my mosquito net (I am so happy for this cheap little net from India!)
Woke up pre-dawn to walk to the Teaching Drum Outdoor School, one of my favorite places in the USA that I have been thus far, certainly one of the most life-changing places on my journey. What a joy to see old friends and two respected Elders/ Mentors of mine again, after so long! (Was last there in 2007) Then drive and drive... to Minneapolis, where now it is 3 AM. I spent the evening walking around and through the city with an old friend from the first farm I ever worked on, back in 2006. Got back home in time to clamber over my slumbering friends laid across the small living room, take a sweet shower, and now I am unable to fall asleep, and am typing you our roadtrip chronicles!
