We’ve returned from what will likely be our ‘big’ trip for the year. I am between knee replacements strong enough to wander yet preparing psychologically for round two this summer. Then..Katie bar the door I will be ready to fully roam once more.
Last week we participated in a Road Scholar program in Austin and San Antonio, TX. We enjoy Road Scholar as hubby gets his fill of history and revolution as I soak up everything visually delicious plus meet interesting people from all over. Additionally I am convinced the fountain of youth is to be had in hanging with older folks because they think we are just kids!
I experienced so much pre-trip mobility angst that for the first couple of days there my brain was full and I could not absorb any new information. As I was able to negotiate my way around Austin I started to relax and began to witness the texture, pattern and color of Texas. Not to mention the incredible barbeque and pomegranate martinis!
We arrived into Austin two days early to explore on our own and booked a lake-view room so that we could witness the bats fly out from under the Congress St. Bridge at dusk. Hubby went out onto the bridge nearly every night as I glowered from the room but neither of us ever saw a bat. About the 3rd night I began to think that looking for bats anywhere was really a bit odd!
The awakening of my right brain began at the State Capitol where I captured this view of the rotunda through ceiling glass. The exterior of a barbeque restaurant also caught my eye.
What would a trip to Texas be without boots? A friend steered us (pun intended) to a cowboy boot store that must have had 3000 pairs of boots, many embroidered. I was lucky they did not carry my size or I would still be there trying to decide which pair I wanted to make me walk two inches taller!
As we moved into the Hill Country I shot lots and lots of landscapes and the worn vintage lino in the kitchen of LBJ’s boyhood home.
… rocks at a rest stop. I was capturing images on the ground, up the side of the wall, and even peering into glass brick bathroom windows!
At the missions in San Antonio …
…pattern in unexpected places…the metal awning at a Luby’s Cafeteria
…passageways… @ the mission and McNay Art Museum
…signage…is it just the dyslexic in me? I love the humor in this…parking to take away customers?!
Shortly after my right brain came to life I began to ponder what it was I was supposed to learn on this trip chock full of history. And then I forgot all about it until the flight home when it came to me. It’s about writing.
I was captivated by Lady Bird Johnson’s diary of her time as first lady. I opened the volume in a bookstore and turned immediately to 1966 when LBJ dedicated the Point Reyes National Seashore (about 20 miles from my home) and she had breakfast in bed in a San Francisco hotel overlooking the bay, or harbor as she noted. I have always loved reading biographies which essentially is history with a voice. I decided to both read the book and resume my own writing.
A gut reaction came…who would read it? Who cares? It doesn’t matter. What matters is I write it, I chronicle my life, especially when one day blurs into another and years zip by. Wouldn’t it be grand to have something tangible and of substance to chronicle my days instead of a Facebook timeline or a stack of returned emails? Granted I won’t be giving up my internet habits any time soon but instead setting a priority to recognize the essence of my daily existence.
As ‘writing’ came to me on the flight two other instances in Texas came to mind: a storyteller and a visit with a good artist friend our last day there. Indeed…writing it down was the message from my Texas experience!
There were also epiphanies about new work which I will share in another post…