Roadside Assistance

In my continuing efforts to downsize and de-clutter, I came across some books in my bookcase by a favorite author, Kris Radish.  Since it's been a couple years since I have read any of her books I looked on her website and she has a new non-fiction book out, "Gravel on the Side of the Road."  The title sounds interesting and got me thinking on this topic.  Take a trip with me and my mind as we explore gravel on the side of the road.

Most people have walked down a two-lane country road at some point in their lives.   The road is paved with blacktop with the stripes and slashes down the middle giving us directions on where to safely pass another car.  The shoulder of the road is gravel.  Why?  Why not pave all the way to the ditches?  I can think of two reasons, one is the expense of additional blacktop and two, the gravel serves as a warning to the drivers. 

Driving on gravel can make a god-awful sound and make your car shake due to the rough texture of the gravel.  If you fall asleep at the wheel, either physically or mentally (day-dreaming), that gravel will certainly wake you up in a hurry.  Then you can straighten out your driving.  We know this is a good reason for gravel because roads that are paved through the shoulder of the road have a rumble-strip which awakens us when we have gone to far astray on the road. A rumble-strip serves the same purpose as gravel shoulders. 

Now, think about walking on that two-lane country road.  If you were taught properly, you walk on the side of the road facing traffic, so you can see the vehicles coming towards you.  Most of us walk on the paved portion of the road whenever possible, because it's easier on our feet and body.  It's quieter too, which allows to enjoy the scenery and perhaps day-dream a little too.  Here comes a car, we step off the paved road and start walking on the gravel.  Whoa!  What a difference!  It's rough and uneven, we feel unsteady. As we walk on the gravel, the sound coming from our shoes contacting the gravel is loud.  There is no time to day-dream as we maneuver the uneven gravel.  We may even have to stop and wait for the oncoming car to pass us so that we can step back on the paved road once we see no other on-coming cars. We feel fortunate to get back to the smooth surface and quietness of our steps.

Some people walk with traffic and they must listen for cars coming upon them from the back.  Again, a person can easily become complacent and start day-dreaming while walking.  Then the beep of a car's horn makes us jump out of the way and onto the gravel.  Once we are on the gravel, we are no different than the person on the other side of the road traveling the same direction.  It's rough and uneven, we have a hard time hearing if another car is coming, so we must turn around and look where we have come from to see if it's safe to step back on the paved road.

Sometimes the traffic on the road and "traffic" in our world leaves us no other choice than walking on the gravel.  Sometimes, this walk on the gravel can be a long time.  We become easily tired from walking on the uneven road shoulder and our feet hurt, feeling every piece of gravel through the soles of our shoes. We become irritable and frustrated.  This is no walk-in-the-park or walk-on-the-pavement! 

As we travel through our world, we may have long miles (stretches of time) that we are on the pavement, nice and easy.  Or we may have long miles on the shoulder, tired and hurting.  Who or what determines how many miles we walk on either the pavement or the gravel?  Is it the number of cars whirling through our world and using the pavement?  Is it our choice to walk rather than drive one of the cars.  Is it our choice to take the busy road rather than the road less-traveled?

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to my questions.  Nor is there a right or wrong way to travel.  But I do believe that we must be aware that people that we meet and know may be traveling the gravel shoulder and they need our support, our shoulders to keep them upright and moving forward.  Are we willing to remember what it was like in our past, walking on the gravel on the side of road?  Are we willing to show empathy?  Our we willing to offer roadside assistance?

National Park....my butt on couch....day!

Today, I got ambitious and decided I  had better start some de-cluttering activities again.  Last year upon retirement, I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets.  Regretfully, you can't see the progress as it's all behind drawers and doors.  But, I know it's done.

So, all though my bathroom cabinets need to be de-cluttered and cleaned, I opted to do an area more visible....my bookcase!  Of course, in so doing this, a person must review each book to decide if it's a "keeper" or not.  That involves setting one's butt on  the couch and doing this task.  I did get through about a dozen books when I found a "gem."

The book is "America's National Parks" and it was printed in 1957!  I think I found this last Christmas when I was at my mother's place and brought it back with me.  Most of the photos are black and white with an occasional colored photo.  Who would even think of taking a photo of our colorful parks in black and white today?  Just kidding, some do!

I decided to check out how many Parks I have been to and immediately found that NOT all the parks are in this book.  That means that a lot of national parks have been added in the past 57 years.  The book lists 28 parks in US and Virgin Islands, now there are 59 National Parks.  I have been to 20 of the 28 listed in this book and of the eight I have not been to half are in the Northwest US.  We will explore them next year.  Surprisingly or not surprisingly, the closest National Park to where I was born and raised (Isle Royale), I have not been there.  Not surprisingly, two of the eight unvisited parks are CAVES, not my favorite thing to do.

One of the parks listed (Platt) did not sound familiar, so I looked it up and found it was in essence abolished in 1976 and absorbed into Chickasaw National Recreational Area in Oklahoma. 

There are several national parks not listed in the book that we will be visiting next month on our next trip. But for sure I am going to put the national parks from this book that I have not been to on my Bucket List. 

OK, time to get off my butt and get back to reviewing more books to give away or keep. 

One?!?

Oh my!  I am back at it....reviewing photos from our trips.  What a chore!  What an honor! What a whole-bunch-of-photos I have! 

I know that any professional photographer will probably tell me to "take lots of photos......different lighting, different angles, etc."   However, upon reviewing three or more of the same scene with miniscule variations, I am beginning to wonder if I'm going crazy!  Look below and see what I mean!

 

How do I determine which of these is the "best" picture to keep?  It's so overwhelming at times, that I just shut-down and ignore the task.

 

During my travels this summer, I saw a photography exhibit showing the "People of the Great Plains."  I was very intrigued by the photos and eagerly bought the hard cover book that shows this exhibit plus the journals of the photographer.  Early on in the book he lists some quotes from various people he met and photographed. 

Brother Placid, Benedictine Monk, Richardton, North Dakota:  "Why do you take so many pictures?  It makes stress.  Just take one and you do not have to choose.  Make life easier."

Amen, brother!

Years ago, a photographer in Northern Minnesota did a-photo-a-day for a year and published them.  It was fascinating to read his thoughts on the one photo he took each day.  Some days, he would wait until dusk to take a photo, possibly passing up other great photo-ops.  That's exactly the mind set that photographers get into....if I don't take this photo several times...I may be passing up on a "best" photo. 

Oh, what to do?  Do I change my habits and take in the scene with my eyes and walk around for a bit before I take one or two photos?  Do I continue to take many photos of the same scene in case the lighting or clouds change? 

I think that right now, I am choosing to write this in my blog instead of getting back to refining and deleting many photos from my trips!  Some days, I will do anything to procrastinate a task. 



Roads go both ways!

A month from today, hubby and I leave on another road trip.  This trip is to New Mexico for the Balloon Fiesta and then doing a photo trip to capture the rocks of Arizona and Utah. Coming back through southwestern Colorado, northern New Mexico and northern Texas.  We plan to be gone three weeks and it's all planned and hotels reserved.  

We will get to see hubby's sister and family while in New Mexico, so he is so fortunate to see all his siblings this year.  So thankful for our time with each of them.  

Family is important!  Regretfully, I have not kept the lines of communication very open with my family.  We sometimes read about each other's doings on Facebook, but other than that...!  

The roads of communication do go both ways, but if I am going to "complain" about it, I must be responsible to get on the road and move my way towards them.   Really, just like planning a road trip to another state, I just need to plan a time or day to call them, just to talk.  Just do it!