last weekend we decided to take the scenic route. It
was not the most direct route, which would have taken us down the always
congested and annoying Hwy 400, through Toronto commuter traffic, and down the
even more vexing QEW to the Buffalo Peace Bridge. That bridge has become a
bigger and bigger headache, and because it was a holiday weekend in Canada, it
was bound to be a longer than usual wait. Instead, we travelled east across Hwy
60 from nearby Huntsville towards Ottawa, then made our border crossing at
Ogdansburg, N.Y. along the St Lawrence Seaway, and headed southeast through the
eastern half of New York State. Eventually we made our way southeast along
country highways, through Massachusetts and down through Connecticut. It was
Shauna’s suggestion and I am glad we did it this way, because while it added an
hour or so to our journey, it made the ride much more enjoyable. On top of
avoiding all the dreaded Ontario highways and the Toronto traffic, we missed
the mind numbing journey across ¾ of the New York State Thruway. More and more
these days I am all about the journey, and trying to make every moment count.
Why not use the destination as an opportunity to explore parts of the map neither
of us had ever been? Of course we got lost once or twice, usually due to a GPS
glitch. At one point we were travelling through a little town near the
Adirondacks, and I knew we were going in the right direction, but that friggin’
TomTom lost its mind and told us to make a U- turn. We stopped and turned
around in the driveway of some mean looking tattooed guy who was sitting out on
his front lawn, and visions of the “squeal like a pig” scene in Deliverance went running through my
head. As his wolf-like dog trotted toward our car to see what was for dinner, I
gunned the car and we took off in a cloud of dust. Note to self: never ask a
guy for directions who is filing his nails with a rasp. “Come on inside Elmer,
the KFC is on the table and yer gonna miss Honey Boo Boo!”
We travelled through Watertown, N.Y. which is a place I have always wanted to visit. Because of its location on the business end of Lake Ontario, Watertown experiences some of the most ridiculous snowstorms in all of New York State. One winter not too long ago, Watertown got dumped on with so much snow- something like seven feet in less than a week - that I think they had to call in the military to dig out the town. Perhaps because I hail from a snow-belt city notorious for having endured some serious snowstorms, I have a morbid pre-occupation with severe winter weather. Last Wednesday I performed some songs in my second Hunter’s Bay Radio interview in Huntsville, and I could not resist playing one of my whiney Buffalo winter songs Cabin Fever. Hey, I write about what I know. That one was a big hit in Burk’s Falls when I played it at a recent “coffee house” gig. Certainly the residents up here can relate.
This Thursday Shauna and I will have been married for 20 years. I could not put this anniversary into perspective until I realized that my best man Bob’s daughter was born shortly before our wedding, and she just turned 20. It blows me away.
GRAIN
ELEVATORS AND TUMBLEWEEDS
MILES OF
NOTHING BUT LIVESTOCK AND FEED
WHEN WE
TRAVEL IT SETS ME FREE
I LOVE TO
SEE THESE PLAINS SURROUNDING ME
IN A ROOM
WHERE PEOPLE WALK AROUND
SOME WALK
IN AND SOME WALK OUT
WE SEE THE
MOTION BUT WE HEAR NO SOUND
WE GET SO
LOST IN THE TIME WE FOUND
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
No comments:
Post a Comment