Grayswandir
Senior Member
Grayswandir wrote;
Awesome story. Being on the road brings many adventures. Must have been an amazing experience, being a pilot during WWII. How was Roma?
My "adventure" couldn't have happened without the kindness and generosity of total strangers, who often offered us food,, a place to clean up,,, or a place to stay for a night or two when the weather turned cold and our pockets were empty. Beautiful people with curiousity about us,,, and at the same time, eager to tell us their own stories. That was a very common way to look at things back in those days. There was nothing to fear,,, no "angry crazies" to deal with. Hippies were everywhere. Love was everywhere. People of all ages would flash us a "peace" sign as they passed by, and they meant it. Beautiful people.
We had some rough times too. All in all, we were gone for roughly two months, and by the end of November, it was simply too cold, and we headed home. We had no sleeping bags or tents, and there were times when we slept on the ground, next to a small campfire, taking turns, because one of us had to stay awake to keep a lookout for bears in British Columbia's Okanogan Valley. The Okanogan has vast fruit orchards, and at night we'd pick a few apples or pears, just to get something to eat.
I could tell you a lot more, such as hitching one ride that took us all the way from Sudbury, Ontario to British Columbia in 4 days,,,, and that the kidnapping of British Ambassador James Cross happened the same day we left. (the October '70 FLQ crisis in Quebec),,,, and our overwhelming sense of awe when we first awoke on a sunny day in the B.C. Rocky Mountains,, and how we got free steak dinners when we signed up for a job with a coal mining company on what the miners called "Steak Day" (we were sooooo hungry),,, and how Vancouver was so overrun with "hippies" that the police kicked us out of town because we had no permanent address, and how they bought us bus-tickets to the next town, or, sleeping at the doorway of an abandoned hotel, in a company-town that was scheduled to be bulldozed into the ground due to coal-dust contamination.(the entire town). or, being taken to see what the locals called "Sasquatch Caves" (Bigfoot caves). I could probably write a book about that trip,,,, what an experience.
Rome is another story, so I'll cut it short. The captain and I spent four days together, wined and dined in some great restaurants,,, was probably drunk for 3 out of 4 days. We ate next to the Trevi fountain,,, went to the Coliseum, went to visit one of the catain's friends, who was a professor at the university. Traffic in Rome is absolutely insane with as many as 8 or more "streets" opening into a square, where drivers enter the square on one side, and trying to exit out the other side,,, but they can't merge, so they go 'round and 'round, yelling and gesturing obscenities at each other,,,, it was quite comical to see. Overall, the sense of history is simply overwhelming. That said; hang on to your wallet and passport when you're around tourist attractions.
Beautiful stories.
I was a little more fortunate, as I had an old Bronco II and a pocket full of money on my travels out west and back. I met a few famous people along the way, found myself singing with a bunch of Indians at the Denver Powwow back in 1995. That was real honor, the drum's name was "Eagle Voice" and they needed an extra singer. I told my friend that I only knew sweat lodge songs, so he said to me, "Hold your hand on your ear and fake it!". Needless to say it was good advice, but somehow the words came to me and I didn't make a single mistake. It was quite an experience, singing with my Lakota friends, and in front of thousands of other Indian people from all over the country. I still laugh when I remember him telling me to "fake it", what a character he was!
I once found myself in Washington D.C., or on the outskirts, at a sweat lodge ceremony, where the owner of the lodge was a CIA agent. We were supposed to sweat with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn that night, but they never showed up. I'm not sure what happened with them, but I would have loved to have met Kurt Russel. Anyway, the CIA agent was a bit of a character, to say the least. I accidentally threw some dirt and sand into his eyes when getting out of the lodge (my towel must have grabbed a bit of dirt from the floor of the lodge) and he exploded on me, screaming and yelling like a maniac. Everyone just froze and looked at him like he was an axe murderer. He quickly realized he had just lost his sh*t over next to nothing, and quickly and quietly regathered his sanity, and whispered an apology to me. I don't know what that poor fellow might have gone through in his career with the CIA, but I never held it against him.
I'll always cherish my time on the road. I met a lot of interesting people, slept beneath the stars on occasion, ate good food, and had some amazing experiences, both good and bad. I miss it, I miss being young, and I hope there's one more trip left in my future, but the gas in the tank is starting to get a bit stale. I hope it's sooner, rather then later. You got to travel around the country at a prime time in history, while I was literally witnessing the last gasp of true freedom in America. I imagine traveling around in a post-911 world is quite different. So much has changed since then. I now regret not traveling to Europe when I had the chance. It was a mistake to only focus on America, but not a huge mistake or anything.