Song of the Open Road

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.…  Walt Whitman

Well, almost. I am thankfully healthy, free from certain burdens and responsibilities in my 

newly-minted retirement and yes, the world is before me. I’m somewhat lighthearted, but 

do feel the echoes of much human discord, certainly from the country at large, but also from 

divisions within my own professional Orff world and recent family arguments. That’s when 

the beckoning open road is most inviting, but in this case, much of the family is in on the 

ride! Wife, two daughters and two grandchildren, so the geometrical combinations of 

quarrelling are many!

And the road isn’t exactly as open as it was in my younger days, as we hunker down in

our newly picked up RV!— our solution to avoiding hotels and restaurants. Whoever would 

have imagined this old hippie hitchhiker driving a Cruise America vehicle!

And as for the long brown path leading wherever I choose? Well, it’s the asphalted super-

highway and we’ll be pretty much following our itinerary to reserved RV sites. Still, it 

should be a memorable time with the grandchildren during a memorable time in our 

country’s history.

And so tomorrow morning, the venture begins. For this modern-day writer, that means 7 

days off-the-grid. I’ll still write these almost daily posts, but will have to wait to post them. 

Just to let you know in case you miss me. J 

See you in a bit!