A Wanderer at Heart

Adding this recent move back to Phoenix to my total, I have now moved 23 times in my 30-something life...with the knowledge that i'll be doing it again next summer too...ugh! I've my dad to thank for that, as until I was 13, I had only moved about 5 times.

I recently finished a book by John Steinbeck...one of my favorite authors. I've always loved Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl...but this was Travels With Charley...a travelouge of sorts about his trip around the US in his truck-bed camper with his standard poodle Charley. Its not overly detailed or long (like William Least-Moon's Blue Highways, another GREAT travelouge!), but it does include some of his comments on the Sequoia trees, his love for Montana, the sub-country that is Texas, and the racial problems in the south (this was published in the 1960s). It made me want to pack a Winnebago and get the move on.


Other things I loved about this book:
1) The yellow orange edges of the old pages (I LOVE old books!)
2) Its smell...I know, its weird, but nothing I can't even describe...
3) How the price was right on the cover..."Only 75 cents!"...A book like this these days would be about $7-8.
4) How much it made me appreciate Steinbeck even more, given his lack of racism in a time when it was rampant.
5) How much it made me want to travel more...and NOW!

And this leads me to my future vacation. Several of us are planning a trip to Yosemite to do some overnight backpacking and hiking. Our for sure destination is Half Dome, with its crazy granite carved steps and removable cables. There are many other places I'd like to see while there as well, but those have been yet to be determined. Check out this video of the cables! Yikes!


Once we go on this adventure and get some video and pictures of our own, I'll be sure to post them! In the meantime, read Travels With Charley! :)