SQUEEZING JUICE FROM THE ROAD PART 2

"To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you.
To know the universe itself as a road----as many roads---
As roads for traveling souls"   (Whitman)

Like this one. (hwy 64 to Taos) waits for you.  I love this flat plateau--not least because it has attracted clever hippies and other lifestyle engineers.  To the left and right for the next 5 miles---back-to-the-land pioneers have established themselves on a dry desolate (inexpensive) landscape to build their chosen lifestyle.

Many have constructed what I first judged to be a fortress---but later learned that it is a fence to keep the chickens in and coyotes out.

Artistic fantasies like this stand incomplete or abandoned---but I salute the vision.

Some 5 miles further along---fairyland castles appear---a vast field of them---each seemingly more grand than the next.  Here is the engineering and legal breakthrough that reverberates round the world.

RECYCLED materials---EARTH INSULATED----SOLAR POWERED----WATER SELF SUFFICIENT-----SCEPTICALLY SELF CONTAINED.  Pioneer visionaries fought for and won the code variances that make their construction legal.

 

My Favorite----Oh I would like to know the imaginative soul that envisioned this.

Castle under construction---beer can and concrete walls.

Late evening finds me at the famous high bridge over the Rio Grande.  I'll stay the night.

A well managed, generous, (allows overnight parking) rest area---that asks for feedback. I pushed the yes button.

 

RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES: To squeeze the juice from the road, one needs a JUICER----A RIG

of some sort---As I have Poetized in a longer poem: "A FULL SET OF STUFF"

.........Well, you get my point---this full set of stuff

is all I need to smoothe the rough.

I can cook, eat, wash my hair

watch TV or make repair,

sleep, bathe, read or dig

with just the stuff in this small rig.

 

Where tourist gaze and rush away,

This traveler parks and stays the day.

Down back roads by lazy brooks

I take a nap or read my books;

chase the wind, drift and roam;

let night overtake me everywhere home.

 

Live my life in a thousand places;

share myself with a thousand faces;

drink in life till I've had enough;

thanks to my rig and a full set of stuff.

 

Tomorrow I will pick up the story in part 3---Taos and Eagle Nest.