Monday, February 27, 2012

Zydeco Steppin' and the Fishing Expedition

I know I didn't post yesterday, I wrote but it was lost when I pressed "send" so I got up from the comfortable curb I was sitting on by the side of the road and continued pushing on. When I left WelSh I tuned my radio to KRVS public radio and immersed myself in cajun and zydeco. The rhythms were perfect for the roadside Do-si-Do with cars and trucks. For two days as I walked into Iowa and Lake Charles I danced a World Zydeco Two Step until the station faded away. When I got into Lake Charles Sunday afternoon I intended to follow US-90 until it merged with interstate-10 and pack the World in the van, go over the bridge which is restricted to traffic and begin again on the opposite side. Many people I spoke to told me I'd be walking through "the hood" and it might be dangerous. Patterson New Jersey, Jacksonville Florida, The Ninth Ward and St. Paul Minnesota had a little more shady characters but Maybe it was because it was Sunday. I softly dipped and weaved along "Business 90" without incident. As I came to one of the last on-ramps to I-10. I was passing a Work truck and trailer which was parked on an abandoned property that was just a slab of concrete where a building once stood. Just then another truck pulling a small trailer filled with construction debris, Two men got out and asked me some questions. After explaining my plan for getting over the river they offered to ride the World over. They were finished working for the day and had left the first truck and trailer parked on this abandoned lot for a few minutes to go across town for some fishing bait before heading home. We strapped the World in the bed of the pickup truck and over the tall bridge we went. He dropped me off at a spot where I walked for miles around the oil refinery. I don't know if you have ever walked around an oil refinery with an earth ball before but let me tell you the piercing stares I was given by some was more frightening than "the hood" in Cincinnati, I survived the journey and by some miracle was within walking distance of Walmart where I arrived just before dark. I called the good people I had spent time with in Welsh after trying the numbers of those who had offered me a ride back to I-a-Way but didn't answer. I had made it a good distance from them and I am grateful they were willing. It seemed the whole weekend there was a perfect timing to the chance meetings which were accented bya sqeez-box and someone singing in French softly playing in my ear. The missed calls, the turns I took wondering whether I should go down that road all came together and I found I was just where I needed to be. I met a lot of people over the weekend, talked of my my reason for this journey, meeting them along the way is a wonderful bonus each day.
Remember to Love yourself and those you care for, put on some Zydeco and two-step in some tall grass.

1 comment:

Vanessa said...

It is an awesome thing that you are doing! And it was great to get to talk to you...