Blue Highways...and other ramblings

"My rambling metaphysics was getting caught in the trap of reducing experience to coherence and meaning, letting the perplexity of things disrupt the joy in their mystery. To insist that diligent thought would bring an understanding of change was to limit life to the comprehensible."


Some cool words from William Least Heat Moon, who I am reading right now. Blue Highways 'A Journey Into America' rings true in many ways for me. Least Heat Moon was a professor at Mizzou when he took a break to get away from life and everything else and toured the states. My sabbatical is nothing nearly as large, but it's fun to see what I can relate to.


Here's another passage about the West: "Space west of the line is perceptible and often palpable, especially when it appears empty, and it's that apparent emptiness which makes matter look alone, exiled, and unconnected. Those spaces diminish man and reduce his blindness to the immensity of the universe; they push him toward a greater reliance on himself, and, at the same time, to a greater awareness of others and what they do. But, as the space diminishes man and his constructions in a material fashion, it also - paradoxically - makes them more noticeable. Things show up out here."



So...I'm trying to appreciate the space and not understand anything. Roughly.


Basalt columns, above. Mammoth Hot Springs, below.


I'd like to think that my looks are in tune with that of the beautiful shots above. However, that's a lie. I need a shower. Here's a look at life on the road.

Breakfast, above. I try not to cook any meals except for dinner. Last night I had pasta and then some soup. The previous night I had tuna fillets!


Typical lunch. Sandwiches for royalty! Perhaps mini-royalty.


A Park Ranger unsuccessfully pulling over some elk! And me needing a shower.


Oh, and I took a video while driving on gravel with one hand past a herd of buffalo. One of those super-smart moves! Not as bad as the following day when I drove within five feet of a huge buff (bigger than the bike and I combined) because he (I'm assuming it was male or else it was one huge bitch) wouldn't move off the road!