NPR tonight had a report on the International Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian's formed some 350 million years ago when the Americas, Eurasia and Africa formed Pangea, before the continental plates split forming separate land masses divided by the Atlantic Ocean.
Dick Anderson has been promoting an international trail, from Georgia to Newfoundland, then Scotland, Portugal, Spain and finally, Morocco--reuniting this original single mountain range... and in my mind, I thought... knitting these continents and all their peoples together again.
I want to do it! The whole way. And write poems as I go. Poems to knit the continents back together.
If I were a wealthy man, this would be no problem. But even better not being able to pay my way. Patrons... will be a part of the adventure. And I'll want hiking companions. Maybe a tag-team of companions.
I want to do this. I'm serious. And when I set my mind on doing something, I don't rest until it's a reality.
My age, and the injuries from being hit by a car all make it more interesting (ok... more 'newsworthy'... human interest... money in it for others to milk) and for me... more of a challenge.
Will need to organize a means of making contributions--set up a foundation perhaps. Get a publisher on board.
The old dog's still barking and ready to go!
Who will be my first patron?
I wish you the best of luck, but I've been unemployed for over a year now and of course the worthwhile endeavors I want to support are far more numerous than my financial resources. Far more. :( But good luck!
ReplyDelete"AARP on NPR," she barked, unrestrainedly growling her aggressive bitch-speak for feh on your "plan"! Why couldn't they have broadcast a show on the Orient Express or some other equally romantic adventure a bit less exposed to oh so many elements for oh such a long duration?
ReplyDeleteI know doggies are especially adept at identifying when the initial smell of oncoming rain is in the air, but what will you do when the downpour arrives, stays, lets up, and then comes again and again? Do you think you can walk all that distance and somehow completely avoid the rainy season?
I well understand that the poetry forged by an epic journey en plein air beckons your artist's soul, but I worry that you and your composition notebooks will be soaked in a soggy, siren song. I don't want you catching cold or, heaven forfend, pneumonia!
I held my tongue previously, but I now confess I had a bad, sneaking concern as to what immoderate destination the spirit stick, as lyrical as it is, might lead you. Queries:
Can one traverse the trail in a covered wagon at least?
Or are shelter-toting sherpas in the pro-forma budget perhaps?
Since when does a radical man like you take his cues from the liberal VOA?
Is that damn stick perhaps wagging the dog?
I fear this is a case of Some Things Considered. Please advise.
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ReplyDeletereminds me of an adventure that me and the uncle of my first serious girlfriend thought out. we wanted to walk across the whole of the united states and back again and write about it. this was way back in the mid-80s and i was sure it had already been done back then. i don't know. we were serious too. didn't matter. we thought to find sponsorships and so on. we got to the very early sketching out stage before. . .then i moved on to another stage of my life and the journey was forever to begin at the begin.
ReplyDeleteFrances,
ReplyDeleteWhile it's not quite in the same league, for my 30th birthday, I rode a bike from Philly to Kingston, ONT, and across Canada to Sault Ste.Marie, half way down the eastern shore of Lake Michigan--alone, with a mountain tent. Yeah, it rained a couple times.
And don't have to do it all at once. Don't want to be on the Maine to Newfoundland stretch in January.
Gonna die anyway. What's life without risk?
Hard part'd be figuring how to top that when I'm 100...
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