escape artistry

2003-09-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

2003-09-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

Miles driven: 12,270
Number of states visited: 38
Number of people visited:62 (not including kids)
High temperature: 112 (Arizona)
Low temperature: 58 (Maine)
Number of speeding tickets: 1
Number of times Daisey peed on a carpet: 1
Dollars spent on gas: lots
Time spent with loved ones: priceless

2003-09-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

Mile 12,270
Home

Ahhhhh... to feel the Bay fog, to see the friendly faces of my family ...

"Whenever I go on a trip, I think about all the homes I've had and I remember how little has changed about what comforts me." Brian Adreas (www.storypeople.com)

2003-09-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

Mile 11,755
Alder Dune State Park, OR (mid-Oregon Coast)

Last night on the road. Camping in the redwoods. Listening to the waves …

Visited with another friend from Lewis & Clark, Dana who owns and runs a restaurant in Astoria, OR. In her sixth year of business, she is just now making a profit. She’s working a ton but finding joy in the success of the restaurant (www.cannerycafe.com).

That’s what I heard all along, you have to make it through the first five years of a business, something I just couldn’t do. I had to get out for my physical and emotional well-being, I learned that I just wasn’t cut out for an office job. I felt like I was living in isolation in my office, which is one reason that my road trip really was one of visiting friends and family more than National Parks or other random places. My goal was to reconnect with everyone I cared about whom I had just been too “busy” for during the working frenzy of See Jane Run, during the last four years.

Getting to visit the company that bought See Jane Run was a highlight of this summer trip. Seeing that SJR and all the SJR photographers have landed in the laps of very savvy folks who are running a smart business … I can rest easy now knowing that they’ll all be fine with the new company.

The most important part of the summer was seeing my mom’s grave. I still can hardly believe that she’s not here, and often think of phoning her to talk before realizing that I can’t do that anymore. A big reason to even undertake this adventure was that I just had to get away from the scene of my mom’s death, had to put space between me and home, As I traveled West at the beginning of the summer, I cried a lot, continuing to say goodbye to her. I looked up at the clouds often, imagining her there waving, as she promised she would be when she died. And I’ve been crying a lot as I get closer to home, realizing that she won’t be there, welcoming me home with open arms and ears, eager to hear all the stories, as she always did.

It’ll be great to see my brother, as we are the only ones who really know how the other feels. And my Dad and Rebecca, and Olivia and the kids. What would I do without them all?

This summer I realized that, even though no one will ever love me as fiercely as my mom did and no one will ever support me as enthusiastically as she did, I do have an amazing array of friends and family, all across the country, who love and support me and I do them.

As I get older, I have come not only to appreciate but to cherish my relationships with friends and family. There is no comparable joy to looking in the eyes of a dear friend, reminiscing about past experiences, looking in their eyes again with the sure knowing that there is mutual love and respect radiating back and forth, and sharing more experiences for us to look back on in the future. And I made a few new friends to add to this extended family.

As usual, I decided on an epic journey and departed just two months later, just like I did when I traveled around the world 12 years ago. Some people spend the summer camping around Oregon and Washington. I insisted on road tripping around the whole country. Call it grandiose, call it ambitious, call it shallow … it’s just the way I seem to do things. Perhaps I need to learn how to have smaller, more precise goals.

Yet I feel so lucky to have had this time. Thank you everyone who has helped me through this summer and reminded me of the vast amounts of love in the world if we just make the time and space to accept and give it.

2003-09-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Mile 11,484
Portland, OR

Visited with a several friends from college days at Lewis & Clark, including my freshman roommate Debbie and her famiy. I even lived with these guys before they had kids, so it was yet another homecoming. John the teacher cooks during summer, and he made us a feast!

2003-09-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Mile 11,240
Seattle, WA

I couldn’t go north through Montana and up to Banff, as planned, because of the wildfires. So I headed northwest to Seattle instead.

Delightful weekend with Karin whom I met in Nepal over 12 years ago. We spent a few weeks trekking together, and have a forever bond because of that experience. She has done more travelling with her hubbie Chris, most recently spending 10 months away, most of it travelling across Australia in their custom Troopie and camping in very remote areas. They are having their rig shipped to South Africa, and they'll be spending the next few months adventuring through Botswana and Namibia. These two really know how to live!

Karin insisted on taking me to Bumbershoot to hear Seattle's best band Maktub (www.maktub.com) and they were on fire with their unique blend of soul, funk, r&b and some pretty hard rock. Much fun. I fell in love with their lead singer Reggie Watts, so we spent the next day hunting down all of Maktub and Reggie CDs. We shared the yummiest meal at a completely vegetarian restaurant called Carmelita's, then stayed up drinking ice wine and laughing, looking at Australia photos and reading through her journal from Nepal which was hilarious. She's an excellent writer, makes her own paper and books and cards and soap. Seeing travelling friends is so great, it reminds me that the world is large and that there are millions of opportunities for adventure and learning and growing and making new friends.

2003-08-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

Mile 10,485
Ketchum (Sun Valley), ID

Had a fantastic week in Sun Valley with my Portland friends -- Laura, my freshman roommate in college, and Susie, her sister-in-law whom I lived with while working for the Oregonian many years back, and their families. Did lots of hiking and biking in gorgeous scenery, and huffing and puffing in the altitude!

Found the most spectacular lake, Red Fish Lake, about an hour's drive north of Ketchum ... we all went swimming in the crystal clear and not too cold water ... ... including Daisey!!!

Here are a few of the characters in Sun Valley this week:

Laura ...

her daughter Katie ...

her son Tony ...

her niece Molly ...

neice Megan and son Tony on the way home from hiking one day ...

and more Daisey just for fun ...

Hillary is a great friend! Her dog is so sweet! We all love Hillary!!! -Megan and family.

2003-08-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

Mile 9575
Boulder, CO

Had a nice, week-long visit with Sue

and Beth

in Boulder, a town filled with good causes, good food, lots of dogs and beautiful people.

2003-08-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Mile 8017
Beverly Hills (Detroit), MI

Finally got to see mom's grave, for the first time since she was buried here in January. I brought the fairy dancer I had given her that hung above her bed for many years. I brought it on this trip and hung it on my rearview mirror. Reminded me of another little fairy doll that hung from my old car's mirror whom I had named Adriana, because I wanted my mom's love and spirit to be with me while I was living away from home. So I delivered the fairy dancer to mom's grave and hid it in the flowers (so the cemetary people wouldn't take it away). I think she would have liked that.

Also got to see all our relatives, including new grandma Joan, new dad Larry and his twins (who I saw on the way East in Memphis).

And we got to stay with our especially funny cousins (funny haha, not funny odd).

2003-08-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Mile 7609
Pittsburgh, PA

Then I visited my mom's best friend from Sem, Nancy and her husband Les, had lunch with them at their home. I'd never met them before, but they really extended themselves when mom died, and I had jewelry from mom to deliver to Nancy. We had the nicest time, and it was a pleasure for me to know someone who had known my mother for such a long time.

2003-08-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Mile 7382
Buffalo, NY

So I also wanted to see my mom's high school, Buffalo Seminary, a really nice Episcopalian girls school that had a small quota for Jewish students.
I even found Mom's senior yearbook photo.
My mom learned her manners from the headmistress Miss Angel.

2003-08-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

Mile 6985
Putney, VT

All my life, I've heard about a little village in Vermont named Putney, where my dad attending boarding school. I decided it was time to see this fabled place, where my dad starred in many plays and had to do farm chores on top of schoowork. The campus is lovely ...
... and the Putney barn is perhaps the best barn around. I've always wanted to live in a converted barn, so I'm taking pictures and making notes about barns along the way. My research on straw bale houses has led me to believe I'll be able to insulate barn walls with straw bales and convert a barn myself... a future project.

2003-08-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

Mile 6643
Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor), ME

Had a great drive through Vermont, my new favorite state, because of their little, progressive villages and beautiful barns. Made it all the way to Maine, where the fog cooled me and gave me the comfort of home.

But it got a little lonely camping by myself, and it started to rain, so I left early and decided it was time to turn around and head for home, albeit slowly.

2003-08-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Mile 6207
Lake Placid, NY

Ironman USA -- Sunday, July 27 -- What a wet, windy, miserable day. My sweet friend Erin was attempting her first Ironman triathlon race, a 2.5-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run (yes, a marathon after all that).

She had a great swim, had a decent first loop on the bike course, but the wind kicked up and the rain came pounding down, making it impossible for her to fininsh the bike course on time.

Over the next week Erin and company licked her wounds and did some serious R&R at their beautiful house on Lake Champlain.

I went to Ironman to cheer for Erin and to see if my Ironman demons had disappeared. Erin's experience, which was so similar to mine, brought it all back to me -- the endless hours of training, the intense focus on one goal, the race day pressure, the the agony of defeat. Erin has decided to go for it again next year. I haven't committed to it yet, but I will have to do it again, sometime, to chase away those Ironman demons once and for all.

2003-08-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Mile 6008
Chatham, NY

Well, the whole reason I'm able to go on such a long road trip is that I sold my business to another photography agency Animals Animals/Earth Scenes. They were kind enough to invite me to their annual company picnic in the Berkshires. Fun to meet them all and see the great place where See Jane Run is running these days!

2003-07-24T22:11:00.000-07:00

Mile 6141
Boston, MA

A few years ago I didn't know a soul in Boston ... and then came ...

1. Amy, part of a big, warm family I've come to know since my freshman roommate married one of them. Amy does scientific research on colon cancer. She just found out her boyfriend Ryan won't be coming back from Iraq until next April ...

2. Nova & Tomas, she's a singer/dancer/operasinger who lived at my house while in a performance at the theater in Mill Valley, he's getting his PhD in Sociology at Harvard. Tomas gave us a great tour of Harvard by Night, after one of their pet cockroaches crawled up my leg in their apartment.

3. Naomi & Peter, a family we knew when I was in nursery school with Naomi's daughter and my brother Alan was in school with Peter. Alan had come out to their Cape Cod house with Peter one summer when they were little boys. It was fun to see their home I had heard about forever.

4. Marc and his family. I met Marc the first day of a tramp in New Zealand, we hiked together the whole way, and have been friends ever since. Marc was Mr. Adventurer/Photographer/Traveller. Now he's having a more domestic adventure with his wife and two kids, here with little Anna.

5. Matt, who worked as a photographer in Long Beach when I was there, now working for the Globe. He's a better shopper than my mom, always in search of a bargain. And he's from Marin ... we went to rival high schools.

2003-07-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mile 5095
Washington, DC

Drove all day and made it just in time for my cousin Molly's 11th birthday party! Most of my relatives live in and around Washington, and everyone was there to celebrate.

There are four girls in this family, each as bright and sweet as the next. Their parents must be doing something right. Dad Mike works for a non-profit funding low-income housing, and Mom Barbara teaches in a ghetto middle school. The two of them met 20 years ago working in a soup kitchen. Theirs it a testament to public service and they are great role models for us all. They also made it all the way out to SF for my mom's memorial service in January, an act of generosity I'll never forget.

Barbara and Aunt Nancy took the girls early one morning to NYC to see Lion King and the museums and shows in the big city. Lucky things!

2003-07-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Mile 4573
Asheville, NC

The Smoky Mountains are gorgeous! We camped for the first time since our hot, humid camping experience in Oklahoma (had resorted to motels in the hot zone). Saw a great sunset, started watercoloring at dusk ... painting in the dark may or may not have improved my "art", but it definitely helps quiet the inner-critic of this novice painter!

Also tried to photograph my favorite, regional bug the firefly which did not work at all but was fun anyway! Does anyone remember that childhood book about a firefly, "Sam the Firefly" or some such? In California we are blessed with perfect weather and spectacular geography, but we are neglected by the magical firefly, who prefers more humid climes. In grad school in Missouri, I had my first encounters with them, and learned from the locals to rub the bugs in lines on the skin to create a very temporary but luminescent tattoo! That was before I started to lean the Buddhist way ...

BTW - let me know if there's a way to photograph fireflies ...

Meanwhile, Daisey is getting used to the driving and has found a comfy spot on the back bench atop soft pillows ...

2003-07-19T11:40:00.000-07:00

Mile 4239
Hilton Head, SC

Journalism school friend Jay got a job first thing after graduation at the Island Packet, the newspaper in resort town Hilton Head, South Carolina, and he's never left. Born and raised in Missouri (where we went to Journalism school), I think he likes the coastal lifestyle and doubt he'll ever leave HH.

Since Daisey is such a well-behaved doggie, Jay even invited us to stay in his dog-free condo, the second place we've had to smuggle Daisey in and out of an apartment complex. Jay called it "operation stealth doggie."

2003-07-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

Mile 3816
St Petersburg, FL

My buddy Dirk now works at the paper here. We were both photographers at the paper in Long Beach, CA, and haven't seen each other in six years! His hair is longer, he owns a house, but thankfully it's the same old hilarious, sweet Dirk. His cat Cali even liked Daisey!

Unfortunately his French girlfriend Carine was in France so I didn't get to meet her, but we did get to talk to her on the phone. Dirk used to be the ultimate party boy. Now he is the master of home improvement, and surprisingly quite handy and artful in the paint color and home decoration departments. He's even talking about breeding. Amazing how we all, even Dirk, grow up.

2003-07-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Mile 3537
New Orleans, LA

New Orleans was a hoot! A friend's friend Chip took me out to the best restaurant in town, Jacques-Imo where this fishetarian sampled Shrimp and Alligator Cheesecake and Fried Chicken. Chip seems to know everyone in town, including the bar owner next door Hank who spoke in x-rated tongues but who did give us locally brewed beer. Chip was exactly as his friends said, super nice, great taste, funny and kind. What more could a girl want for a night on the town in New Orleans?? Here's Hank, left, and Chip ...

2003-07-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

Mile 2712
Cordova (Memphis), TN

SO HOT and MUGGY! Even Daisey doesn't want to go out and play or walk, even! She's a hot dog!!

Visiting my cousins Larrry and Randi and their adorable 11-week old twins Hannah and Josh. The parents have kept their senses of humor intact in spite of little sleep for the past three months! At 1am one night, Randi was up tending to one or the other and decided to make a black and white mobile. She covered different items with black or white paper and decorated with the opposite color paper. Et voila, her middle-of-the-night creation has provided hours of entertainment without crying!

2003-07-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

Mile 2346
Greenleaf State Park (Eastern OK), OK

Wow, what a difference a state makes. AZ and NM were just plain HOT, Texas was milder, and now OK is HOT and MUGGY. It’s 9pm, 90 degrees out and probably about 90% humidity. I don’t know how I’ll sleep.

Found a really sweet campground by a lake for our first foray into camping with the Eurovan. I just made the bed in about 5 minutes. It really is well designed.

Will someone older and wiser please tell me what the big deal is about Route 66?! I can’t figure it out. I’ve been following it on and off since LA. I even went to a Route 66 museum today, and I still don’t get it. So it was the first road out West, from Chicago to LA. So there were old diners and towns along the way …why are these memorialized so much now? Anyone? Dad?

Saw this sign in Gore, OK, just had to share …

2003-07-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

Mile 1610
Santa Fe, NM

… to help my artist friend Dona hang her show and help with the opening. Dona is an amazing photographer who was a lab tech at my second internship The Palm Beach Post, and whom I helped get her first shooting job at the Palm Beach Daily News in 1987. She went on to do fashion and now art photography, and, after years of working various jobs, she’s finally selling her artwork!

Boy, the life of an artist isn’t easy. She was printing, matting, framing till all hours of the night, and selling her work at the hot and dusty Santa Fe Flea Market all day all weekend, and having a show, and exhibiting at FotoFest, and working like a dog … not glamorous at all! “I wish I could just have a job and a mortgage, but I can’t,” she said, “I HAVE to do my art, I don’t have a choice.”

Also got to see my cousins in Albuquerque Connie and Jerry, and meet my cousin their son Adam and his family for the first time … what a treat to be related to such interesting, kind people.

2003-07-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

Mile 790
Paradise Valley (Phoenix), AZ

HOTTTER ‘N HOT in Arizona, 110 degrees! Daisey and I went swimming in the evenings when it was cool enough to swim (how weird is that?), and we discovered Daisey is a natural dog paddler. She also liked chasing lizards.

We were visiting my friend Danielle and her family. She and I went to Israel together with our confirmation class back in 1975, where we hiked Sinai and Masada, floated in the Dead Sea and snuck off to hang out with cute kibbutzniks (we were 15).

She’s now married to an English architect/computer genius and they have the cutest little red-headed boy, Ryan, with the cutest little English-accented voice. I wish I could’ve stayed longer, but I was rushing off to …

2003-06-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

Oof, finally made it out of the house at 4:30pm Saturday, June 28, only 10 days late! Not an easy thing to wrap up the business, mom's house, prep mine for summer housesitters, and prepare for a mega-journey all at once! It sure felt great to get in the van and go, and I can feel myself unwinding, slowly ...

Arrived in Pacific Palisades really late to find Sara and Peter had made me a much needed bed in the living room! They both are computer geeks extraordinaire and helped with the great blog map you see above. They met through the personals ... but it was my date with a guy from the personals! I went out with a guy who brought two friends, and I brought two friends ... he and I didn't last long, but his friend Peter and my friend Sara got married in Greece a few years ago, and then created little Miss Katie Rose, orange haired and cu-ute! See ...

2003-06-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

D-G IS MY COPILOT - Introducing my travelling buddy *Daisey* who's bound to make us lots of new friends along our way!

2003-05-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

party in bolinas. met andreas, a little bespectacled swiss-french man with wild blond hair who travelled for years, met a woman who became his wife, now they have a little one and live in stinson beach. was a teacher in switzerland, now a carpenter. said he finally learned, after travelling for a long time, how to go without a plan of any kind, threw out his guidebook, and went following his intuition, day by day, moment by moment ... ate when he was hungry, walked when he felt like walking, slept when he was tired ... said he still lives his life that way. he encouraged me to do the same.

2003-05-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

picked up the van this morning with alarm and xmradio newly installed. still need to equip, prepare, pack, map, do a million other things and then go!