Heela WHAT????

My nephew sent this picture to me... it's a Gila Monster that has taken refuge beneath their extra refrigerator! (remember the picture of the rattlesnake on their back porch??... NOT my kind of place)...

Although I don't mind the pretty little Gila...

imagine being called a monster all your life just because of the way you look!

aww...

do you like him more now?

Back From Hawaii.... and Beyond!

Joseph Anthony Miele... before I knew him.

So... I returned from Hawaii in late 1970, and took nearly a year to lose the "pleasure weight"...yeah... we all know what THAT'S all about. Then , just as I had my life back, I met Joe.

Now I have given Joe short shrift occasionally.. I truly think he may have been bipolar. If so, it worsened after we split (but of course, ANYONE would have worsened after I left them).

I have to say one thing about poor sweet Joe... in spite of his manicdepressiveparanoiddelusionaletc.ness... he was never boring.

By the time I met Joe, I had been with... well... a NUMBER of very interesting men. From folk singers to Samoans, from College kids to Hawaiians; my 'life' had been varied, to say the very least. Nothing prepared me for this New Jersey Italian. He was unlike anyone I had ever met, and I met him JUST after I finished reading the Godfather, so I was ready and eager for the experience (grin).

Despite the unevenness of our relationship, we had a lot of fun when he wasn't yelling. Turns our yelling was a cultural thing for him.. not so much for me.

Joe was, however, responsible for much of my expertise and desire in camping. I have pictures of Joe holding his first lizard; he was the ultimate city dweller. We first camped in my little Chevy vega, sleeping in the back, faces smashed up against the sloping back window. We went anywhere around here that you could get to in a weekend. We would leave after work on Friday, and be back on Sunday night. We did, however, drive 3,935 miles in 10 (?) days or so, up into Washington, across the top of the country and back down through Yellowstone and the grand Canyon, all in that little Vega... not a trip for the faint hearted.



Joe, at Lewiston Lake.. we had a little blow up boat we carried. The permanent campers at this place called it the Lewiston Lake Water Bed... Joe was very proud of this fish!

After a while, we got the VW Camper, and our trips got better and longer. The traveling (and our relationship) ended after the 1976 trip around the country. I can't begin to tell you how much I loved that trip for 4 months, or how much MORE I would have loved it ....

without Joe...

oops.. did I say that out loud?



Originally not in Black and White, it was so color faded that I changed it... Joe, in Oregon on the big trip. He wanted to cook a duck, so he made the spit and sat there cooking forever and it started to rain and we had sort of undercooked duck and everyone who came by asked us WHERE THE CAT WAS...

ha!

Just a'walking the Dog...

Rilynn walking Rosie,,,

Kim says they are BOTH very well behaved when they walk each other... much better then when they are alone.

Must be the mutual responsibility...

or, as her mother before her, Rilynn thinks she's a dog... (her mother used to crawl to the door and bark with the golden retrievers)

If This Doesn't Make You Laugh... Well... No Hope for you...

It's hard to believe they're not 'real' (grin)

SPOTLIGHT on the Summer of 1968 (and beyond a bit)... (back to travel)

So... we leave the summer of love ('67) where it belongs, back in San Francisco, and move on to the next summer. In case you haven't guessed yet, I'm teaching now, which means that I have summers off.. in 1968 I decided to go for the big one and drive to Alaska!!!!

yeah... right... My parents hit the proverbial roof, as a driving trip to Alaska (8,000 miles round trip) included traveling for the most part on the ALCAN highway, which was (and is) built on permafrost, which isn't as permanent as it sounds. We wrangled over it for a while and I said 'What the hell, I'll go to Hawaii"... just so I got out of Dodge (so to speak).

I spent two months in Hawaii that summer, and it was more than a summer of love, that's for certain! This was the farthest I had ever been from home, and, as with most Hawaii visitors, a place that seemed both exotic and safe.

I stayed at the PInk Palace for a week(?) until I found a place to stay longer that was cheaper.. I think... my memories of the 2 month trip are mixed with the 2 years I lived there, so If I'm lying, I'm sorry... or not. As you know, I may not always be right, but I can sure sound like it .

This was a summer of not working and lounging on the beach and meeting bunches of very different people. Too bad I don't like that kind of thing.. sigh.. I was enchanted with the sounds, smells and feel of the islands, and totally taken with the people. I also visited Maui before I went home... met this little Scorpio named Mel.... ah... but I digress...

When I got home, I was, of course, restless. My brother was getting married in Feb '69 and my sister in June of '69 so I up and moved to Hawaii just after my brother's wedding,

That's me, in my little red '69 VW, surfing in to Waikiki.

I actually slept in that car for several nights (and NO ONE fits in the back seat of a VW). I shipped my stuff over and picked it up just as I got an apartment on Hoolai street (pronounced ho- ho -lie). It was close to the International Market place which had the MOST WONDERFUL food court ever. Food from all over the world... and there was the Honolulu International center down the street which had boxing. I could walk down and watch the little flyweights wham the stuffing out of each other. sigh...

I've talked about waiting tables in Hawaii in another blog, but I want you to remember just how much I loved that job. I have never kept a job that I didn't like for very long, so I don't have a lot of bad memories about working, but I certainly loved some more than others, and I was made to be a waitress (and a bank teller/new accounts clerk, and an earth mother to source engineers at hughes, and a teacher and... well.. you know me!)

The sounds of Hawaii are many, and most of them beautiful. Waikiki, however, was being built (the huge buildings that are now overwhelming the small piece of land). Since it's on sand (most of which was shipped in from.. you guessed it.. Manhattan Beach!), it required pile drivers to set pilings deep in the 'soil'. So the "Boompa Chucka" sound of pile drivers is as much a part of my memories as the other, more delicate sounds.

The music wrapped me up and held me often. I am always listening for the similarities between all cultures "folk music" , as all local music tells stories. I have found that it is only the change in instruments that makes one different than another. Anytime I hear the distinctive sound of a slack-key guitar or a ballad, I am transported back to that island faster than all the pictures or stories can possibly move me...

I could go on forever about those two years and mention names and ... well... I could go on for ever.

The big difficulty with Hawaii came as I learned more about my restless self. The island was too small.

too small...

Sometimes I would get into the car and drive around the island...

twice.

just to 'go somewhere'.

and along with all the wonderful memories (days AND nights) in Hawaii was this one stand out...

I drove through a rainbow..

twice...

Aloha...

Dontcha Just Love Him??

Cambria and Cayucos

So... I slept better last night (I forget that it takes me at least 3 days to get used to the bed in this little van), but my body didn’t .


Cayucos
I had breakfast in Cayucos again... once you've got a good thing....

I went up to Cambria today.. it’s a little enclave above Morro Bay ; a little artsy community. I had a relative who used to live in a great house up here, and I visited them as often as I could. Sweet place. I could live here too, but it’s waaay to off the beaten path to ever want to travel...

but nice.


Most of the houses are on hills, which is another reason I wouldn’t pick the place. I dream of a one level house. Dream...

I poked around some antique shops but was hindered by the fact that I’m not standing upright exactly..


and on the way back to the campground...

The little town of Harmony... population 18.



I did finish Stephen King.