patrickjegan

March 21, 2016

Has Enough Been Said About Burlap?

I would like to think that burlap is the next nylon. True, no woman will get “oo la la’s” from sporting burlap, but let’s face it…nylon is so ’40’s! I will also admit that burlap was never part of the black market trade during two World Wars, at least not in the books I’ve read.…

March 20, 2016

Shot Out Of A Cannon/Driving Until The Wheels Fall Off And Burn

[The first day of Spring] Lately, I’ve felt like I, the r-pod, the red Ford, Mariam and life in general have been shot out of a cannon. Our departure from the desert southwest happened so fast, I somehow missed the line that I could point out, photograph, and say: “Well, there goes the desert…we’re in…

March 15, 2016

The Forever Road Turns East

[Near Fort Lenard, Kansas] I didn’t write the following paragraph, but I wish to the eternal sky that I did… Look out from the mountains edge once more. A dusk is gathering on the desert’s face, and over the eastern horizon the purple shadow of the world is reaching up to the sky. The light…

March 14, 2016

A Short Walk Up Boot Hill

[An unknown prostitute of Dodge City] My reason for being on the road for so long has a great deal to do with my growing dislike of the winters of the North Country. It also enables me to wander and explore my interests. I love history, I am attracted to stories of the pioneer…

March 11, 2016

A Rock, A Pumpkin And The Grateful Dead

“May I top you up?” –Anonymous bartender. “You can’t top that!” –Patrick Egan People like to put things on top of things. Nature likes to just leave things where they were put originally. I remember one afternoon, in mid-October, 1997, (if you…

March 8, 2016

There’s Something In My Eye

“There’s a lion in the road, there’s a demon escaped, There’s a million dreams gone, there’s a landscape being raped…” –Bob Dylan “Where Are You Tonight?” Well, here I am, driving through the most jaw-dropping awesome landscapes that I have yet to encounter in the Lower 48 States. It’s always dusty here in the Southwestern…

March 1, 2016

A Night At The Opera

I sat in the Amargosa Opera House. Half the seats were filled with ticket holders. I looked around at the fantastic murals, I moved one seat away from the heat of the pot-belly stove and I watched the red curtain. It was 7:05 pm on Saturday night. There would not be an opera here tonight,…

February 28, 2016

The Road To Zzyzx And Down The Boulevard Of Dreams

I wrote a version of this post several days ago, before I went to this Place of Healing, before I walked along the Boulevard of Dreams. After the visit, I deleted most of what I had written…and began again. Yes, I began again when I made the right turn off I-15 and took the…

February 23, 2016

The Snow Moon Over The Mojave

Last night the Snow Moon rose over the Coxcomb Mountains of the Mojave Desert. It’s the fifth full moon we have watched since our journey began There will be one more to witness before we are home again. Will we see the Warm Moon from where ever we will be in the third week of…

February 22, 2016

The Existential Questions Of A Cactus

One afternoon in a desert full of Joshua trees… A vulture makes lazy circles in the warm air, riding the thermals and keeping an eye on the slow-moving Bighorn sheep, hoping in his vulture heart that the animal was sick and would soon die in the maze of weathered rocks far below A rattlesnake moved…