😁

I have slowly — very slowly — been decorating a wall with photos and such from my wanderabout. I have a framed map with push pins for every Paris I visited. I have a framed 45 of “He Went To Paris” and a map of the Paris subway system. This book — “Blue Highways” — played such an important role in how I pursued my trip that I’ve decided to frame a photo of its cover. I kind of like my idea of using a map as a background for the photo — I guess I still have some creative neurons left? No, the highways on the map are not blue — I searched high and low to find a map with blue highways but haven’t found one (yet). Without the gift of this book from my work colleague Brian it would not have occurred to me to take the “roads less traveled.” I would have driven interstates and missed 90 percent of what made my wanderabout so special.

I still chuckle at what motivated Least Heat Moon and me to make our journeys. He lost his wife and lost his job; I almost lost my life and while we weren’t married, I lost my wife, too. Seemed fitting for me to travel the blue highways. In more ways than one.