Upper Midwest - Day Nineteen (Moab, UT - Wichita Falls, TX)

This is a "driving day" - 880 miles down and across our country.


I certainly want to come back to this area - Moab has a huge ridge running north/south on the west side of town - it was in shadow yesterday when I got here, and it is in relative darkness as I leave town this morning.


It was SO COOL this morning - when I went down for breakfast at 6:15, the dining area was PACKED with all kinds of people ready to pounce on the day. People were huddled around iPads, and there were maps and hiking boots scattered around - I loved it! (Usually there is only one or two other people early in the morning, trying to ignore the picture-and-sound of the early-morning television show).

In case you didn't get it - the spaces out here are really VAST


Greetings from Cuba, New Mexico!


I wonder if that truck has my postcards to Ellie in St. Louis, or Wendy and Caroline in Massachusetts?


The moon rising as I get near Amarillo, Texas


There is something magical and mystical about driving down a flat Texas 2-lane blacktop with a 75 mph speed limit, with the moon lighting up the (flat) landscape, with excellent music playing, and nothing on earth to do except to get from point A to point B. That describes the last two hours of this day, going southeast from Amarillo to Wichita Falls - it was great! (and what, I'm going to spend these hours watching some stuff on tv?)

Music today:

I decided to listen to more "alphabetical music" [going through all the music on my iPod song-by-song, alphabetically]. Today I heard 160 songs, starting with:
"Fisherman's Dream" by Spencer Brewer, Eric Tingstad & Nancy Rumbel; album Emerald
and ending with:
"Forever" by Michael W. Smith; album Worship

Highlights include:
"Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall" by Simon & Garfunkel; album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
"The Flowers Of Guatemala" by R.E.M.; album Life's Rich Pageant
4 different versions of "Fly Me To The Moon":
by Diana Krall; album Live In Paris
by Frank Sinatra; album Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years
by Julie London; album Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 14: Bossa Novaville
by Joe Harnell And His Orchestra; album 60s Instrumentals

"Flying Cowboys" (live) by Rickie Lee Jones; album Live At Red Rocks lyrics:

He has been driven beyond all towns and all systems until now
and though it is long past too far he keeps going
Because it's a desert,
Because it's a desert.

"Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash; album The Legend Of Johnny Cash
"Foot Of The Bed" by Air Traffic Controller; album The One

She's puttin' on a show at the foot of the bed,
and I wonder, does she know what's going on in my head
as she's getting dressed.

"For All The Saints" by Richard Marlow: Choir Of Trinity College Cambridge; album A Vaughan Williams Hymnal
and, of course, all the versions of "For You" by Bruce Springsteen!
Devils & Dust Tour - Oct 21 2005 Providence


Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.


Boston - August 26, 1999


Hammersmith Odeon, London '75


The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle PA 2/5/75


I love listening to the music on my iPod this way. It is just like when I met Wendy in New York City. She and her roommates had a cocktail party, and they could invite 10 people, and those 10 people could bring their roommates ... so in a crowd of 120 people (in one apartment!!?? - well, apartments were bigger in those days), you (one of the hostesses) only knew 10 - but the other 110 had already been vetted (being roommates of friends), so they were probably fine and wonderful (as was the case of Dennis Dixon meeting Wendy Cole!).

This applies to my music because I'm the one who put those albums on here - I already like the artist, or the genre, or the "concept" - so it is GREAT finding my "undiscovered gems"! And it is fun listening to live versions next to acoustic versions next to regular versions.