Stranger On A BUS

Busking Tour Fall 2001

Washington, DC
An Afternoon On The Capitol Mall

Union Station, 6am! Did I pass into the Twi-light Zone ...Is this what Huxley suggested would be the BRAVE...NEW....World? A young IU graduate friend of mine, who introduced me to his room-mate back in 1999, and as a result you see these pages now, works as a lobbyist in DC...We both had time for me to visit on Sunday, 10/21/01. I got to the Greyhound station way early, so I got breakfast there, and put my 2 big bags in a locker, walked to the Union Station...Found a coffee/bakery set up in the passenger waiting complex for Amtrak, and proceeded to whileaway some time with my "read" for the trip, Sterling Hayden's WANDERER.... I never knew he'd had such a challenging youth, and if you can find this book in second hand shops, it depicts the sailing of schooners capable of reaching Tahiti quite well...since I've lived in Santa Monica and Laurel Canyon myself in 1968-9, I appreciate the insider's view of the movie machine back in its golden era... My friend arrived, and we chose to go to the Dupont Circle area, where we found a coffee house...It sure was fun updating him on my travels to 2 years of the WoodyGuthrieFEST and 3 trips to Bethel NY. When my friend was going to IU, he had a room-mate who got me started with this web-site, so I've been fortunate to stay in touch with my DC pal! We then went to the Capitol Mall, for a bit of site seeing around the Washington Monument...including standing by the small stone maker where the White House, Jefferson Memorial are due North/South, and the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial are East/West...my pal knew a great out of the way spot near the construction of the World War II memorial, so we retired to that place need a pool and got down to some guitar playing and simple quite chatting...the weather was great, on the sunny side...the high point of this was when a passerby gave me a vigorous thumbs up as I played my Medley of Dino Valenti's Let's Get Together (Performed by the Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Youngbloods) and my own Thief in the Night/Wedding Ball song..."Come on people now, smile on each other, Everybody Get Together, right now..." (If you go to the Get Together page, you can see how the Medley works...I sing 2 verses, then Thief in the Night/Wedding Ball...following with the last Get Together verse: "If you hear the song I sing, you will understand..."). We talked about a common dream we have...to drive about the USA for 3 to 6 months in a small RV busking and/or playing small coffee house and/or open mike gigs...with one or two others...singing harmony, playing guitar or tamborine and such. I'm quite grateful to my friend for a chance to rest up at his Apartment in Arlington, VA from the trip north from South Carolina, and for the long week of getting across the US to Oakland, with stops only in Bloomington, Indiana, and Salt Lake...besides, I got to listen to Dylan's new Love and Theft album in it's entirety...at one point I distinctly could feel my self charging up and projecting my spirit westward to the coast, with visions of the surf in Santa Monica and Eureka, to carry me through the long bus ride across Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada...I've done this both ways a few times before, and it can be grueling... exactly why I planned the Salt Lake layover!

Healing resources

See this phrase translated!

"My heart's in the highlands, gentle and fair..."