Goodbye Esmeralda!

August 21, 2001
London, Ontario 

After seven and a half years of grand adventures (and nearly 300,000 km...) I said goodbye to Esmeralda the van today. Thanks Ezzie. You were such a good horse. She really wanted to be driven off the side of the Grand Canyon but I figure they'd probably catch me for that and wouldn't be very nice about it to boot. My new van is a sleek (yet still slightly soccer mom) Plymouth Voyager. Her name is Maybelle and she's a very delicious shade of burgundy. And her engine is young and she's excited to take on some mountains soon... I'm getting ready to head up to Lake Simcoe and Eaglewood Folk Festival next weekend. I'm excited for a little Ontario cottage country before I head south again. Then, back to Virginia for a little more sleazeball motel writing quarantine in the beautiful Shenandoahs...

August 7th, 2001
London, Ontario 

HOLY HOT DAMN. it was a lovely 106 degrees on Esmeralda the van's thermometer the whole way home from Rhode Island. Poor Ezzie's air-conditioning busted 'cause she just couldn't take it anymore. It wouldn't have been so bad but for the New York City bad-ass traffic jams and having to leave my poor guitar in the car... Spent hours running around the Bronx Toys R Us trying to cool off. And then, in the parking lot, the whole side door of the van just fell off. Oops. Almost died but at least I got a wicked new sword and knight helmet and a Harry Potter lunchbox out of it. Had an amazing time in Newport. The folk fest was a blast and I got to meet Emmylou Harris and her beautiful doggy Bonaparte. Very amazing. I am hoping to head back to the ocean soon. When I close my eyes I hear fog horns and I want the bogs of New England to eat me. (They like me 'cause I taste like raspberries.) I am going on a journey to find the house I will hide in all winter and write... Who knows where it will be. (I just hope there's a good Thai restaurant nearby.)