Time to Move!

"We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one noble function of the time, move. And we moved!" - On the Road. As Jack & Neal did 60 years ago, we entered the Lincoln Tunnel and emerged on the Jersey side taking the mysterious sign that pointed "South" with an arrow on Route 1, heading for Trenton then Philadelphia, then on down into Maryland heading for Fells Point in Baltimore, birthplace of Billie Holiday and location of erstwhile TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street" - a site of pilgrimage in itself!


Most of the way we were listening to local radio stations, first jazz from New York City - celebrating the career of drummer Roy Haines giving us a funky seventies soundtrack as we made our way across the Brooklyn Bridge once more and through Manhattan to the tunnel; then picking up a Philadelphia station playing oldies from the sixties, seventies and eighties - lots more soul there including "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" by Sly and the Family Stone; then later still as we got down into Maryland listening to NPR, including a speech by President-elect Obama made today in Baltimore where we were headed ... also listening with new ears to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech from 1963. Lots of comment and discussion on the airwaves about today, Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. and tomorrow, the inauguration of the first African-American President. Like a dream come true.

A sense of history in the making. Something important is happening. And it is good that we are here to witness this and to absorb it into ourselves even though we never planned this when we first hatched the idea of following Kerouac and Cassady down their road. The route (in this case Route 1) and the timing (now January 2009) were predetermined - they are given - and yet what transpires along the way is taking on a life of its own.

Tomorrow we will rise early to drive into Frederick from where we are staying with friends, Frank & Debby in Brunswick MD, to take the MARC train into Washington. We have our tickets. Valid for a particular train on the way in and for a particular train on the way back.

Latest update on my car: passing through Folette, ON over the weekend - hopefully arriving in Toronto tomorrow...