The Rainbow at the End of the Road

So here's a picture of where we ended up before Sean flew back to England. Montara, California overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the overarching rainbow of promise, which is really the rainbow of grace because that is the promise at the end of the road, wherever that road may end.

After we staggered out on O'Farrill Street, unsteady on our feet as if from a long voyage at sea, we headed down the coast on Highway 1 to friends David and Anne-Ly who arranged for us to stay in an empty house round the corner. On Thursday we returned to San Francisco, visiting Jerry Cimino at the Beat Museum (right) as well as City Light Bookstore round the corner and next door to that the Vesuvio Pub.

Yesterday, as I mentioned in my last post, I had a day of contemplation and journal writing on the beach, my ears filled with the roar of the sea as the waves came crashing in on the rocks.


Today, I returned to the Beat Museum (where I've just come from) and met Carolyn Cassady! What a privilege to meet someone so intimately connected with the story that Sean and I have been following, and that has had such a profound impact upon what we are doing. Carolyn was exactly as I imagined her, full of smiles and very gracious, though she'd injured her back a few days ago and was obviously in discomfort. It was a great atmosphere in the Beat Museum this afternoon, a feeling of real camaraderie and the gentle affection of kindred spirits discovering one another's existence. It was striking the age range of people present - Carolyn herself must be about 80 and I gauge there were people there from every decade of life right down to the teens. It was good also to meet Neal and Carolyn's children, John and Jamie both of whom I had quite a chat with - including showing John some of the pictures from this trip on my camera's viewer. He was particularly interested in seeing the Burroughs house in New Orleans.