If anyone is anywhere in the vicinity of these to 2 ramblers ( not the car) this is a must attend happening. Derrick and Amber's Alchemical mix of of poetry and performance is mesmerizing and not to be missed. The photos tell all...and then some!
OMGOMG!!! I am so VERY excited for this journey!! LOVE it a kazillion!!!!! Love the photos and memories... WOW AMBER!!! You never cease to surprise me... what a BIG adventure and YAY!!!!!
One of my all time favourite road trips (and I’ve taken so, so many) was a long weekend away in Port Stephens (mid north coast NSW, Australia, a stunning coastal town) with uni friends, a decade ago. Newly 18. It was one of those life changing trips, where there was nothing but pure love and joy. It feels like so long ago, and like yesterday. I can still taste the passion pop (🤢) and feel the laughter that threatened to split me in half.
~14 years ago, courtesy of my brother's sleuthing, I had just found out (confirmed) some messed up stuff about an undocumented, live-in boyfriend I used to have. The one that left me when I was hospitalized for a suicide I survived, and I shamelessly begged to take me back after I was discharged. After the incriminating evidence my brother provided, I took my time plotting my next step with the boyfriend while some crazy lady I would not fuck with kept repeating, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" in my head. Uncharacteristically, I played it cool with my boyfriend to his face, but away from him; I was researching how to deport a person. The most effective way was to take the person to a border.We lived in Stamford, CT. The closest border was USA/Canada; coincidentally, he had always wanted to visit Niagra Falls. Since I was trying to fix something that I thought my failed suicide had broken between us, I invited him to go on a road trip to the falls with me the following 3-day weekend. I was so nervous, broken, ashamed, numb, and transparent on a high dose of psych pills that could put down a horse, lying under a blanket (like a venomous stowaway), not sleeping in the backseat, while he drove the ~9 hours to the hotel in the falls, I had booked for us. We stopped for gas along the way; I remember thinking as I stared at my Blackberry phone. If someone texts me, "What are you doing?" I would respond, "I'm taking out the trash." No one texted me that, and the people who knew what I was up to were not trying to pry as he had fucked up with me, he was a lot bigger than me, and if he knew what I was up to, I would be in danger next to him. The whole ride up, with crushed sleeping pills in my pocket, I tortured myself with images of how to get him to the other side of the border. Was I going to drug him, then roll his asleep body out of the car on Canadian soil? What if he woke up? What if I killed him by accident? When we got to the hotel at the Falls, he fucked me good on the bed, like he was asking me not to deport him with his whole body, but we both knew our hearts weren't into it.Sex in the room is over, and for some reason, I end up in the driver's seat of my bright yellow (with black trim) 2002 Beetle instead of him. We fight over directions to the falls, and he plugs the wrong side into his phone. We end up in Canada thanks to his hone's directions. After a series of interrogations by me, he was detained as we re-entered NY. Water gushed out of me in the waiting room like I was an extension of the falls gushing water I had been holding back for a while.I loved this man with everything I had and everything I didn't. This is not how I pictured the end. The tears stopped; I got up and asked the officers if I could go. I went across the street and took pictures of a rogue red balloon along the fall's edge. I felt like I had just killed someone, but all of life could see that it was self-defense, and somehow She set me free. I'm not proud of myself for what I did. He was in law enforcement's hands, and I was bumbling around like a zombie. We spoke many times, but I never saw him again. On one call from Buffalo, NY, or already in Uruguay, he said to me without pointing fingers, "I would have done the same thing had I been you."
So sad that you will be nearby (NH) in late May and I will be home recovering from knee surgery! If you ever ride into Rockland Maine, let me know and I'll get a few lobsters and we can read poetry with butter dripping off our chins!
So many! My favorite trips have admittedly been solo: crisscrossing South Dakota over 2000 miles in 5 days in 2007, my first big trip from MA to TX in 2008... My favorite road treats are beef jerky and McDonald's iced coffee.
High school: ~10 17-year-old girls travel from Louisville, KY to Gatlinburg, TN over Spring Break. Several of us ended up staying the night at a random guy's parent's house with his friends, one of which asked one of us if he could suck her toes. We drove up and down the strip and blasted "Baby Got Back" repeatedly.
College: Four of us pulled an over-nighter and drove to Chicago from Louisville to meet Mariah Carey. Only two of us had tickets, and the other two were just along for the ride. Security saw two of us sitting outside and invited us in because "Mariah wouldn't like" us having to wait for our friends outside. On our way out of the city, we were nearly run over by one of the street cleaning machines.
Snacks: Doughnuts and chewy/fruity candy. Lots of coffee.
Also very partial to salt and vinegar chips! I’m not much of a snacker anymore (Crohn’s disease doesn’t let me snack) but I’ve always preferred savoury over sweet.
One of my favorite roadtrips (but not by road exactly except the bus part from the Port Authority to Ithaca NY) was in 1976 when I went off on a wild weekend with a guy I fell involve with in 1973 in Germany. We were fire! We burned up! We lit the horizon! He was getting married in two weeks but we didn't care at all! We were fire! (did I say that already? Ha ha!) He didn't know where I would arrive or exactly when so he spent the day going from the airport to the bus station. I got there by bus, not knowing if he'd be there. I came in one door and he came in the other at exactly the same moment. The match was lit! We were fire! Best weekend, best trip of my life! Three days of flame! We didn't eat out. He cooked. We cooked. Steak and mushrooms and roasted potatoes never tasted so good.
If anyone is anywhere in the vicinity of these to 2 ramblers ( not the car) this is a must attend happening. Derrick and Amber's Alchemical mix of of poetry and performance is mesmerizing and not to be missed. The photos tell all...and then some!
OMGOMG!!! I am so VERY excited for this journey!! LOVE it a kazillion!!!!! Love the photos and memories... WOW AMBER!!! You never cease to surprise me... what a BIG adventure and YAY!!!!!
One of my all time favourite road trips (and I’ve taken so, so many) was a long weekend away in Port Stephens (mid north coast NSW, Australia, a stunning coastal town) with uni friends, a decade ago. Newly 18. It was one of those life changing trips, where there was nothing but pure love and joy. It feels like so long ago, and like yesterday. I can still taste the passion pop (🤢) and feel the laughter that threatened to split me in half.
~14 years ago, courtesy of my brother's sleuthing, I had just found out (confirmed) some messed up stuff about an undocumented, live-in boyfriend I used to have. The one that left me when I was hospitalized for a suicide I survived, and I shamelessly begged to take me back after I was discharged. After the incriminating evidence my brother provided, I took my time plotting my next step with the boyfriend while some crazy lady I would not fuck with kept repeating, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" in my head. Uncharacteristically, I played it cool with my boyfriend to his face, but away from him; I was researching how to deport a person. The most effective way was to take the person to a border.We lived in Stamford, CT. The closest border was USA/Canada; coincidentally, he had always wanted to visit Niagra Falls. Since I was trying to fix something that I thought my failed suicide had broken between us, I invited him to go on a road trip to the falls with me the following 3-day weekend. I was so nervous, broken, ashamed, numb, and transparent on a high dose of psych pills that could put down a horse, lying under a blanket (like a venomous stowaway), not sleeping in the backseat, while he drove the ~9 hours to the hotel in the falls, I had booked for us. We stopped for gas along the way; I remember thinking as I stared at my Blackberry phone. If someone texts me, "What are you doing?" I would respond, "I'm taking out the trash." No one texted me that, and the people who knew what I was up to were not trying to pry as he had fucked up with me, he was a lot bigger than me, and if he knew what I was up to, I would be in danger next to him. The whole ride up, with crushed sleeping pills in my pocket, I tortured myself with images of how to get him to the other side of the border. Was I going to drug him, then roll his asleep body out of the car on Canadian soil? What if he woke up? What if I killed him by accident? When we got to the hotel at the Falls, he fucked me good on the bed, like he was asking me not to deport him with his whole body, but we both knew our hearts weren't into it.Sex in the room is over, and for some reason, I end up in the driver's seat of my bright yellow (with black trim) 2002 Beetle instead of him. We fight over directions to the falls, and he plugs the wrong side into his phone. We end up in Canada thanks to his hone's directions. After a series of interrogations by me, he was detained as we re-entered NY. Water gushed out of me in the waiting room like I was an extension of the falls gushing water I had been holding back for a while.I loved this man with everything I had and everything I didn't. This is not how I pictured the end. The tears stopped; I got up and asked the officers if I could go. I went across the street and took pictures of a rogue red balloon along the fall's edge. I felt like I had just killed someone, but all of life could see that it was self-defense, and somehow She set me free. I'm not proud of myself for what I did. He was in law enforcement's hands, and I was bumbling around like a zombie. We spoke many times, but I never saw him again. On one call from Buffalo, NY, or already in Uruguay, he said to me without pointing fingers, "I would have done the same thing had I been you."
So sad that you will be nearby (NH) in late May and I will be home recovering from knee surgery! If you ever ride into Rockland Maine, let me know and I'll get a few lobsters and we can read poetry with butter dripping off our chins!
So many! My favorite trips have admittedly been solo: crisscrossing South Dakota over 2000 miles in 5 days in 2007, my first big trip from MA to TX in 2008... My favorite road treats are beef jerky and McDonald's iced coffee.
I'll try to come to the Manchester show!
Whew.
High school: ~10 17-year-old girls travel from Louisville, KY to Gatlinburg, TN over Spring Break. Several of us ended up staying the night at a random guy's parent's house with his friends, one of which asked one of us if he could suck her toes. We drove up and down the strip and blasted "Baby Got Back" repeatedly.
College: Four of us pulled an over-nighter and drove to Chicago from Louisville to meet Mariah Carey. Only two of us had tickets, and the other two were just along for the ride. Security saw two of us sitting outside and invited us in because "Mariah wouldn't like" us having to wait for our friends outside. On our way out of the city, we were nearly run over by one of the street cleaning machines.
Snacks: Doughnuts and chewy/fruity candy. Lots of coffee.
Also: see you in Nashville!
Ooooooh, Fritos. Yummm. But, I’m partial to Salt & Vinegar chips, ESPECIALLY if they’re really thick/crispy!
Sees Candy and SkinnyPop! Best road trip treats :)
Deep fried cheese curds! Come on
Congratulations! Thank you for making poetry in motion. Great photos! I love the B&W.
Also very partial to salt and vinegar chips! I’m not much of a snacker anymore (Crohn’s disease doesn’t let me snack) but I’ve always preferred savoury over sweet.
One of my favorite roadtrips (but not by road exactly except the bus part from the Port Authority to Ithaca NY) was in 1976 when I went off on a wild weekend with a guy I fell involve with in 1973 in Germany. We were fire! We burned up! We lit the horizon! He was getting married in two weeks but we didn't care at all! We were fire! (did I say that already? Ha ha!) He didn't know where I would arrive or exactly when so he spent the day going from the airport to the bus station. I got there by bus, not knowing if he'd be there. I came in one door and he came in the other at exactly the same moment. The match was lit! We were fire! Best weekend, best trip of my life! Three days of flame! We didn't eat out. He cooked. We cooked. Steak and mushrooms and roasted potatoes never tasted so good.