April 12th 2021

This Covid thing is getting weirder. We alll want it to be over. We all want to Return To Normal. We all want to hang with our “people” in a relaxed sort of way. BUT…it’s not over, there is no normal to return to and no one is relaxed. I’m celebrating my successful vaccinations with one of my favorite past times..a road trip! I don’t really want to eat in restaurants, I don’t really want to sleep in hotels. I’ve gotten used to my own company, my own cooking and the never ending washing of the dishes. If I continue painting at the rate I’ve been going, I’m going to have to move out or rent a storage unit. I find myself asking questions, out loud, when there’s no one there but me. I just can’t take it anymore. I gotta go.

I love being in my car, speeding down the road and singing at the top of my lungs. I’m a rockstar even if I don’t know all the words, I’m a diva screaming those high notes in a language that’s incomprehensible to me. I seem to have an abundance of vaccinated friends scattered up and down the west coast, hiding out in the desert or taking refuge in the mountains, and so far they seem pleased that I’m heading their way.

I’m in no rush. I want to soak it up. I’ll have my paints and with any luck, perhaps, I can channel Emily Carr. Photos of her camped out in the wilderness of British Columbia show her with a small trailer parked in the middle of the forest. There’s so many people on the planet now that it’s hard to get away, or find seclusion without backpacking and I am definitely NOT a back packer. I don’t like to carry things, tote things or drag things around. Being more on the beaten path exposes me to the possibility of gawkers, which isn’t my favorite, but it’s the price I pay to have easy access to my cooler, my lawn chair and whatever else is hiding in my car.