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Atlanta Skyline[/caption]We just returned from an ambitious road trip. We covered nearly 1900 miles in 5 days. All so I could see one of my favorite singer-songwriters perform live. John Mayer delivered in a big way. When the kids gave me the tickets for the concert in Atlanta back on Mother’s Day I had no idea what a stroke of luck it was to see him at that particular venue. The kids didn’t pick Atlanta by design, but rather it was the venue that still had tickets available that didn’t fall on a weekend we worked at the Visitors Center here at Saylorville. Champ gave them the green light ahead of time to buy them for me. I have listened to and enjoyed his music since he arrived on the mainstream music scene in the 90’s. He is an incredibly talented guitarist. His song writing and lyricism is second to none in my opinion. Somewhere along the line I missed that he moved to Atlanta at the beginning of his music career and got his start playing in local clubs there. Where musicians are concerned I focus on their music and talent. I don’t pay much attention to the rest. That being said, he pulled out all the stops to play to the audience at his ‘musical birthplace’ as he called it when he came on stage. Watching a musician perform his or her music live is by far one of my favorite experiences; watching them at an outdoor venue is that much sweeter to me. The two most nourishing things to my spirit are being outside and music. It doesn’t get much better for me, than an outdoor concert. Well played kids!
I learned something about myself on that trip. I don’t like big cities much anymore. They’re expensive, crowded and noisy. I sat at my table on the patio of our digs in Volunteer Village after we arrived home. As I sat there eating my Casey’s Taco Pizza (one of my favorite comfort foods) I said to Champ it was good to be home where it was quiet. Just about then I realized it was anything but quiet there in my campsite. At that moment there was a symphony of locusts, frogs, evening birds calling and in the distance the band playing at the marina over the hill and the occasional motorcycle going through the gears across the marina bridge. It was every bit as noisy as the city. The difference was the sounds of summer in a campground in the woods appeal to my spirit. I started to think about other parallels. City streets are narrow and crowded and full of potholes. That annoys me as I drive through them. A path or road through a wildlife refuge of wooded area is also narrow. It has ruts instead of potholes and the crowding is often caused by overhanging trees or fallen limbs instead of parked cars and pedestrians. That doesn’t bother me at all. In the city, cars honk and sirens scream. In the wilderness, the coyotes howl and scream and locusts can be deafening at times. It’s kind of a city mouse - country mouse thing for me these days. I have evolved a lot from the kid who lived in the thick of the mid Atlantic coast for most of my 20’s and loved it to the semi-retired RV volunteer who makes her home in campgrounds and wildlife refuges.
One of the toughest things for me in winter, before I started escaping, was the lack of outdoor sounds. Winter is cold and quiet. Wind and the fracturing sound of ice breaking and tree limbs seizing are about it. Everything sounds hard in the winter in a cold climate. Summer sounds are soft, flowing and melodic.
For the remainder of late summer I’ll relax in my lawn chair in front of the camper and listen for the cues that fall is coming. The sound of a flock of geese flying over as they migrate south. The sounds of leaf blowers and the smell of leaf smoke. I’ll dream of another warm winter in the south and our next Volunteer gig for Texas Parks and Wildlife. As I listen to the comforting sounds of the woods in summer I’ll sort through my mixed emotions about leaving for the winter and look forward to knowing we will return to this same place in the spring and spend another busy summer in our home state of Iowa.
Until next time...
