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A Gentleman's Travel Notes.
Adirondack Winters are long and beautiful. A resting time for the natural world. But the season's over for trail building, fixing, carpentry and other chores that keep me busy. By year's end I'm ready to leave the place to Murray on weekends, and take the cure for cabin fever. I pack up and head out on the road. In this way I'm getting the health-giving benefits of a break from everyday life into a simple set of new experiences. I hope these pages give you some ideas. A Fourpeaks vacation "away from it all?" Email me and I'll make some wise suggestions.
"Are you working on those memoirs yet?" (An Email Exchange.)
A Gentleman's Travel Notes: Index to all 9 Pages.
(Scroll down. To select page click on image or page name in box.)
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Sample photo. |
A Gentleman's Travel Notes. |
Photos |
What I have to say. |
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Getting Started. Ocracoke NC and Portsmouth Island.
November '07 |
40 photos |
My road trips of this era started with a NY Gilbert and Sullivan 2008 program flyer. Then, one October day in Placid for the dump and shopping, I spotted a smart looking black Suburban in a used car lot, $5000 cheap. Fred went along with my customizing plan. Unique. Thinking ocean and remembering Micky and Bill Kellogg's Chincoteague, I made the Outer Banks for a two week breakin trip. First stop NYC Gilbert and Sullivan. |
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NYC to The Florida Keys.
Jan 10-22,'08. |
25 photos |
The Keys is a 100-mile long stretch of highway with shops on either side, marinas, motels and a few shopping centers where the population concentration will support them. It's made of coral rock which formed millenia ago when this was 30 feet under water and coral lived here. Sometimes the highway is 4-lane but mostly 2-lane with cops hiding in the bush looking for unwary visitors. |
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Perry FL, New Orleans.
Jan 23-27,'08 |
55 photos |
Perry has 50,000 on the old coast highway with a paper mill. I enjoyed extending my stay with desk work at the motel, post office, shopping drugs, a bookstore for local writing on the Suwannee and other rivers nearby. Held off leaving for lunch at the Oyster House. Oyster stew again (yum), swamp cabbage (hearts of palm), saltines, with ahssed tea, unsweet. |
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Del Rio TX.
Jan 28-Feb 6,'08 |
60 photos |
The bike guy liked the view so I let him pitch his tent at my site. TA brought over some chicken for him, which he cooked on his Coleman along with rice-a-roni he had. I charged his cell phone for him. He phones his crowd when he crosses a new state line and they pass the word around. Most of his overnights are in a field someplace alone. |
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More Del Rio.
Feb 8-10,'08 |
38 photos |
I chatted with a Mexican who contributed to the large murals here. Mexican War, Vietnam, mourning, Purple Heart. Religious life, Mary, the church. Worker rights, the farm workers flag, a farmer and an activist by scales of Justice. Lastly, a lineup of accused persons, hands tied behind their backs before a fierce judge, American flag, scales weighed down with money. |
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Del Rio to Padre Island
Feb 11-12,'0. |
42 photos |
Next tram ride, got off at a trail with a hawk tower somewhere ahead. I never made it. Took a few nature snaps and, arm for a pillow, a nice long nap in the sun. Got interrupted ("Are you ok?") but I didn't dare go into the bush like I would have at home. Not afraid of rattlesnakes in the open, but a misstep is always possible in the dense growth there. Never saw a bird.
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Buzzard Roost, San Felipe, Seminole Canyon. Jan'09 |
36 photos |
At each dip in the road I look for the sign, some arroyo, creek or just a slough. From the rises I see the brushland extends unbroken to the horizon. Hardly any grass or understory. The bare plants have names like guajillo, blackbrush acacia, ceniza, and shrubby bluesage. |
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Quinceanera, Flea Market, Blackbrush. Feb'09 |
36 photos |
The tree outside, she says, is Arkansas Ash. The fuzzy stuff that I was pointing at, all over my car and covering the ground around, isn't seeds. This is a male tree, she said, apologizing for the mess. She motioned groundward to a natural evidence of growth. Problem with the plumbing, she says. |
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Eagle Pass, Box Canyon. Feb'09 |
34 photos |
When the wind comes I'm at the picnic table on some fixit chore for the trailer. I feel it on my back. Dust and smoke in a fierce cloud moving fast. I find the black guy next door, but can't understand. A kid drives by with information about weather from Dallas south. He uses the "T" word. "When you feel rain first, then hail, that's it," he says. |
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Big Bend National Park. March'09 |
50 photos |
Level spots alternate with washouts, dips, ditches, big rocks. Low hills, with rocks in layers each a distinct color, hardness and age. I make a wrong turn at Telephone Canyon. Backtrack and find the trail again. The road drops to a canyon bottom, high walls around and a wide wash, then climbs out again. Getting late. Worried. Low blinding sun. |
"Are you working on those memoirs yet?" (An Email Exchange.)
Subject: Claire P***** wrote on your Wall...
From: Facebook
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:06:52 -0700
To: Martin Schwalbaum
Claire wrote on your Wall:
"Martin--Are you working on those memoirs yet?"
Claire--
"Are you working on those memoirs yet?"
Yes. I figure it's about time.
I'm collecting it all on my Fourpeaks webpage. You can see what I've done so far.
Adirondack Poetry at Fourpeaks. I've made a poem or a short prose poem about every memorable event of my life. I think you must have a copy of my "Poems For My Kids," published in '95. If not I'll give you a copy next time you're here.
A Personal Potpourri. 14 pages, including about me and Irene, me and Becky, the best 2 GF's I ever had, after Louise kicked me out.
The Fourpeaks Story: 1967 to Today. 40 years of building and fixing my wilderness place. How it all happened.
A Gentleman's Travel Notes. 10 pages, including the one about my last try to get back with Louise, or at least take her out for dinner, theater, music--whatever.
How I got George. I still have to write about how he got dognapped by an evil dogcatcher for ransom.
More pets. Tramp and Floppy, our family pets before the divorce. There's a lot about Albert my fave pet (a mini schnauzer who sang, 14 years, Louise adopted him when Joni kicked him out, how he got dognapped and Louise put an ad in the paper and found him in a flat in Hell's Kitchen) but I have to collect it and write it better.
I'm not saying anything about Salt and Pepper, 2 mini schnau bitches we got after Albert. We got rid of Salt, a runaway. Pepper got loose and run over at the Stone House.
My son Murray, his new wife, Iza, and their chicken, Carmalita. They live in Brooklyn so I don't get to see them a lot. But he helps me with computer stuff and says he'll run the place when I'm dead. She's an artist.
My daughter Maggie, and our fun vacation together with hippies in SF. She lives in nearby Burlington so I get to see her for hiking and shopping.
The '98 Ice Storm. How 100-year freeze just snapped the trees above us in the Stone House. Changed the forest foe a long time.
I'm adding stuff as I get time and inspiration. Murray says I should get a video camera and put it all on YouTube. Iza could help. But I'd rather write about it. Thanks for asking.
Love,
Martin
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A Personal Potpourri.
Old photos, letters, clippings, greeting cards and other stuff too precious to discard. A Personal Potpourri is your Adirondack Guide's eclectic photo and writing place for stuff that just doesn't fit elsewhere in Fourpeaks Adirondack Backcountry Camps webpages. CLICK HERE for more Personal Potpourri. CLICK HERE to meet Your Adirondack Guide.
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A Gentleman's Travel Notes.
Adirondack Winters are long and beautiful. A resting time for the natural world. But the season's over for trail building, fixing, carpentry and other chores that keep me busy. By year's end I'm ready to leave the place to Murray on weekends, and take the cure for cabin fever. I pack up and head out on the road. In this way I'm getting the health-giving benefits of a break from everyday life into a simple set of new experiences. I hope these pages give you some ideas. A Fourpeaks vacation "away from it all?" Email me and I'll make some wise suggestions.
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