Painted Desert

Painted Desert
Originally uploaded by musicmuse_ca

We stopped at some of the native American reservations on our way from the Grand Canyon, and got this view of the Painted Desert. It was incredibly hot, dry and beautiful. The people selling the crafts were friendly and informative, and the desert was magical.

This part of the journey back East was my favorite. The American Southwest, and the Great Basin, are special places. Magical and powerful. I hope I can get back here without a car full of my belongings someday and really explore this wild land....

Dreamcatcher

dreamcatcher
Originally uploaded by musicmuse_ca

I took this along the side of Route 40 in New Mexico. The dream-catcher is said to change your dreams so that only good dreams filter through. Bad dreams are thought to be caught in the net, to disappear with the dawn.

I would need one this big to erase my night terrors, which were especially severe as I re-visited this stretch of road. The last time I drove thru here was over 30 years ago..

I was severely ill, and had just miscarried. My then-husband was driving us back to the East Coast after our "honeymoon" in LA. I was feverish, depressed and desperate to escape the clutches of the man I married, but I had no where to turn for the help and support I needed.

When I drove this road again, the feelings from that time came flooding back. The day was windy, rainy with thunderstorms and sandstorms. The weather was threatening, urging me on and not to dawdle in this part of my journey through my past.

I stopped in Albuquerque to spend the night, but the terror found me there in my sleep as I dreamed. Alas, I had no dream-catcher over my bed to bring me peace, and I was haunted once more by the ghosts of my past.

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon
Originally uploaded by musicmuse_ca

My first visit to the Grand Canyon. We were lucky to have relatively moderate August weather and the sky was clear. I remember my mother telling me about her trips here....she went rafting the rapids in her fifties and took a helicopter ride over it as well.

Nothing so adventuresome for me...just a view from the rim with my daughter and my doggie. Memories flood in about the last time I was near here over 30 years ago with my ex-husband. We were driving back from LA from our honeymoon, and even though I was physically not well, I still wanted to come north from Flagstaff to see the Grand Canyon. He refused and kept on driving back to Buffalo New York, where we were living at the time.

Now I am making the long journey back to NYC, the place I fled from in my teens, retracing my steps and reliving all the mistakes I made along the way. It has been emotionally intense and draining, but I will be writing about some of this in future entries.

For now, let's just enjoy the view!

Manzanar Cemetery

Manzanar Cemetery
Originally uploaded by musicmuse_ca

I stopped at Manzanar while travelling down Highy 395 on the Eastern Sierras. This was the WWII internment camp for the Japanese who were living on the West Coast during WWII.

When I first moved to California, I had no knowledge of this shameful piece of US history. One of my co-workers in LA who was of Japanese descent mentioned to me that she grew up there during part of her childhood, and it was from her that I learned of the history of this place.

It is well worth a visit if you are in the area. It is so hot, dry and incredibly remote. Not so hard to imagine how awful it must have been to be forced to move there, leaving all the comforts of home behind and loosing most of your posessions and properties and buisnesses simply because your ancestors were born in Japan. Don't forget, these were all US citizens who had comitted no crime except that of looking like the enemy.

The ultimate irony is that many of the young men from there volunteered to fight for the freedom of the US in WWII, while the rest of their families were locked up at this camp. Their unit was one of the most decorated in Europe and also incurred the most casulties.

Not much is left there now, but the interpretive center, some markers of what used to be there and this cemetery standing alone at the foot of the Sierras.