“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer, and that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something strongersomething better, pushing right back.” — Albert Camus
September calls, as the sky transforms, and the days grow shorter.
In mid-August, with summer at its peak, I drove West from Wisconsin through Wall, South Dakota, up through Buffalo, WY, and Missoula, MT to join with other family members, and attend a wedding in Olympia, WA. I made a short stop at ‘Wall Drugs’ in South Dakota to pick up a pair of ‘ostrich skinned’ cowboy boots and a black rimmed cowboy hat to celebrate the occasion, then continued driving northwest. I also enjoyed a ‘best ever’ New York Strip steak sandwich with a ‘Bourbon Manhattan’ at the ‘Cowboy Bar & Grill’ in Buffalo, Wyoming before driving further northwest. Yakima, Aberdeen, Seabrook, and Ocean Grove, Washington along the Pacific coast were also memorable stops on the way, prior to settling in with family and friends in Olympia by mid-August. At a hotel stay in Yakima, I happened to meet another exWESPAC sailor named ‘Chuck’ who had spent time in Yokosuka, Japan during the same period as me during the Viet Nam conflict, so we discussed my books and the tallinnbrand.com website. I mentioned to Chuck that the picture of me on the back cover of ‘Victory Liner 504’ (taken 50 years ago), was taken on the deck of the ‘Flint’ (our ship) during one of our many stops in Yokosuka to pick up ammo before heading back to the ‘line’. Chuck and his biker pals were headed east to Sturgis, South Dakota on their ‘Harleys’, after the rally had ended, as they anticipated visiting the ‘Badlands’ in mid to late August with fewer motorcycles in the area. A mid-summer road trip. My travel west also gave me some time to reflect on the book publishing market, as well as the plethora of self-publishing perils associated with that trade (as outlined in ‘writer blog sites’ like ‘writerbeware.blog’), to warn of potential hustles and trickery. But alas, the world was filled with numerous scams in multiple markets including medical, law, corporate, financial, and government circles, … so the atrophy was systemic, and countless ‘players’ had developed their own angles for ‘making a buck’ in an often corrupted and conflicted world. So, freedom isn’t free, and actions have consequences. Or, as scribed in another quote from Albert Camus;
‘The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.’ – Albert Camus
After the wedding, my wife joined me on the return trip home as we followed a more northern US-2 route through Kalispell, Montana and Glacier National Park, with a stop in East Grand Forks, Minnesota that also included a birthday dinner at the ‘Blue Moose Bar & Grill’ to top off the long trip. As we approach Autumn, I can look forward to firing up the wood stove in my backyard sauna to enjoy cooler weather, while ‘chilling’ in the fragrance of the raw wet cedar and satiating steam of the sauna during one of my favorite months of the year. Let the ‘Fall’ begin.