SLIP SLIDING

Road trips are generally good, even when they are not but you do that and it seems to work. Paul Simon (singer) wrote a wonderful song nearly fifty years ago that simply keeps on keeping on; Slip Sliding Away. He drops little clues about living a deliberate life and how those plans slip away unfulfilled. I told anybody who would listen to me that song, that ’Life’ has a double edge, either you have it or it has you. When you weigh and measure the phrasing and melancholy, I got it. I remember the lines; “She said a good day ain’t got no rain. She said a bad day’s when I lie in bed and think about what might have been.” Then the mortal caveat leaves you wishing for something that doesn’t exist: You know the nearer your destination the more you’re slip sliding away. All I could ever do was accept, it is what it is and if I can’t slip and slide away then, might as well stay in bed and make believe. 

I am in Corpus Christi with time to kill. Sleeping on the road has a long backstory with me. Managing money has always been a priority, one I struggle with. For whatever reason, spending good money to be unconscious in a strange bed just never met my need. Being comfortable while asleep seemed a contradiction of logic. I’ve always been able to close eyes and drift off. Five minutes or five hours later I can get up and go. If I am exhausted then all I need is the seat back and something soft for my head. I have lots better use for my dollar-bills than sleeping through. If I can’t be present to enjoy it, it doesn’t count and if I am present I might as well be putting miles between where I was and where I want to be. 

But age is taking its toll on me and that easy-peasy fall-asleep trick is harder to pull off, and staying asleep requires limber shoulders, hips and flexibility I can only remember. Don’t give up on me, I still sleep in safe, warm, dry little slots along the way, any time of day. But I’ve come to depend on ‘Warm’. Old dogs still learn but things change and I'm not ready for some of the new tricks. The years (numbers) can be insulted and shunned but they do add up and I have too many to dismiss. Traveling in cold weather, to keep feet warm I need to get horizontal. That generally means motel, AirBnB or having an amigo with an extra bed strategically located along my route. Right now I am killing six days and nights in Corpus Christi, TX. I could stay in the truck cab at truck stops. Their showers work for old men in pickups at a fraction of the price for a room at Best Western. After an early a.m. shower and clean clothes, walking across the lot at a Flying J truck stop is hard to beat. By the time I drive for half an hour there simply is no difference. 

My reason for ‘Six days & nights in Corpus Christi is another story but come bed time nobody cares. My host is Mary Gonzales, an abuela - grandmother & teacher’s aide who put four kids through college and converted their space, (bedrooms) into AirBnB rooms. I love the neighborhood (barrio). The houses are all different types and colors with low chain link fences around small, well groomed yards. Several cars or trucks in every drive and you can hear neighbors calling after their kids or husbands or whom ever needs to get their behind home. The norm spoken is ‘Spanglish’ that comfortable blending of Español and English that even I can follow, usually. 

So here I am about as far from my home as this trip will allow. I wasn’t really ready to be blessed with more money than I have time but live long enough, stay healthy (that’s the recipe). So paying dollars for a warm bed instead of waking up with cold feet and an impatient bladder, a long walk from a bathroom; I’m glad for a good night anywhere. Good sleep just comes but good wake-ups stay with you for a while. I never thought much about it but dying with unspent money makes me look careless. But I know, it's not a choice. It'a about the journey and slip sliding is the only way I know.