Saturday, August 26th, 2017

Cold Springs, Nevada

With the Highway People

As usual, stars greet me in the morning, some of which make that dive.  Owls hoot.  Bats fly past.  The air is warm, then cool.  A diversity of currents come at you.  Then the sun rises and everything changes.  The night life for the animals comes to an end and everything is relatively quiet, except for man.

The traffic of vacationers begins.  For me some attention comes.  People wave, honk or stop.  Over pulls a young woman from Oklahoma.  She walks with me a bit.  A vehicle from New York with two couples comes to a halt.  “Can we help?”

“Just walking—across the U.S.”

A local rancher, with some young men, asked Marshall, who’s coming my way,  if all is okay.

“So you’re just going for a walk?” https://youtu.be/7qaYi6KuHhc

“I’m supporting the monk,” says Marshall.

“Monk!?” mentioned the fellow, as if there’s a Martian in town.

We came upon the Pony Express station and the remains of a Long Range Station.  The Shoshone tribe camped in these areas in winter.  You get this rich history here.  The train and the Lincoln Highway changed modes of travel forever.  Devon—whom we met up with again—and I, are cross-nation walkers who defy, in a way, these alternative modes of travel, merely by our constant stepping on the soil.

In Austen, the Nevada branch of the Lincoln Highway association met at Leland House and we were invited.  After all Hwy 50 and the historic Lincoln Hwy merge here.  Bob, the mayor, played sax.  We were in good hands.  Nice people.  My purpose is to do just that—to meet and mingle and let them know that Krishna is cool.

May the Source be with you!

20 miles

Editor’s note: For a visual and informative history of the area, check out this series of YouTube videos.

https://youtu.be/w7BxdwCf9fI

Friday, August 25th, 2017

Near salt flats of Austin, Nevada

Life is Precarious

Curtis had left us two days ago, back to Canada.  He expressed before leaving that he learned much from his stay with us.  We will miss him and wish him a safe journey as he hitch-hikes to British Columbia.

As one person goes, another seems to enter the door.  Mark, from Austin, is a thirty-four year old who’s gone through a lot, including alcoholism.  He joined us for my last six miles of the day.  In our discussion with him, we concluded that life’s traumas can be responded to by one of two ways—the way of darkness and self-deception, or the way of spirituality.  One leads to a tunnel of compounding difficulties; the other to freedom.

Mark, Marshall, Hayagriva and I very much relished the last two hours, however, our return ride back to our satellite, Lincoln Motel, meant death for several entities.  Rabbits in particular were creamed under our tires.  It seems that life is very vibrant at nightfall.  A young fox became confused by our headlights while he was hunting.  He wouldn’t leave the road and scurried about here and there on the asphalt.  Finally, he left our radar and fled.  An owl also swooped down in front of our vehicle, “The Jaladhuta Express.”  Minutes later a young bobcat ran in front of us, escaping death from our wheels.

https://instagram.com/p/BYNRxKEFPMa/

Whether human or animal, life totters from safety to threats.  To Mark, I suggested he work on a freedom program.  “Be determined to be clean.”

May the Source be with you!

20 miles

Thursday, August 24th, 2017

Austin, Nevada

Not Austin Texas

The sign hung from a bar on two metal legs and read “Road Closed.”  Marshall and I felt it didn’t apply to pedestrians so we forged ahead on their rather walkable road.  Two miles down, we met some of the workmen on the road.  One of the construction crew held up the reversible stop/slow sign.  Really, there was no traffic but us, two foot travellers.  Still, Jerry, whom we had come to know, held up the side that says, “Slow!”

“How slow should we go?” I asked him.  “We’re only doing three miles an hour.”  It was a light point in his day.  He talked about standing there for many hours and admiring the fact that we walk.  He also liked our cause which is all about slowing down, or cutting down on what we call raja-guna.  We made friends.

I also took the opportunity to carry the Gita with me for a memorization exercise.  From Chapter 7, Krishna is identified as power: “I am the strength of the strong devoid of passion and desire.  I am sex which is not contrary to dharmic principles.”

As I was memorizing the Sanskrit of the verse, an RV pulled over with a trailer hitched to it and on the trailer was an 800 pound Buddha, 8 feet tall, and all wrapped in an orange-toned plastic.  The sculptor, Virginia, and her partner, are en route to the “Burning Man Festival” held right here in Nevada.  I thought,  I would like to go if I didn’t have to pay the astronomical fee.  There’s lots of good souls that attend events like this.  It’s going to happen near the area where I'm walking.  https://burningman.org/event/

May the Source be with you!

20 miles