This and That - Travel and Politics

I spent last week 'on the road'. Once again, I was far too busy to take any photos, though I had my trusty camera at my side. On the highway from Hattiesburg to Clinton, MS I saw several picturesque truck farmers with truck beds full of yams. It must be sweet potato season in Mississippi. I really wished I wasn't driving and had had the time to stop to snap the extra large African American farmer in straw hat with the yams neatly arranged in evenly sized stacks on his truck bed. He looked like a vanishing bit of Americana.

My trips were all excellent. I like weeks like that. They're hard in that I have to be away from home and my family and my art. I haven't picked up a calligraphy pen or a paintbrush in weeks! The hours are long on the road, but there is something very satisfying in knowing I am helping my clients...and I like them so much! Almost all of my clients are wonderful, kind, generous-hearted people whom it is good to be near. I want to help them succeed. It is good to be part of something bigger than myself.

I meet such interesting people on my flights sometimes! A little bonus in my life. They are transient companions. I will likely never see them again, but we are all on this planet (or sharing the same air) together and for the hour or so of our time in the sky together we connect. Funny thing happened this trip. I found out that a man in Mississippi whom I share conversation and trips to a coffee shop with actually knows a lovely Louisville couple (The Dehoneys) whom I met on a flight about a year ago. You never know. I'm glad my mother taught me to be nice.

Speaking of my mother...she is so funny! And she is surprisingly political this year. She said to my sister and her friends Saturday night after a party, "If I voted for Bush, I'm sorry." I love her! I was very young, but I remember my first taste of politics. My dad threw my "I like Ike" button into the backyard. Mom was wholeheartedly for Eisenhower and Daddy was steadfastly for Stevenson. I don't remember where I got the button...Mom? A neighbor? No idea. I looked for it for a long time.

And now I have to tell what my good friend's 4 year old granddaughter said of Sarah Palin. Yes, she knew who she was, she said. "She's the only woman who is voting for McCain." Had to laugh out loud when I heard that one!

I voted today. I'll be traveling on election day. The courthouse was VERY crowded! I've never seen so much early voting going on! I had to wait an hour. Courthouse workers told me it's been like that every day.