Header 2021
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Road Trip
Fedex came today carrying a long tube and a heavy box filled with charts and guide books. You see we happened on a terrific deal on most of the charts and guides we needed for our trip from Chicago to Nova Scotia via the St. Lawrence. A friend of a friend just finished the trip and was looking to offload the materials in preparation for loading up on Caribbean charts for his trip farther South. It carries with it a bit of the excitement of The Road Trips that we used to take in the car when we were younger. Stacks of maps to look at and plan from, the trip unknown and full of promise. In spite of the fact that we don't have a working engine at the moment or a transmission to power with that engine, it somehow makes me feel just a little better to have these stacks of books on my kitchen counter and piles of charts on the kitchen table. The charts aren't new, exhibiting some markings on them from their previous owner, and somehow I feel connected to them as a result. Brand spanking new charts would mock me I think, their blank margins and possible routes waiting for the pencil, but these charts smell a little of the ocean and teak and diesel and salt, and the slightly stained and dog-eared edges do yield a bit of promise.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Considering how the boat was mis-represented, un-inspected and defected how could you trust a chart? America is going to hell in a handbasket. People protest for prosperity, tax the rich to elevate the poor, but fail to do what is necessary to be a decent human being...
I don't think people are portesting for prosperity, they are protesting for an end to corruption, cronyism and robber barron economics; for a system that is fair to everyone contributing. I don't think anyone wants to tax the rich to elevate the poor either, (though that isn't a bad idea) just a tax system that is fair as well. It was a rich person who sold me the boat, a well-to-do yacht broker mis-represented it, and one of the biggest boat yards in Chicago shirked on the work. I'm not sure what that means about who is the decent human being and who isn't, but my hope is a lot of the good ones are like you and me, living on, or hoping to live on, a sailboat someday soon. And if bogus charts run me up on a reef, I hope one of you good people will come pull me off!
Post a Comment