it's photo taking time

But that means that it's also not much writing time :(

I spent the last couple of days driving to northern Ohio, going to my sister Sarah's graduation and driving back home. In the course of three days I drove through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And much of that on back roads at night. It was a hard drive but it was worth it.

And on the way I'm pretty sure that I saw a Yeti on the side of the road. A short Yeti. OK, maybe it was a fence post that resembled a Yeti out of the corner of my eye but I prefer to think that it was the real thing. My delusions keep my life a little bit more interesting than it would be without them.

I also noticed that late at night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is when the big rigs come out. It must be their time, those nocturnal machines. During a 15 minute time span I decided to count how many I saw on the road and got to 105 before the clock ran out. That's a lot of trucks. Shades of Maximum Overdrive were running through my mind...

And yet another from the road observation of mine... stopping at a rest stop late, late at night in the middle of nowhere is just asking for trouble. When you do something like that you're in serial killer territory and all kinds of creepy scary things pop into your brain. I kept replaying episodes of Criminal Minds in my head and thought of all of the perfect hiding spots for a serial killer on the side of the road. Best just to pee as quickly as possible and hop right back in the car.

All in all it was an awesome little trip full of fun times with my mom and my sisters and my brother in law and his parents. I'm very proud of my sister Sarah. 27 months in a School for Nurse Anesthetists is no small feat. And that's on top of the 4 years of college that she has already put in plus her nursing job in between the two. I don't think that I could do it.

I even managed to stop at a roadside fruit stand on the way home. Well, truth be told I was getting very sleepy and needed to get out and walk around. But it was the perfect excuse to take some photos and to eat some apple chips. Mmmm.

Next up for me is Louisville, Ky, home for Thanksgiving. I get to rest up til Wednesday and then I'm on the road again. Looking forward to lots and lots of photo opportunities, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and catching up with some old friends.

And then hopefully soon I can check back in on Miss Mavis Bean and find out what's been going on behind that door  that she went through...

doors to the great beyond...

After walking for a while, for quite a while really, Mavis and Adelaide came to stand before a door. And then another door and another and another...

Six doors in all.

"Pick a door" Adelaide said. "But where  do they go?" asked Mavis.

"They all go to different places and it is for you to decide which one to enter through first. But not to worry, you can return and go through the other doors if you so choose. In fact, you should!

"One of these doors will take you to the land of eternal milk and honey...

One door will lead you to a world of whimsy...

Another is a portal to a land of fairies and sprites and pixies...

 

Yet another is a door to the past...

 One of the doors leads to the dark world of the underneath...

And the final door leads you to a world built by your own imagination...

"I don't know which door is which" Adelaide explained, "and neither will you until we pass through, but it is up to you to choose which we will enter."

"This is an awfully important decision" Mavis whispered to herself. "Which to choose, oh my goodness, how will I decide...

Well I guess the only way to do this is to start with the first door that we came to and see what we find and when we have found all that we can find we will move on to the second and the third and so on and so forth." she decided and with a note of enthusiasm she added

"this is so exciting, I can hardly wait!"

"Lets wait no longer then and be on our way to whichever world awaits us" said Adelaide and off the two went, onwards to the unknown and the great beyond. 

to be continued...

the land of the ghosts

Soon Mavis and Adelaide came to be in the Land of the Ghosts. It looked just like the regular outside world, complete with subways and streets and buildings, but it was populated by ghosts. And all of the ghosts seemed to be going about rather ordinary everyday business.

"What are they doing, these ghosts?" asked Mavis. "Do they know that they are ghosts? Do they know that they don't need to catch a subway or stand in line any more?"

"They are ghosts that are in the in between" Adelaide responded. "Eventually they will move on and continue with more ghostly matters but for right now they are still living out their regular lives like regular Normals except that they are not Normals because they are dead. And they know that they are dead but until they finish their unfinished business with their lives that they had they can't move on."

"Oh how dreadful for them!" Mavis exclaimed. "Aren't they terribly upset about this?"

"Quite the contrary" Adelaide explained. "They know that they have unfinished business and they are very content to finish what they started. So until then they must go on doing what they need to do and keep on being who they were until they are ready to move on. And until then they still like and dislike the same things as before and they still have their jobs and their hobbies that they had before.

"See there, the man in the gray standing on the platform waiting for the tube? That's Ambrose. Ambrose was and is a historian. Usually he wears an old cardigan with leather patches on the elbows and smokes a pipe. But he can't smoke a pipe on the tube, even in the Land of the Ghosts, so he doesn't. And even now, as a ghost, Ambrose likes to bake and he likes to recite poetry and he likes to do push ups. But he still doesn't like, even though he's now dead, eating rye bread or coming across unfriendly people or seeing monster trucks. So really, even though he's a ghost, his life, or lack of it, hasn't changed much. And until he completes his lessons he'll continue on in the in between.

"And there, do you see the woman with the pocketbook slung over her shoulder? That's Edwina. Edwina is a waitress at a little diner where she works the breakfast shift serving french toast and coffee. Edwina likes to play cards and she likes to ride her bike and she enjoys jigsaw puzzles. But she doesn't like having to remember to take her vitamins (which now that she's dead she really doesn't need to do as much as she did before) and she dislikes white tennis shoes and she really, really dislikes lousy tippers.

And there, in this group, somewhere in there is Max. He's a tattoo artist from Hoboken and he loves to read the dictionary to learn new words and hopes that someone will want one of his new found words tattooed on their wrist. In the evenings he likes to practise his french and eat tangerines. But oddly enough he doesn't like the color orange. And he doesn't like loud motorcycles and he  doesn't like to eat chicken livers. Not at all.

"So you see, these are the ghosts that help to keep the Other Side and the World of the Normals from colliding. And as these ghosts finish their business and move on to where they move on to then new ghosts will come along.

But we still have a long way to go until we get to where we are going so now we must continue on through the Land of the Ghosts and see what is in store for you next."

to be continued... 

“So do we pass the ghosts that haunt us later in our lives; they sit undramatically by the roadside like poor beggars, and we see them only from the corners of our eyes, if we see them at all. The idea that they have been waiting there for us rarely crosses our minds. Yet they do wait, and when we have passed, they gather up their bundles of memory and fall in behind, treading in our footsteps and catching up, little by little.” ~ Stephen King

Mavis meets Adelaide

Mavis didn't know what - or who - she expected to see upon passing through the passageway but this was not it. Not that she minded in the least, she quite enjoyed meeting all kinds of strange beings, but a raven faced girl in a spotted leopard coat was definitely unexpected.

"Who are you? Where am I?" she asked of the raven girl. "What an odd place this is".

"An odd place is the best place of all. And shouldn't you also ask 'when am I?'" replied the raven girl. "But no matter, I will tell you who I am and where you are and when we are. My name, Mavis, is Adelaide Le Corbeau and we are on The Other Side in a time that moves back and forth between yesterday and today and tomorrow. If you look through the trees you can still see the normal world with the normal people going about their normal business. But they can't see you. They could if they wanted to but The Normals don't ever see what is not right in front of them and easily explained. And we are not easily explained."

"So what happens now?" Mavis asked, wondering just what this world was all about. The Not Normal World of the Other Side. "Patience dear Mavis" Adelaide said with a small smile, "patience. You will soon see with your own two eyes the many things that there are  to see. But first, we must travel through the ghost world. Do not be alarmed, they will not harm you,  they are but the filter between this world and that, just in case a regular old Normal happens to stumble in. Normals are awfully afraid of ghosts."

"Well",  said Mavis, "it's a good thing that I am not a Normal, though I don't know quite what I am, because ghosts don't scare me a bit. I rather like them I dare say."

And with that said Mavis and Adelaide set off on their way into the Other Side and away from the Normals. And into the Ghost World.

to be continued...

Mavis goes into the woods

Soon after Mavis discovered The Road she decided to veer off of it. What was the point of keeping on if she never stopped to see what was along the way? In her experience all of the most interesting things were along the way. Things that happened by accident. Things that you never expected but then couldn't imagine living without. Things that surprised and amazed and delighted you. And sometimes things that shook you to your very core. But Mavis welcomed the accidental and the unexpected and the surprising and the amazing and the delightful and even the shaking to the core. There were alot of people out there she had found, maybe even most people, that never, ever wanted to be amazed or surprised or to even look beyond their own noses. What a dreadful and boring life she thought and silently she pitied the foolish people. But what they lacked in curiosity she was overflowing with and for every adventure that someone else passed by and tossed aside she picked up off of the ground and packed into her satchel for future use. One can never have too many options after all.

On the day that Mavis found the road and then veered off of it she began to hear strange sounds. It sounded as if an airplane was flying right above her but the sky was clear. And then she heard a train beside her but there were no tracks to be seen. She heard voices in the trees and whispering in the wind but still she didn't see anyone or anything. But onward she ventured. Mavis was not the type of girl to be daunted by some mysterious noises in the woods.  And so she kept on keeping on. And through the woods she went.

Soon Mavis came to a clearing in the woods that led to a trail that led to a path that led to a tunnel of trees that eventually led to a passageway into a strange new place. As she walked through the clearing and down the trail and along the path and into the tunnel of trees and through the passageway she began to feel an excitement in the air. A strange tingling began along the nape of her neck and along her arms and to the tips of her fingers. She had a feeling that something wondrous was just beyond her sight and that at any moment now she would be able to see what she had heard in the wind and felt in her finger tips.

to be continued...

and the story begins...

Once upon a time, in a time not so very long ago, there was a girl who found a road that took her into a parallel universe. It seemed like the same sort of world from where she came but it wasn't really. At times this other world was much, much better but at other times it was rather frightful. But she was brave and curious and sure, this girl, and so she set out on an adventure down the road not knowing what was up ahead. She only knew that

there would be magic and wonder and things that she had never seen. And that danger may lurk around every bend but that somehow, though she didn't really know how, she was prepared. And it was then that she realized  that  she herself was a parallel girl and that the rules were changing. What a fantastic adventure indeed.

This is the story of Miss Mavis Bean and her journeys to the Other Side.

To be continued...