October 5
Razelle spent the morning reading Anita's copy of Jean
Auel's "The Land of the Painted Caves" the final novel of the "Clan
of the Cave Bear" series (as we call it), recently published and only available
in hardcover so far. Razelle has to get through this book and leave it behind
when we leave Baltimore so she was intensely involved in that silent endeavor.
While Razelle was at this, I took time to explore the
neighborhood on foot this crisp sunny autumn morning and go buy a charge card
to top up my laptop, this being the last day my $50-unlimited-use-for-a-month Virgin
Mobile card had left on it. Since we have only 10 days left in the US before we
move on to the next country, I thought it would be a good idea to only buy a
$10 card (or at least worth trying), which should be good for 10 days (if I don't
overuse it). I walked down to the corner traffic light at Reisterstown Rd and
Northern Parkway to the Walgreens store. They didn't have the right mobile card
denomination so I continued down Reisterstown Rd another block and found what I
needed at a Dollar Discount store.
All the people I passed along Reisterstown Rd were black. I
was the only white person I saw walking along this thoroughfare (alone). I
tried to be nonchalant about that, but not having lived in the US for so many
decades I had no idea whether or not I was being naïve about my safety. The
most disconcerting thing was listening to conversations I overheard as I passed
small groups of males, talking among themselves and letting the
"N-word" pepper their speech liberally. I also heard music someone
passing me on the sidewalk was playing loud enough to be heard; he chanted
along with its rap lyrics, which also had the "N-word" come up every
so often. I just glided through this scene as unobtrusively as I could to
return to the supposed safely of Ralph's street. Once there, I took time to notice
the shade trees that lined the pavement. My footsteps lightly crunched the
leaves that were beginning to fall onto the sidewalk this time of year. These
trees also dropped acorn/chestnut-type fruit (beechnuts?) onto the sidewalks
and tree-lawns and into the gutters. I may learn their identity eventually, but
for the time being they are not familiar to me.
When I returned Razelle asked to go out too. She was
interested in eating out somewhere. We got into the van and drove up
Reisterstown Rd in the opposite direction from the one I'd walked. Last night,
we drove a long stretch of Reisterstown Rd from that direction when we'd
returned from Washington and I had seen a lot of commercial centers, closed at
that late hour. I thought Razelle would like to see what kind of choices this
area had to offer (she was asleep as we passed last night so she missed seeing
it). One shopping plaza after another came into view. We found an old familiar
eatery that has never disappointed: IHOP, and we alighted there for a meal. For
a change, instead of ordering my usual bowl of grits, I ordered a bowl of
oatmeal. Our waiter was a tall thin and cheerfully talkative and attentive
black man. He seemed to have had a good education and I thought he might in
fact be a manager instead of a waiter, because he was older than the usual age
of the waiters we've encountered on our journey across America. He talked
economics with Razelle and remarked about the competitor across the street
adding solar panels on the roof of their business, so he revealed an awareness
of structural engineering too. Then a superior of his handed him a broom and
dustpan and I realized he wasn't a manager. I hope this man can find a job some
day, when the economy turns around, that can utilize his talents better. At
least he is working and there is dignity in that.
We returned to Ralph and Anita's. At the top of the stairs
in their house I entered our bedroom and violently ran my right knee into the
bedpost. I collapsed onto the bed and waited for the agonizing pain to subside
from my aching patella and feared that this might be the "end of the road"
for this road trip. If my right knee were now damaged I wouldn't be able to
drive anymore. I willed the pain away and after a while I dared to try
standing. My knee was tender, but otherwise undamaged. Whew, that was a close
call.
I worked on my blog and will soon be posting some new entries, finally. These will bring my blog up to our arrival in Detroit, a full month after the fact. I have fallen so far behind and
our last several days ahead are so packed with visits to people and religious
holidays that I don't see how I'll be able to catch up completely with where we
are currently located as we travel. I will finish this blog, I promise, no
matter what, even if it is written in retrospect from notes. I also used my new
Virgin Mobile card to do a lot of route planning on the web on Google maps. It is
getting to be critical now just how much distance we have left to drive. An obligatory
oil change will be due by the time we complete the projected distance I estimate
we still have left to finish our trip south to Virginia, then north to
Massachusetts then south again to leave the van in New Jersey. I wanted to determine
whether our route might go beyond the mileage still left before the oil change ends
up being my responsibility instead of theirs. It will be close. Doing this
research, however, I used enough megabytes that my 10-day card won't last past
tomorrow – an experiment in thrift that didn't have the outcome I was hoping
for.
Anita spent the afternoon cooking a special meal for us. She
is a holistic nurse and prepares macrobiotic dishes that one doesn't encounter
every day. This is what makes them special. There are roots and grains and
vegetables in her dishes you can't readily identify from common experience
because they are special too. When she tells you what they are you can't help
but smile. Of course you've heard of them, many times in fact, but rarely (if
ever) tasted them. These dishes take longer to prepare, so Razelle and Anita
had lots of time together in the kitchen to talk about subjects that interested
them and to bond as sisters-in-law. This is the longest time Razelle has spent
alone with Anita since she married Ralph. By the time Ralph came home from
work, all was ready. We all gathered around the table: Ralph, Razelle, Anita,
Yehudah, Yair and I, to eat as one large family.
That's what this part of the trip is for: to reconnect with
family and strengthen the bonds that hold families together.
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