Let's Go Somewhere - 10/7/2014 - Cross Country USA

Ally says:

So now that I’m finally free of the shackles of novel revision I can get back to talking about stuff I love here at the Forked Road.

Mainly, travel.

Traveling was something that I always wanted to do. My parents had a subscription to national geographic (didn’t everyone’s?) and as a kid I used to sit down in the playroom and flip through, amazed at pictures of the African deserts, the wildlife in Alaska, the teeming streets of Bejing.

The very first trip I took anywhere as a semi-grownup was to Chicago. I was in college and my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I decided that we would drive from Pittsburgh to Chicago for the weekend. It was huge. We were going on a journey. I sold off my music collection to be able to go. That’s how serious I was about it.

But that was just a weekend. We went to Boston and NYC a few times after that. But the first real trip was after graduate school in 2007. Armed with our higher learning degrees and staring down the double stock barrel of a life of public service work and loan repayments until the age of 64, we did the only thing we could: 

Grabbed whatever leftover student loan money we had and headed west.

Thanks Horace.

We left from Monroe, NY on a cool crisp morning, a cooler full of food and beer in the backseat, a supped up and meticulously checked transmission thanks to my dad, Big Ron, and a map. No GPS. First off this was pre-GPS in every car and secondly, GPS takes all the fun out of traveling. You never get lost you never discover something new. We kept a register in the front seat to manage our finances. Upon leaving we booked half the trip. From NYC to Texas. Everything after that was up to us.

So we climbed aboard our trusty steed, Rocinante, named after Steinbeck's camper from Travels with Charley, which is named after Don Quixote's horse and did as Horace commanded.

Here she is parked at the Steinbeck museum in California

From Baltimore/DC

To Nashville and Memphis

through Louisiana 

To the crossroads where they say Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play guitar

To New Orleans

To Texas

Cadillac Ranch

New Mexico

Arizona

Grand Canyon. I was too scared to go near the edge

through the desert 

finally arriving on the other coast in California

San Francisco

and then all the way back

through Salt Lake

Salt Lake Basin

and Denver

Rockies

St. Louis & Kansas City

Chicago

and finally back home.

Recently, I was called anti-American because of some of the poems I was writing for my How To Be An American series. That is a misunderstanding made towards people who just want this country to be better – for everyone here. Because she’s beautiful. And she’s ours. And she deserves a people who deserve her.

And that was where it started. A lifelong love of traveling. It’s a big world and we’ve only got so much time, friends. Pack only what you can carry. Let's go. 

Let's Go Somewhere-6/17/2014 Mystery Castle, Phoenix, Arizona

Aleathia says:

Years ago in an effort to reach out to family, I took my daughter to Arizona to see my cousins Josh and Jerica as well as some aunts and uncles.  In our stay there we drove up to Phoenix to see Aunt Michelle and Uncle Jim.  They took us around town, but the best stop was a place called Mystery Castle.

The story goes like this:

"The reality of dying was thrust upon Boyce Gully in his prime. Choosing not to live a life of quiet desperation awaiting the end, he ran away from home, family and friends.

Those were sad but wondrous times of soul searching and physical creativity. In his heart was permanently etched the vision of those precious moments when he and his little girl, Mary Lou, built sand castles on the beach in Seattle. How she would cry when the tide washed them away. “Please, Daddy, build me a big and strong castle someday that I can live in. Maybe you ought to build it on the desert where there is no water.”

He would just smile. Perhaps, it wasn’t a coincidence that he migrated to Arizona. He built Mary Lou a native stone castle - eighteen rooms, thirteen fireplaces, parapets and many charming nooks and crannies, then furnished it with southwestern antiques.

Boyce Gully died in 1945 before he could send for his family. His “princess” was an adult when she moved into her “castle” and began living her fairy tale, perpetuating her dream. She shared her “home” by giving guided tours of her beloved Mystery Castle until her death in 2010.

Today, the castle remains open for tours from October through June. The Mystery Castle Foundation, a 501c3 organization maintains the property so that future generations can share in the history and magic that is My Mystery Castle."

The place is magical from top to bottom with such amazing views from the castle itself.  It was a long tour but so worth the love you could see put into every nook and cranny as a father thought about his daughter.  Here are some photos from the inside and out:

If you ever make it to Phoenix you should look this place up.  A great time for the whole family.