Ghosts of Ocular Exclusion
Travel Articles Canceled Due to Eye Distress in Favor of Writing Pyreon and Outlining Grace: 2/13/25
‘Freighted Fools’
Notes on Postmodern Rail Travel: 2/4/25, Laguna Seca, New Mexico
Was in extreme eye pain the entire two weeks from Portland to Denver.
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‘Fo Real, Yo’
Portland to San Jose: 1/26-27/25
Insane woman stalking me made threats to female attendant and got bounced in Klammath Falls. I thought she was irritating until the three 20-something wigger rappers began worshiping a 30-something mullatress who suggested her and I should spend time together. The Negroes in San Jose were terrified of this kind old runt. A homeless Valkerie begged a beer from me one night on the street.
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‘Liquid Oxygen and Bison’
San Jose to LAX & Joshua Tree: 1/30/25
Saw the Space X facility at sundown as the train followed the pasture coastline. Rescued by Vanilla Gorilla from LAX.
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‘What’s The World Coming To?’
LAX to Albuquerque: January 31 to February 1, 2025
Train only 3 hours late. Redneck and Amish agree that the world is getting too girly.
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‘Welcome to the High Desert’
Old-Steading the Rio Arriba and San Juan Mountains: 2/1-6/25
The most remote house I have ever lived in. Did note that the local Apache Rez had beautiful women and that the men looked like goblins, one, in a Mohawk and Trump “Drain the Swamp” T-shirt at a gas station that was kind of a government building. The first ATV ride of my life up a box canyon convinced me to write ancient fiction set in Eurasia.
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‘Galesburg!’
From Albuquerque New Mexico to Denver, Colorado: 2/7-10/25
This took an extra day, resulting in a luxury stay at the Swissotel, Chicago. The old equipment seems to run out of LAX, with Chicago hogging the more reliable hardware. Gained five pounds eating free Amtrak teenage food after I ran out of money for the egg breakfast. LAX does have the better organized conduction. I could have theoretically saved two days by taking a bus from Albuquerque New Mexico to Denver, Colorado. But, even though Amtrak bought Greyhound and they share security, and I was seated as a single in the bus station, the two organizations refuse to work together on mixed schedules. All around worship of the Elion Must inspired Pyreon.
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American Meat Train
Denver to Sacramento to Portland: 2/19-21/25
I will not bother writing this, as I am losing ground writing and still have a chance of writing a novel in February, if that is my focus. The views and experiences on these trips and my stays in the Santa Fe and San Juan Mountains, on the Laguna high pastures and above Golden, in Wonderview, in the Colorado Mountains, will all be used in the novel Pyreon, which was conceived during my spare day in Chicago.
Apologies to the reader.
The historical novel Grace and the science-fiction novel Pyreon are the only possible literary fruit of this trip, other than the memoir of Vanilla Gorilla, which must be continued and completed while visiting the young paleoyeti in Joshua Tree later in this year.
The Character Matt Jansen, the Uplift Auditor for Soul Link, is inspired and based on my Golden host, Matt. Uplift Station Zero is based directly on his cabin. The Humanitarian Daily Ration theme is based on his prep-food supply. Advisor Hermes is based on Herman, a young reader who bought me drinks while I autographed 9 books I wrote, at the Canyon Bar. Brie, our darling barmaid, who asked me for my autograph in such a way as to suggest a phone number, as she told me about being stood up for marriage in Portland and smoothed her jeans about her shapely hips as she announced she was 33 years on this earth, served also as the model of the character by the same name in Pyreon.
