1) Vision and Mission

Happy New Year, 2007. I conceived of the idea of Floating Clouds and Cowboy Angels while driving from Berkeley, California to Siler City, North Carolina in August, 2006.
My son, Mitch, bought his first home, a 1929 shed roof Arts and Crafts bungalow in rural North Carolina. I decided to follow him, and move to NC from Berkeley as well. My 2 cats, Kiki Karma and Toby Tyler, rode in the back seat of my beat-up Plymouth. Two bumper stickers on my back bumper read: Sock Monkeys are Super Cool (www.supersockmonkey.com) and Wouldn’t You Rather be Behind a Book (Pegasus Books_Berkeley). Leading our caravan, Mitch drove the Budget rental truck which towed his beat-up Honda. After driving south on I-5, it was a straight shot (West to East) on I-40, from CA to NC. I-40 more or less has replaced the old Rt. 66, and sometimes intertwines with it. There are replicas and relics of the old 66 everywhere; creating a nostalgic feeling for a lost America. I listened to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris’s CD “Love Hurts” often on the trip; their beautiful harmonies and sad lyrics about drifters and cowboy angels melded perfectly with images wafting across my windshield; images of a sad and beautiful, weary, lost but hopeful land. There were few cars traveling on this route. I spotted only one hybrid vehicle the entire trip (with Alabama license plates). This is not meant to be a blog of my personal and political agendas and rants; although I was mystified and saddened by the lack of environmental concern and awareness that I witnessed and experienced as I drove across this beautiful land. Gas guzzlers, gas stations and strip malls were everywhere. Mostly, the highway was filled with truckers of every kind. Large semi’s crossing the mountains and prairies and pick-up trucks belonging to small town, rural, and desert-rat locals filled with Indians or Cowboys. Tumble weed really did blow across the highway. Magnificent clouds floated everywhere. Perfectly formed rainbows tattooed the skies above lonesome desert outcrops. Trains chugged across a sharply ruled horizon. I shot many photos from within my car while driving. I just lifted my digital camera and clicked. Others I shot at rest stops, gas stations, motels and road side eateries. This was a fast trip, with no sight seeing or dawdling planned. Mitch was determined to get from spot A to spot B as expediently as possible. He wasn’t looking for America, or searching for his soul on this trip. Even so, for me: the images, skies, clouds, rainbows, train whistles, endless highway, mournful country music, trucks and more trucks, lonely truck drivers, bedraggled Indian reservations, weird roadside attractions and ancient Route 66 billboards all combined to create a nostalgic, homesick, hopeful but resigned feeling of longing, loss, grief, beauty and wonder. I plan to continue with the theme of floating clouds and cowboy angels; photographing similar views and visions, posting photo essays, quotes, poems, music and videos. Enjoy the journey as we travel along together, and please feel free to contribute your thoughts, ideas, visions, and creativity. We are all cowboy angels.