On the Road Again...

Hi My Raw Food Friends!

I'm on the road with a box of my brand new cds, a 160 lb Mastiff, a cooler of produce, and a new i-phone.

Oh, and my boyfriend. Sorry, Dear. Love ya, mean it. lol

We're sleeping in truckstops when we've driven so long we can't face putting up the tent, on couches when people inSIST that the dog is ok inside, but mostly, we are cuddled up together to stave off the cold in our tent. Well, under our down comforters from home, we're warm and toasty, but the tip of my nose gets very cold. (And I always have the best sleeps when my nose is cold!)

So, as we do every road trip, we bring a cooler, add some ice, then stop at an organic produce section in grocery stores along the way, and load up. I eat loads of fruit in the morning, a box of salad (all to myself) in the afternoon, along with an avocado sandwich with leaves, on Ezekiel sesame bread.

For dinner, we may heat up a can of chili if it's cold and we're very hungry, but often we drive late and just munch on nuts or whatever's in the front seat with us. Is it just me or does that sound funny?

We played a house concert in Strathmore, Alberta, and we could not have had a better time!! The nicest folks who ever walked the earth came to hear us play music. We can't stop raving about these good people. And our host was beyond gracious and hospitable.

House Concerts are fun, Man!!!! So fun!! Very intimate. Picture 20-25 of your friends and family sitting on couches, pillows, and chairs in your living room, and at one end, performers with their mike stands and guitars puttin' on a show. It creates such a warm and friendly atmosphere.

Intermission is a chance to meet and greet everyone, sell some cds, yak about life, and in this case, crops. We feel we made some lasting connections. As a matter of fact, we've been invited to perform on our way back as well! Yeehaa!

It threw my eating off, though, that's for sure! Our host was a fabulous cook who went to great lengths for us, and my attempts at explaining that I had plenty of stuff in the cooler went out the window as I just decided to go with the flow, since I'd never met her before, and didn't want to offend her and I just couldn't think fast enough on my feet. I don't want to explain the raw thing from scratch as everyone's staring at me and waiting to eat. So I made do, with the idea of 'when in Rome...' and I ate an admittedly delicious meal.

However, as I figured it would, it unraveled my eating because as ya know, we crave whatever is in our blood stream.

So the next day, I bring in my bag of plums and apples and I'm about to take a bite and she just about knocks the plum out of my hand and says, "Don't eat that! I'm cooking you a REAL breakfast!" hahahaha Bless!!

So I let her.



Took a while to get back on track, like a couple days! But I just kept at it, eating fruit and stopping at a juice place and taking a wheatgrass shot.

I'm just going to have to build my resolve up again, and work on ways of telling folks that I eat a certain way and that's it. But you know, it's about me being clear with myself, not about them not understanding.

My dog, Gracie, catchin' a highway breeze...

I picture myself as I was in 2007, at the height of my raw vibrancy and there's a part of me that feels it's not attainable anymore. Like, I've reached it, it's fine for a time, then it crumbles, but I know that this is just 'my stuff' because I have read about many folks who have stuck to it. Mostly these are the 'leaders' in the raw movement, but last time I checked, we're all humans with the same capacity, right? So why not me, why not you? Where is the disconnect?


I think about it a lot. Usually, my own disconnect happens in a flash, on the spot, much like someone who says, "A screw it, I'm having a smoke." All their resolve, good sense, reasons, lists of pros and cons, quotes and mantras and self-help articles just suddenly disappear into the other realm, completely gone from the moment the flash lives in. That's the Mighty Disconnect that happens to me, anyway. How convenient that it all reappears when I've swallowed. Smells like Satan's handywork to me. hahaha not that I'm into that stuff. But honestly, it's just so crazy how resolve can unravel as if it were never there, in just a flash of weakness.

Is it just me? Why does it happen? Why doesn't it??

Writing about it is helpful. Hopefully, reading about it is, too. ;)

Anywahhhhh, on a lighter note....

Picture this: Steve is fast asleep in the passenger seat, and I am at the wheel. I see a sign for Canmore Alberta, and I remember talking to a venue owner about playing at a place called "The Auditorium" but our dates didn't work out for this tour. Since we're coming back through in May, I figure I'll take the exit into town, find the bar, and deliver a press kit with our new cd.

So I wake up Steve, and it takes some doing, because he's been very tired from driving all morning. *poke poke* "Huh? Wha..?"

"Honey, I'm just going to take this exit off the highway..." and I explain it to him. He's not one for side-trips when we travel, he's more of a 'git 'er done' kinda guy, but he's half asleep and just says "whatever, ok..."

So after a few minutes, I'm in the center of town, and the fact that the truck is going very slowly, wakes him up. So he's all, "So WHAT the hell are we doing again?"...not in a mean way, just a sleepy way. Steve doesn't 'do' mean.

I assure him I've got it under control, and I'm just gonna do a lap of downtown and I tell him, "You look out that window and I'll look on this side, and when we find it, I'll just run in."

So this goes on for a few laps and still no "Auditorium". So we give up, and decide to go to a library to use the internet to check emails & to pee.

On a whim, I ask the librarian where a bar called 'The Auditorium" is. She looks mystified, but calls over another librarian. Neither of them know.

So back in the truck, I realize I have all my tour notes and I rearrange a bunch of stuff to get at the bag they're in, and I finally shuffle through the papers and what do my foolish eyes seeeeeee?

Why, "The Auditorium" is in Nanton Alberta, not friggin' Canmore!!

Next stop, Wawa Ontario for our second concert...pretty sure it's Wawa...

xo
Rawkin'