1979 & 1988

Another travel entry from 30 years ago today. We'd left the Greek island and sailed on an overnight ship to the boot heel of Italy. From there we traveled to Sorrento, which is near Naples. Our AESU groups were named by date—either of departure from the States or arrival in London. My group was 616, so, obviously the 617 group was a day behind us. We met them sometimes, here and there, but not as often as I might have expected. The Pasquale referenced in the entry was our Italian bus driver through the first half of the trip. He got a couple of speeding tickets in our Mercedes us and, eventually, burned up the motor. We saw him again—in Rome, I think—but he was eventually taken off our trip and possibly fired.

17 July (Tuesday): Day 31

Vico Equense, Italy

Left this morning for Capri, a very beautiful island. We rode on a small boat with another group: ISE [?]. Met a girl named Kate who travels with them—nice girl. We sailed straight to the cave entrance of the Blue Grotto. It's so eerie because light comes up from the extended cave opening which is under water and the whole place is blue. Then we went to beach for about 3 hrs., where I bought some wooden sandals. We had lunch on the top of the mountain at a beautiful outdoor restaurant under palm trees and grape vines. Later back for shopping then on boat back to Sorrento. Back but still no Pasquale. 617 picked us up. Back to hotel. Played Edith's flute and met girls from 617 until supper. Went shopping and partying until bed. Went to bed while everyone partied. Jack came in 1 hr later and bummed out again by blond girl from 617 (Janet). Saw young Italian getting his first haircut.

The following is from my regular diary. In the summer of 1988, when I was working as a songwriter for Gary Morris's publishing company, I decided to join Gary's western tour as a truck driver. Mostly I traveled alone, which was just what I was after in such an adventure. Sorry, but the second paragraph is severely edited.

Captain's Log . . . Sunday, July 17, 1988

It is morning here at the Parkway Motel in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada. I am here en route to Vancouver, British Columbia. Pincher Creek lies right on the plains at the foot of a set of the Canadian Rockies and directly north of the Butte section of Montana. I pulled in here last night around 10:30 pm with the afterglow of sunset still in the western skies. My room here, #121, is actually a little apartment. The main door leads into a small kitchen and through a double-sized doorway is the living room with couch, TV, and desk. There is a closet in here and a back door leading outside. In one corner is the doorway to the bathroom and in the other, to the bedroom. There is some smell in here which reminds me of Mama Reeves though it must be an unpleasant memory as I refuse to think about it. Maybe it is just the smell of being too old in general or more specifically it may remind me of the morning she found out she had to leave her house and go to live with Ernie. She had been crying and sweating and breathing hard, snuffy breaths. It was a painful morning for all of us.

On the upside, I went to sleep last night and woke up this morning thinking about. . . . I thought of two women, not at one time, mind you, and was surprised at which two they were. It was K**** S**** and S**** G****. No A*****. No J**. No H*****. No L****. K**** and S****. The two who at one time would have held the least attraction for me are the ones I woke up thinking about.

Well, I best get a shower and hit the road. I still have a good distance to travel and it may be slow through the mountains.