The bus has carried me safely for two days now. I left Charleston yesterday afternoon, after getting my right rear tire replaced, and stayed the night in Beaufort with my Great Aunt Dorothy. She is a vibrant 89 year old woman, full of vim and vigor. She is my mother's father's sister, and she wears the Boone coat of arms with pride. The general theme of all she said to me goes something like this: We must not lose hold of our dreams. Plans and hopes may seem to rest on finances and practical concerns, but the true potential of our lives rests in our commitment to our dreams. We may never feel that we have arrived at some final resting place as long as our hearts beat, but our time here is not wholly in vain, if only we keep our eyes on our dreams. Yes, I am crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm not a joy to be around, and it doesn't limit my ability to be a comforting and hopeful spirit in a world of confusion.
I only met my Aunt Dot a year ago, but familial ties are disturbingly transcendent of time, and I do not feel as if I have only seen her a handful of times. She does in fact understand me, and though we have had wholly different lives, still she understands my free spirit, and she offers her smile and unique energy to me, as an encouragement for the days ahead, those days that I may likely pass without her smile to inform my spirit.
Today I woke at 8:30, not what Aunt Dot would consider to be very early. I do wish I would have gotten out of bed at 7, when I first woke, for I'm sure Aunt Dot was up and about and I would have loved to spend more time with her in the cool of the morning. Instead, I slept another hour and a half, doing myself perhaps some good in helping me to relax and enjoy the time I did get to spend with Aunt Dot today. I walked with her to the USC-Beaufort library, where I helped her to become more comfortable using the internet on a computer. It is an eye-opening experience to try to explain the proper use of a computer to someone who was born and lived half their life before the microchip was invented. It is not so easy to use a mouse, or to understand the purpose and use of a desktop or internet browser as I once assumed. But by the end of an hour, Aunt Dot had successfully completed a google search and learned some valuable facts about the use of camphor leaves as a topical analgesic. We then proceeded to use the computer catalog to locate books on trees and on gardening.
By noon today, it was time for me to hit the road for Alma. I said goodbye to Aunt Dot, after taking a few pictures of her lovely sky room, a parking space behind her townhouse which she has converted into a lovely garden, complete with a nine foot raised bed, and a dry-stone wall which I constructed for her the day before around a sapling that she is tending to. She really is a wonderful and dynamic woman, and I am proud to share genes with her.
Once on the road, I wound my way towards Savannah, and the bus was running smooth as silk, as it has this entire trip. I am finally getting the hang of operating the sometimes finicky transmission, and only stalled out twice on the road today in traffic, along with once in a parking lot. Luckily my hazard lights work and are easily activated on the dash. There were no major problems on the roadways, and today's drive felt like the ideal training course for driving my bus. Every so often I would hit a small town, with a few stop lights, and this was my chance to practice downshifting and upshifting. US-17 has an impressive bridge over the Savannah River, and i had to take it in 3rd gear to keep up my speed. Savannah is beautiful and I plan to go back for an extended stay in the future. My destination today was my Grandmother's house, the classic destination. So over the rivers, and through the woods I rolled, stopping only to refuel and lose my gas cap. I will have to find another after this trip.
