Life in Cuba

2018 CUBA: My son and I stayed in a 2-bedroom apartment that was in this alley. As we would make our way back each evening, we would navigate the dimly lit walkway to the small concrete opening and then carefully shake the skeleton key until it opened the water damaged wooden door. After opening the door, we made our way to the second floor where we had to wiggle the apartment key just enough to jar the pins in the lock mechanism to open the door.

The apartment was filled with hardworking families, laughing children, crying babies and the elderly. It was the honey hole of life because it represented all categories of residents in Cuba. You had doctors, shop owners, taxi drivers, teachers, the retired and more who called the apartments pictured home.

While the building may be reminiscent to an apartment in the Bronx, it held within its walls a much more diverse group of residents with a multitude of educational levels. College graduates, high school drop outs, those with their PhD and more called this neighborhood theirs.

In America you recognize the fact that most doctors have a beautifully manicured lawn with a masterpiece of a house that includes 4,000 square feet of perfect tranquility.

In Cuba, income levels are not determined by your education and profession, but instead by your relationship with the government.

Man Needs Colors

At the Valley of Fire in Nevada the rocks are amazing shades of brilliant red, some almost pink in color.

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Some of the mountains of red sandstone can easily crumble to the touch while others have lasted for thousands of years.

Scientist suggest the Aztec Sandstone formed 150 million years ago from shifting sand dunes.

The park was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1968.

The park in its brilliant red has reached record temperatures in the summer of 117 degrees.

Record lows have bottomed at 12 degrees during the winters.

The average temperature in the summer is between 100 and 105 degrees (June, July and August). The average winter low is 38 degrees in both December and January.

“Man needs colour to live; it’s just as necessary an element as fire and water.”

— Fernand Leger, French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker (1881-1955)

Traveling to the tune of music

“Where are you guys headed,” I curiously asked because I am always way curious about everybody. She continued to pick the guitar and he enthusiastically responded, “New Orleans… We just got back from Nashville.”

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

To travel is to learn

Zach Zablosky went to the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston after graduating from high school. He plays guitar and he plays guitar well. However, he told me, “I just could never find a fit – you know? I just couldn’t make it work. I was unsatisfied.”

After quitting a heroin habit and dropping out of Berklee, he hit the road. He headed to California in hopes of starting a band. There, he made new friends and went to his first Rainbow Gathering.

A Rainbow Gathering is a community of people who meet in different forest annually celebrating peace, love and harmony. The gatherings last anywhere from one week to multiple weeks. In describing it he said, “We built our own stoves with rocks, everything is free.”

After his Rainbow Gathering in the Golden State he saw the Grateful Dead in concert and then ventured to New Orleans followed by Florida. From Florida he met a new friend who taught him about the rail lines.

From Jacksonville to Pensacola he traveled by train, which was over 350 miles. Zablosky didn’t travel in a stylish passenger car or even a boxcar, but instead a gondola. A gondola is an open air train car that hauls scrap metal.

From Florida he traveled to Austin, Texas by way of train hopping. He then caught a ride with a friend in a real vehicle, eventually finding his way to Louisville. After a short time in Kentucky, he went back to the East where he made his way to his home state of Pennsylvania. He visited with his parents for a spell before heading to Vermont to spend a summer. But, one summer did not slow the 32 year old down.

I asked if he ever had bad experiences while traveling on the trains and he said, “No, but I have met some people that were some less savory characters.”

After a brief hiatus he hitched back to the west where he rode in a train car along the famous Route 66. “I rode that on Thanksgiving,” he told me. After sleeping through the night on a train he ended up in a small town where he met a man who invited him to a Thanksgiving meal at a small church. In describing the church he said, “One of the Hippie churches around, you know, a biker church or whatnot.”

He had a homemade warm meal and then jumped back on a train and traveled to Los Angeles. After spending time there, he again decided to head south, which is where I met him and his dog. He was drinking coffee on a sunny, but cool February morning in Birmingham, Alabama.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ― Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

He is traveling because he wants to

“I always wanted to travel, so I am,” he told me with a smile from ear to ear. I asked where he was originally from and he responded, “I’m from Ohio and I’ve been places, but I really wanted to go, ya know?”

“Where did you first visit - was Nashville the first place,” I eagerly asked. “I got on a Greyhound and I got off in Jackson, Tennessee - - It was boring, I then went to Nashville,” he said.

His next stop will be out west, likely California.

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau