Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Traveling Music

I've traveled a lot over the years. Traveling doesn't have the stress for me that it has for many people.  Strike that.  I love traveling.

I've traveled in the airplane sense.  I've had several jobs where I traveled over 50% of the time (one week out of two away, or half of every week). One of those jobs was working for an engineering consulting firm out of Cleveland.  That was a fun job.  I sometimes wish I was still there. The other 50% travel job was working for the corporate HQ of a diversified industrial firm.  I had to go to many of their plants all over the world.  One job was 90% travel, leave on Sunday and come back home on Friday 9 weeks out of 10, teaching Lean Six Sigma classes.  One job was ALL travel - I lived out of suitcases.  Literally.  Air travel was so much more enjoyable years ago than it is now.  But with the right attitude it can be semi-OK.

I've traveled in the driving sense.  I've been to all continental 48 states of the 50 states.  I got 44 of them naturally through work and living, but I had to make a special trip to see Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota.  I loved Idaho and Montana and have been back to both states since.  I would live in western Montana if I thought I could support myself.  It's beautiful and I like the people.  Same for Idaho.

I've driven across the country three times.  The first time was with a friend, driving from LA to Cleveland in 3 days.  We stopped and had a beer in every state.  Fun, until you have to have a beer at 9 am in Wyoming.  In Arizona in mid-afternoon, our only two choices were a trailer park or the local dive bar.  Got to meet the locals.  Fun. The second two times were by myself, from Washington DC to Oregon, and then from Oregon to upstate NY.  I took 3 weeks going west and stopped in Sedona, AZ, Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon, beautiful Utah, and then up to hot springs in Idaho and west to Oregon.  I took 8 days coming back east.  My car doesn't have cruise control, so 500 miles a day was about my limit.  I sometimes daydream about being a long-haul truck driver. I think I'd enjoy it.


And I've traveled in the moving sense.  I have lived in: New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Washington DC, Oregon, and now New York again.  Also, The Netherlands, Jordan, Singapore, Egypt, and Oman for shorter periods of time.

This post has been quite a bit more wordy than I intended, but tough!  It's my blog and I'll write what I want.

I've had an MP3 player for somewhere between 5 and 8 years, and over the years I've collected a playlist of traveling songs that I pull out and play at top volume with the windows rolled down whenever I start on a trip.  It's called, appropriately, Traveling Songs. Without further ado, here are my Traveling Songs.  All of them.

The Kingston Trio, A Rollin' Stone
Bob Seger, Roll Me Away
Janis Joplin, Me and Bobby McGee
Suzanne Vega, Calypso
Cowboy Junkies, First Recollection
Nanci Griffith, Going Back to Georgia
Dixie Chicks, Cowboy Take Me Away
Nanci Griffith, The Flyer
Nanci Griffith, Southbound Train
Joni Mitchell, The Refuge of the Roads
Lyle Lovett, The Road to Ensenada
Melissa Etheridge, Baby You Can Sleep While I Drive
Marti Jones, Follow You All Over the World
REM, Don't Go Back to Rockville
Dixie Chicks, Wide Open Spaces
Rod Stewart, Mandolin Wind
Bonnie Raitt, The Song About the Midway
Crosby, Stills & Nash, Southern Cross
Cyndi Lauper, I Drove All Night
Little Feat, Voices on the Wind
Little Feat, Willin'
Stevie Winwood, Dust
Old Crow Medicine Show, Wagon Wheel
Martin Sexton, Freedom of the Road

Anybody know of other traveling songs that I'm missing?

6 comments:

  1. I did a BC 3Day summer before last and I did a fair amount of training by myself. You know, I get a bit bored of myself, doing lap after lap, so I loaded up some songs and when I asked on a message board for some suggestions of songs with good beat, one walker downloaded 5 discs of songs and sent then to me to load on my MP3. There a mental thing with music. It's good for you..
    Lord I Was Born a Ramblin' Man- Allman Bros Band?? I'm sure there were more on the CDs
    Hope all is going well...I'm sorry, but I'm going to be too busy to break in for at least the next few days. :0)

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  2. Ya know, I envy you loving to travel. I'm sure I could get used to it, but I just do not sleep well away from my own little bed. Our lifestyle (we've always had animals) doesn't lead to taking off and traveling but . . . here comes that old 20-20 hindsight . . . husband and I have been wishing lately that early on in our marriage we had taken off and seen more of the US of A, if nowhere else. Perhaps we would have made some different decisions/choices.

    William Hazlitt said, "I would like to spend the whole of my life traveling [abroad], if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home." Sigh.

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  3. What a great list! I don't have anything to add.

    Jordan, are you all set for a ride home from the airport when you get back?

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  4. Mama Pea - traveling added quite a bit to my life, but it made it impossible to have a settled family, which adds more to most lives. If I had stayed in my marriage, I may have made different choices myself!

    Kate - yes, thanks, my truck is parked at the airport and ready to be my chariot home!

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  5. Jordan-
    Sorry, one more, a family favorite, played with the windows down and the wind blowin' your hair....head out on the highway, lookin' for adventure, and whatever comes my way!.... 'cuz we were born, Born to Be Wild!

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  6. Oh yes! Steppenwolf! Totally perfect!

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