1977 Philosophy of a Journey | The Bob Hodge Running Page

San Antonio—Galveston—Louisiana

San Antonio meant the Alamo, remember the Alamo? When I was a kid I wanted to be Davey Crockett, the Fess Parker guy on the television show portrayed him and with the popularity of the show came a slew of products powder horns, muskets, coonskin caps I had all that shit.

I wanted to move to Kentucky and be Daniel Boone or any of those mountain men living with squaws, killing bears pronounced bar in western drawl and always discovering something, in other words a reject of polite society.

I almost obtained my goal becoming a long distance running competitor

Well, we visited the Alamo and heard a version of the history that unfolded there in 1836. I was left wondering about Texas independence and vexed by the history of these recent events. Conquistadores, Natives, Mexico Republic of, United States, it is a sordid history

Galveston meant a Glenn Campbell song to me and Ronnie and I soaked up the warm temperatures and the beach there for a few days while blizzards piled up record snow back in Lowell.

“

“I still see her standing by the water,

Standing there looking out to sea.

And is she waiting there for me,

On the beach where we used to run?

Galveston, oh!”

Jimmy Webb

Next up we took the free ferry from Galveston Island to Point Bolivar named for Simon who fought for Latin American independence from Spain, then drove onward to Baton Rouge LA where we parked near the LSU Campus for the night.

In the morning we found a nearby park and went for a run. The park had a golf course which I helped myself to run on. I went into the office at the park to use the facilities and chatted with the man regarding our being two weary travelers from Massachusetts and if I might use the water hose outside to clean myself and he laughed and said “OK is that what you genteel folk in Massachusetts do? because we do have showers here.” Downright hospitable he was.

Duly cleaned and refreshed we were ready for Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.

Cutting loose vagabond journey. 1977/78

San Antonio—Galveston—Louisiana

I almost obtained my goal becoming a long distance running competitor

Galveston meant a Glenn Campbell song to me and Ronnie and I soaked up the warm temperatures and the beach there for a few days while blizzards piled up record snow back in Lowell.

“

“I still see her standing by the water,

Standing there looking out to sea.

And is she waiting there for me,

On the beach where we used to run?

Galveston, oh!”

Jimmy Webb

Duly cleaned and refreshed we were ready for Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.

New Orleans—Onward–February/March 1977

Journal— February 26th

Drove to New Orleans after morning run on golf course and an actual shower in the club house! Went directly to the French Quarter and found a parking spot on Dauphine Street. We went for a walk and bought some Dixie Beer and sat by the Mississippi watching the moonrise over it and the tankers and tugboats steam by. We talked to a couple of Navy guys who sang us some sea shanties. Later went to the Famous Door to hear Dixieland Jazz. Went back to the van at midnight and slept soundly. A Great Day.

Woke up the next morning and it was a pouring down rain storm. I felt lazy so I didn’t go for a run. We bought coffee and biscuits and headed out of town and passed right through Mississippi toward Montgomery Alabama. We went for a short walk around the city and then for a run in Oak Park.

We just hung out the van and went to sleep early after deciding to head for Atlanta in the next day. I went for a run in Oak Park in the morning then washed my hair in the rest room at Oak Park. We bought some supplies and coffee and hit the road.

We reached Atlanta in the afternoon and went to visit the state capital building where we picked up visitor information. Later we went to Piedmont Park and went for a run there. In the evening we went to the Underground City area and heard some good bands.

We parked overnight at Piedmont and went for a run there in the morning. Afterwards I washed and shaved in the van using a bucket of water and the rear view mirror. We went to a market and when I came out I noticed the Pheidippides Running Store across the street owned by Olympian Jeff Galloway.

I went in to say hello and chatted with Lee Fidler whom I had met in Boston the previous year. We planned to go for a run together with Galloway later in the day. While at the store I pored over Track & Field News with Bill Rodgers on the cover and a story about teammates Randy Thomas and Danny Dillon at the Cross Country Trials. I was getting psyched to get back into competitive mode and quit “picking daisies” as Coach Squires had referred to my travels.

Next day we headed onward to Nashville after getting gas and oil and changing out a balding tire. It was now early March but as we headed north it began to get much colder down to the teens in Nashville overnight so we got a hotel room.

We went to visit the Grand Ole Opry which was only open for tours we took some pictures and then went to visit Printers Alley. Ronnie and I were losing steam knowing our travels would soon be coming to an end. We stayed another night in the hotel and just enjoyed being in that relative luxury feeling lazy with some road fatigue.

The next day we traveled to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. At the visitors center we got information and maps and found that Skyline Drive was closed due to the snowy conditions. We went hiking on the Gatlinburg Trail for a couple of hours and then headed further north stopping in Bristol Virginia for the night. I went for a run and then we made some rice and tea on my camp stove and crawled into our sleeping bags for another cold night in the van.

We got up early the next day and went for a stiff legged run after the hiking and running the previous day. We decided to skip the Skyline Drive which was now open but even with chains on our tires it still would have been a slow treacherous drive.

We drove to Harrisonburg PA and went for a run when we got there then we hit a Pub where we sipped beer in the warmth before heading to the van to curl up in our bags and sleep. Next day we got up to snow and icy conditions. It was a difficult decision but we did not go to DC where we had planned to spend a few days both figuring we would have other opportunities to get there.

It was a long grueling day driving north in the snowy conditions. We stopped and got a hotel in Belmar NJ. I went for a run and then came back and sat in a hot bath. Ronnie brought back some Pizza and beer.

I sat in bed with the television tuned into some sports and read my dog eared copy of Thoreau’s “Walden” It was a copy I got when it was assigned reading in high school and has all of my underlining’s and written notes in the margins. I felt at peace a tired and weary peace with our entire lives ahead of us and this adventure mostly in the rear view mirror. In a few days we would be back in Lowell.

Our plan was to meet our Lowell friend Stevie in Falmouth and spend a few days touring around Cape Cod. I also got a hold of Greater Boston teammates Vin Fleming and Dan Dillon and they were coming down from Boston to meet us for a planned run on the dunes in Truro.

It made for a memorable ending.

Philosophy of a Cross Country Travel Adventure

Moments

I took a course in Philosophy in College and I enjoyed the professor’s lectures though I barely could grasp a thing he said. I got a D. I was a seeker for the meaning of life when my mother died when I was ten and my brother, in a ghastly war four years later;

I began to think that there had to be more to life than what I witnessed daily in Lowell. Sometimes you need to go somewhere, anywhere different from what you know to understand where you are from and where you came of age. As long as you are open to it of course.

The expansive nature of America the sublime wonders and myriad environments to get lost in. In the cities and small towns where I sometimes felt like a stranger in a strange land a suspicious person to the locals and the authorities the police. We met many friendly helpful people as well. At times I actually missed Lowell which surprised me.

The Grand Canyon was where I had my epiphany, my Forrest Gump moment. “I just felt like running” when he stopped… Simply staring out into that expanse timelessness, the void. I felt emptied out ready to start here and follow my bliss.

When I did go back to school in the fall of 1986 at the University of Lowell it would be to major in American Studies. The pursuit of the social and intellectual history of America made sense to me now as a way of discovering how we all got here and became Americans.

I know that there is good fortune and lost causes and mostly what we worry over never comes to pass. So I did my best and I’m thankful for what I’ve found.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Muzzle – YouTube