travel (triangulation?)

 

Travels with René 

           Not many options when dealing with an invalid cat... Usual cat-sit unavailable, family with little time.. Not enough to take care of the poor invalid cat which is faring well but is not allowed to jump and climb trees... Which means someone has to be around all the time.. The other two can fare well and fend for themselves, as long as there is enough food and water, and some indication that they have not been a endowed... An occasional visit would suffice for the three days we were to be gone, but for René this was not an option... Nor was animal hotel, since it's too much stress and reminds him of hospital..... None of that thank you. So road trip is more or less the only option, to come along with is, even if uncomfortable and also somewhat stressful.  

Then again, He spent a week out among the hooligans drug dealers and bombers roaming the neighborhood where we live, and survives multiple operations and hospital visits afterwards... He could surly manage to see the benefits of a road trip with us... And he did. Though slightly apprehensive at the beginning and not pleased with the arrangement of a bench in the back of the car, he stopped complaining when brought up front in a carry-all with three sides latticework window... And was always fond of sitting on a lap... He soon became used to this arrangement... (not quite Bébèrt)

 

  First stop was the cemetery at Bad Godesberg...

 Apprehensive and a bit stressed at the beginning, partly because there were dogs around, barking at each other... Partly because there was a small wood which he would much have preferred to the open spaces.. But was not allowed, since we had some grave-refurbishing to do while we munched on a snack by way of break, lunch or whatever... He did not see the squirrel while we made our way back to the car, too preoccupied with passers by and surroundings in general (there was a big mock-up of an electromagnetic train towering above the little cat's holdall, looking ominous.  

We decided to keep him in his travel-pouch on L's lap, that way he could enjoy some of the scenery and the comfort of her lap... He slept most of the way. In Neustadt an dar Weinstrasse we put him back in his bench while we went for a coffee, and left him there for the ride up the valley to the cloister of St. Mary. This is no longer run by the old nuns but has been taken over by a sort of (virtual?) polish priest and consorts... Not really the same any more... But we did enjoy a walk in the woods, with René leading us astray between the trees... He seemed to enjoy it... After initial trepidation about the big dark wood, he soon realized it was safe and anyway he had two bipedal guardians to take care of his safety.  

We arrived somewhat late and only did some short walks between the rain, and attempted to have him reside in our bathroom at the lodging... But he was not keen and scratched at the door while wiling away... So back to the car where he had his nest and food and was accustomed to by now... Where he could listen to the rain and doze away... During the festivities we didn't have much time save for a few short walks, and so the second night was again in the car... The las morning though was dry and sunny, and we began with a walk at the cemetery, somewhat lost between the graves, but seemingly glad to be out and about. 

 

 Next the return journey, and again less time for walks, since we were doing the whole distance in one go... The parking lot in the village of Dahn I had envisioned as major pit-stop has been cemented over, so that plan had to be shelved... There were too many motorcycles about with their noisy exhaust, so René was not in the mood either... So on towards Luxembourg, where again construction and madding crowds made a simple walk into a nerve-racking enterprise.. Didn't want him ti slip his halter and bolt across the highway..  

But alls well that ends well... In how far the triangulation drive can count as a trip in the sense of the map-room is something I have to think about - it is also not quite sure if one can construe it as a triangulation drive, since we were pretty well following our regular route.. Slightly different along the Rhine, but more or less the same from Karlsruhe... Variations at the beginning and the end (having gone first to Bonn, then followed the river down before crossing over to the Palatine forest... And around Munich heading in by way of the old road and transversing town rather that attempting the circumnavigation, which was stuck chock-a-block (14km) and then there was the added deviation at Holzkirchen, which, had I known about it, could have been avoided by going via Bad Tölz...(remembering when airborne contingents (10^th SFG bat1) had a heliport (Baker AAF) there in the 70s) As it was, we returned via that route...)  

Triangulation drives were a series I had started back when I returned from Paris and when we combined different stations to create a encompassing round trip.. Including often parts of the map we had not yet visited, areas not yet known.. Often between France and Germany... But since 2015 I no longer used the term, considering perhaps that the series was finished... And this trip might be added as a footnote but is not really part of the series... I find myself doing a lot of retrospective references rather than new projects anyway.. Sign of the times I guess.. 

 So, what significance? Getting used to travel with an invalid cat as preparation for one's own creaking frame no longer able to withstand the rigours of extended travel? Tiredness , fatigue and disorientation, stress and weakness influencing the cadence of interchanges... Thinking of our attempt to train-hop our way across Germany, which went terribly wrong and ended up crammed into a taxi with strangers in the middle of the night... A reminder that the good times were definitely over.. That traveling for pleasure was a thing of the past.  

So perhaps it is a footnote and end to the series, not being worth it anymore... Or having to consider a completely different approach. (written on leaving Ostend, the geriatric Miami of the Belgian coast. ) ... In the museum I saw a frontispiece for a travelogue by Ana Boch, and thought that's what I need for my Borinageuse report... Lithographic style from the turn of the last century.. Reminding me that I too did enjoy applying that style to my work back in school... Lithographic pencils being my favorite.

  (map) not territory  (rott/ach  Ring / ler)