The lesson I learned from this leg of the journey is that friendships are golden and material stuff is just stuff. I met people on the road that I made friends with in seconds and I met old friends in Massachusetts that I haven’t seen for 30 years . I developed friendships with musicians that will be lasting, and have worked with people that so far have only been nodding acquaintances. It is not possible to place a value on such relationships. They transcend time and space in some way, and many times you have the feeling you know this person intimately even though you have just met.

The trip out from New Mexico was quite an eye opener, or perhaps ear opener would be more accurate. I drove through a little of Texas, a lot of Oklahoma, Tennessee and up the Eastern corridor. I say ear opener as I was listening to a lot of local talk radio going through. My overall perception was that there is a lot of unfounded  fear,  ingrained prejudice and a lot of misinformation and downright lying out there on politics and issues of the day streaming out over the airways. Quite scary actually so I was thinking this is not a part of the country you want to have a truck break down in as it seems like a different planet. Especially when you are wearing a turban and full beard on your face.  However to my pleasant surprise the people I met (when the truck did indeed break down) were wonderful, helpful and friendly. The breakdown was not veggie fuel related but at some point I noticed liquid leaking from the heater box down there on the passenger side of the truck cab. I reached down and determined it was radiator fluid and found a gas station/food mart and stopped to take a look. A couple of “good ole boys” that could easily have been in the cast of the movie ”Deliverance” stooped to have a look under the hood. They turned out not only to be very friendly but extremely helpful and showed me how to bypass the heater system with the hoses. That would have been the perfect solution if the piece of metal that connects the hose to the radiator didn’t break off in the process. That was a setback as you can imagine. (Note to prospective do it yourself repair people with limited car knowledge: Super  glue will not work with the high pressure radiator system!!!!).


So I called the local mechanic shop and the very next morning at 8:00 am sharp, a “salt of the earth “ type retired mechanic stepped out of his truck to the rescue and knew the whole drill. He disconnected the radiator, took it to solder it at the shop and returned within an hour and had me back on the road by 9:00am. $84.00 and the nicest man you’d ever want to meet. So Oklahoma gets a thumbs up for honest workmanship and friendliness. Just maybe you all could think about gettin  them  right-wing nut-jobs off the talk radio scaring everyone  and lyin, things might move ahead a century or two.

I arrived at the Millis Kundalini Ashram and Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) for their annual fall Yoga festival and concert. Enjoyed the community here immensely. Such great people holding the space. Superbly organized and hosted .I cant name all the people I met with whom I was impressed with, and befriended by for fear of leaving someone out. Suffice it to say that it was a warm, successful beginning to the tour. We began the festival day with a gatka class. Gatka is an ancient martial art perfected to a very high level by the Sikh Gurus and warriors ,and is an excellent method of movement meditation, exercise and effective self defense. We only had 1 ½ hour to learn the beginning steps of the movement meditation known as “pantra”. Then there was a special yoga class taught by Hari Kaur from New York and we had a picnic lunch on the immaculate and peaceful grounds in the beautiful fall sunshine. Then back to work after lunch with a concert, chanting session and class in Naad Yoga (The Yoga of Sound”) . I had with me a superb band consisting of Guru Sangat Singh on bass guitar, Jagan Nath Singh on violin, Amritpal Singh on Tabla . Then there was a yoga/gong presentation led by Dharam Singh. Great host work by Ek Ong Kar Singh and organization by Harbhajan Kaur and Siri Sevak Kaur and a host of great people too numerous to name here. The following day we had Gurdwara with more music. Later that evening Jagan Nath, a superb violinist and I performed a very intimate and relaxed concert in the Yoga center. It was such a great pleasure to play quietly and subtly in such a beautiful space . Anyone coming to the Boston area would be enriched to visit this ashram.

Now onto Virginia and the DC area where I am sure I will see more friends from ages ago.

Sat Nam!

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