On The Road

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced the Traveler’s Protection Act of 2008 last Friday to stop the seemingly random search and seizure of computers, laptops, cell phones, cameras and other tech equipment when an American re-enters the country from a trip abroad.

“There is a compelling and immediate need for this legislation,” said Feingold, in introducing his bill on Friday. “Travelers have been forced to wait for hours while customs agents reviewed and sometimes copied the contents of the electronic devices. In some cases, the laptops or cell phones were confiscated, and returned weeks or even months later, with no explanation.”

The bill would require all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching the contents of laptops or other electronic equipment carried by U.S. citizens. It would also ban profiling based on travelers’ race or ethnicity, allow people detained to witness the process of their laptop being examined, limit the time officials can hold a traveler’s hardware and provide compensation for damage to a traveler’s computer.

And the DHS seems unlikely to cooperate. When Feingold chaired a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue in June, the DHS refused to send a witness for the hearing and did not comply with the committee’s request to produce answers to the questions previously submitted to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff before the hearing.

The bill is cosponsored by three Democratic Senators, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Ron Wyden or Oregon and Washington’s Maria Cantwell. — read the whole article on Huffington Post

You can track this bill on govtrack.us.

The whole point of my having a souvenir of a journey or a trip or a travel is to jog my memory. A souvenir acts as a touchstone, so that when I see it, or touch it, the memory of the day or moment when I got it comes flooding back. I write about souvenirs a lot on this site - well - I ask people to leave their comments about their souvenirs. I always find what other people bring back with them to be interesting and there is always a story entwined with the object. Most people don’t realize that though, until they are asked about it.

The other day I was at my storage unit - I’m cleaning it out and giving a lot of useless stuff away. Painters and artists in general are such packrats. Keep everything for the sake of making art out of it - someday. But I came across a box that had been carefully packed before being placed in storage. It contained a number of things - mostly things that I had received as gifts.

Within that big box was another smaller box marked Art Postcards From Travels. I slowly opened it up. Inside were all of my favorite souvenirs.

Most people visit museums because they think they are supposed to. How could someone go to Paris and not see the Impressionist works at the Musee d’Orsay? As an art student, and then now as an artist, I visit museums frequently not to tick the museum or the art work off of a to-do list, but to study. I’ve always gone to museums to see and explore the masterworks of artists, to study the layers of Van Gogh’s paintings, or to study the physical dynamics of Michelangelo’s sculpture. And then, after visiting the works of art, I would go to the museum store to purchase postcards of the work I had seen.

I randomly pull a few out of the stack.

Five Turners from the first time I went to the Tate Gallery in 1986.

The Veiled Lady by Raphael, from a trip to Florence that same year, is one of my favorite portraits in The Uffizi, not because of the face, but because of the painterly way the fabric of her dress was recorded. I went there on a hot September day, no waiting in line in those days.

Le Lit (The Bed) by Toulouse-Lautrec is one of my favorite paintings in the Musee d’Orsay along with Les raboteurs de parquet (The Floor Planers) by Gustave Caillebotte. Although I have to admit that finding an absolute favorite in the Musee d’Orsay is really difficult as my stack of postcards from that museum is really large. I found those on my trip to Paris in 2000.

There are even a few from the old Dali museum in Cleveland, many from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh where I went to art school, some from a trip I took to Washington DC in 1976, and not as many as I thought from Rome.

I flip through the cards and remember the days, the travels, the weather, the experience and even what I ate for lunch - which is kind of funny because I couldn’t tell you what I had for lunch yesterday!

One other random thing I found in the box marked Art Postcards From Travels was my first passport. The only mark in the book is a Radiant Baby drawn and signed by my art school buddy K. Haring. I remember the night I asked him to draw in it - he was kind of taken aback, he didn’t want to deface a government document! But I assured him the passport was set to expire soon so it would be ok. There are two dates on it because he transposed the numbers and then corrected himself.

Tell me about your favorite souvenir and the memory it brings back to you. Or go look in the various regions on the site, like the Yucatan, Paris, San Francisco, or Prague for a With Eyes Open Survey Question about souvenirs!

I say, when given hard times, get a positive attitude and make them fun. The above photo is a picture of The Escape Pod, my beloved 1971 VW bus. It was taken at Point Lobos, on the California coast just below Carmel and just above Big Sur. I love my car. Currently she has seen some better days and could use some work, and a bit of scrubbing. I’ve had her since 1996 and I’m her second owner. The story of how I got her is kind of magical but too long for this blog post, maybe I will tell it another time.

I love to car camp. When I bought her, back in the days when I had steady work, I took the passenger seats out of my VW and put in a bed platform that has a nice five inch foam mattress on it. I have all of my blankies, a bunch of pillows and also a sleeping bag for really cold nights.

Underneath the platform I store all of my necessities, like my Coleman stove, a thermos, a cook pot, a cast iron skillet, my tea kettle, some utensils, a decent knife, a bowl or two, and some minimal food stuffs. I also carry a small med kit, extra toilet paper, and a few kitchen towels. There is always at least one sketchbook in the car. And I always have at least one novel to read - I usually take one for every two days I’ll be out. I have a camping hammock that stretches the length of the inside of the van to hold my clothes and other belongings.

When out on the road I like to camp in campgrounds. I like the amenities, like a hot shower, sometimes a camp store and laundry, a place to make a campfire, and my own designated space. But I have also been known to pull over to the side of the road, or into a parking lot, for the a night.

When I go for a hike, I make sure the car is locked tight.

One difference about car camping in a campground and RV camping in a campground is needing to find a level camping spot. RVs can adjust their height so they don’t have to be on a level spot. With car camping it’s a little more sensitive. I’ve never had a problem finding a level spot, although in some campgrounds, the ones that are geared more towards tent camping, I have had to search.

After losing my live/work painting studio in the dot.com bust of 2001, I threw everything I owned in storage and moved into the car. I have been living in or out of her ever since.

I figured that there might be a lot of people in the US that have come into my situation, if not recently, then soon, so I thought I’d give some tips on how to live in a car.

In many parts of California, and particularly in San Francisco and along the Big Sur coast, it is illegal to live or camp in your car. That doesn’t stop a lot of us from doing it though. To keep the police from rousing you in the middle of the night here are a few ideas:

Keep you and your car as clean, neat and tidy as possible, both inside and out.

Make sure, if you have a van, that you have curtains all the way around. Very plain ones are best.

Keep your car tuned-up.

Don’t keep a lot of stuff in your car. The car or van has limited space. Take only what you need.

Don’t hang out in your vehicle. Hang out in a cafe, or a bookstore, the library, at a friend’s house, or wherever until it’s time to go to sleep. Then go to your vehicle, be quiet about getting into it, and then go to sleep until morning. In the morning get dressed and be off for the day.

I’ve had full time jobs while living in my van. Which actually makes it easier with the concept of what to do with myself and the car all day.

Don’t park around other car campers. It may seem to be safer, but the police can recognize a gaggle of you.

Pick safe neighborhoods to camp in.

I like to park under, or close to, street lights.

I will also choose to park in front of the empty space between two houses rather than directly in front of a house.

If you can’t get out of bed without coffee or tea in the morning, that’s what the thermos is for. My thermos is good for keeping things warm for about 8 hours, so I if I need to, I fill it up at a cafe right before going to bed.

Join a gym for a good morning workout and a shower.

I think these tips might be helpful to someone. If you find yourself in this situation, just make an adventure out of it. Adjust your picture of reality and have a good time until the picture readjusts. Be a car camper, a traveler!

Want more tips? Just ask in the comments area!

What are your favorite road trip munchies? Do you tend to eat differently on a road trip than at home?

I had a revelation last weekend on my short road trip to Nevada. At home I eat well. I don’t have an unlimited income but I do tend to spend my money on good food rather than things. So I try and eat lots of yummy organic veggies and low-or no-fat foods.

Imagine my surprise when I gleefully found a Dairy Queen during my weekend in Reno! A chocolate shake and french fries. Lordy was that heaven. Yeah, yeah, I had the organic grapes and tortilla chips, soy milk and a bag of cashews, along with bottled water in the car. But holy cow I went ape over that shake and fries combo. And as any junk food junkie knows, the whole idea is to dip the fries into that shake!