Miranda Stone [photos & film (all of you, all of us)]

Life on the Road

Here's a bunch of years thrown together… various snapshots of beauty or strangeness from the road, for your amusement. My first stop is…

Please be reminded that these photographs are copyrighted images. That means that you need to get permission by the artist to use them.

Golgotha Fun Park. Oh disbelieving friends, I actually found this place while driving through the state of Kentucky on my first solo US tour (fall 1999) I was leaving Mammoth Caves National park and I was not too far off, when I ran into this bizarre feat of marketing… genius? The popular meaning for Golgotha is "place of the skull" and refers to the site outside of ancient Jerusalem where capital punishments like crucifixion took place. I did a little searching around and found this site on the web, much to my shock… Visit the Site

That same tour, I was playing a show in Wheeling, West Virginia and asked the organizers what I could do for "fun" on my day off. They told me to go see the "Hare Krishna temple in the middle of no-where," but to be cautious about the food (since it had apparently run into some problems with the local health board!) It was a little chilly for sight seeing on that November afternoon, but I was curious and followed a dozen unmarked roads that lead to Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. It was closed up for the season, and I didn't get to see the so called "Taj Mahal of America" though I did spent several hours wandering around and had some pleasant conversation with one of the devotees…these figures were about 30 feet high.

One of my favourite camping spots is in New Hampshire, the Hancock Campground in the White mountains. I decided to do some wading one cold October morning while passing through (2002) It's the best swimming hole I know. The locals call it "Upper Lady's Bath"

The water level is pretty low at this time of year. I warmed up in my Amish wool pants after the dip.

A played a show at Keene State College in New Hampshire (I think the first time I was there in 2002?) and I remember driving all through the night, through a snow storm, to get there. The trip didn't take as long as I thought it would, and so I arrived in the morning at 4 a.m. I crept into the parking lot, pulled the van curtains down, and then crawled under the wool blankets to sleep. (This is the beauty of having a van that's really more like a gypsy house) By 9 a.m. the sun was warming things up and I could hear students arriving for class… I spent some time brewing tea and cooking steel-cut oats for breakfast.

On the subject of breakfast, this is how this folksinger survives the road, even in hotels… Butane stoves are one of the best inventions. (I took this photo in Vienna, VA after a gig in one of the local music venues called Jammin' Java) You can even roast marshmallows over them, though they are definitely better for a "hot pot" Chinese meal.

Making Tea in the Van, down-town Philadelphia…

Sometimes you just need to get out of the nasty bar you're going to be playing in and enjoy the cosmos wild flowers you stole from the side of the road that afternoon…(Photo taken in 2000 or 2001)

A show at Mass College of Art (in 2001?) took me to Boston…

Totally enjoyed the re-enactments at Plimoth Plantation during a few days of gallivanting www.plimoth.org They do a pretty good job of pretending like they haven't a clue about modern life.

A trip to Salem out of curiosity was mostly a disappointment, kind of like going to Niagara Falls and being confronted by a lot of cheesy stuff that took away from the real beauty of the place. However, this memorial created for the victims of the famous witch trials was really beautiful.

… the threshold is carved with actual testimony of the accused; "God knows I am innocent..."

On the way back to Ontario, driving up from New York City, I stopped in Ithaca and walked through the amazing Watkins Glen (which has been open to the public since 1863) Visit the Site

More than anything else, I wished I could have jumped into some of those lovely green pools. I think it's great how most of the visitors I watched tried to put their hands into the water when ever they could reach it…(photos taken in 2001?)

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