A Rough Night in South Carolina

 I leave in the rain on Saturday, later than I'd planned. How can there be so many last-minute things to do?

As I near I-95, I decid to drive down the coast all the way to Jacksonville, FL, and pick up I-10 there. This adds a few hours to the drive, I know, but keeps me out of a long stretch of Georgia and Alabama, where there isn't much of anything, including gas stations and service areas. And what's a few hours on a drive of many days?

By the time I make my way through Virginia and North Carolina, and cross into South Carolina, it is dark. I've been seeing South of the Border billboards for 105 miles (!), and as always, I am tempted to stop in this vast neon-bright mecca of kitsch, but I smother the urge and push on.

I begin to notice that the hotel parking lots look mighty full. It is Saturday night, after all. So I stop at a rest area and make a reservation by phone for an America's Best Value Inn in Florence, SC.

When I arrive, I see a hotel that looks a little old, a little tired - but I figure, So What? I'm a little old and a little tired. And I've already paid.

But the room is horrible. It is around the back of the hotel, which is darker and grungier than the front, and is clearly where the weekly/monthly/yearly guests stay. The strike plate is missing on the door, so the lock has nothing to latch onto. The spindle is missing from the toilet paper holder, the faucets are rusted and on backwards, and someone has left two hairclips attached to the curtains to keep them closed. It seems that perhaps a weekly renter has gone somewhere for the weekend, and the hotel has rented her room to me. And when I turn the sheets back, it is clear that they're not clean. Eeeww!

I go back to the desk, and, listening to someone else's conversation, I understand that not only am I in a disgusting room, but also I've paid $50 for a $30 room.

    Dog of the Day

I complain bitterly, and  and get a better room. It's a little old, a little tired, but clean. I leave well before dawn on Sunday, never to return.

The only good thing about the place is the cats. One was stationed by the lobby door, and the other, atop the Pepsi machine. He jumps onto a plant stand, then onto an ATM, and then up onto the warm top of the machine.

And so he deserved to be the Dog of the Day!

***

Scenes from the road

I start seeing red-budding trees in North Carolina. 

By the time I get to Georgia, the buds are popping everywhere. 

These guys are fishing on the Georgia/Florida line. 

A lone cow heads home for dinner in Florida. 

I stop in Jacksonville to have lunch with my friend Eric Bryson,

at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. 

The Plan

Here's me with all the 10x10 canvases
I've prepared for the trip! 

 I'm leaving in just a few hours for Arizona, and taking you all with me. The Origins Painting Trip is officially beginning! 

My plan is to drive more or less straight through to Arizona, and not stop to paint on the way - though if I see something that I have to paint, I will. 

Once I get to Arizona, I'll paint in and around Tubac, and will send posts from there. I'll do the show in Tubac, Feb. 4-8, and shortly afterwards, will head to Fort Defiance, and paint around there for a couple weeks. So expect a bit of a slow start, cranking up to a flurry of painting from the middle of February on. 

I'll be making paintings for all of you, in the sizes you bought with your sponsorships - and I will be making a few extra paintings, too. Some of these will be for the giveaway - I'll choose the winner in the middle of the trip - and some will be just up for grabs. 

So please make sure to open the emails from me! When I post one of the free paintings, it will go to the first one who claims it. 

Many of these are likely to be smaller paintings, perhaps on panels, or even on paper, but my hope is that you will like them! 

***

NO WILD PROMISES here, but I am bringing the video camera, so you might get some video from the road. I might try Instagram, too - if I can figure it out. If five million teenagers can do it, I should be able to. We'll see. 

***

IF THERE ARE places you'd like me to paint, or moods or weather you're longing for, please let me know. I'm happy to be on the lookout for red earth or turquoise skies, adobe houses or saguaro cacti. And if I can get to the spot, I will! 

***

YOU SPONSORS change the shape of the trips. Your sponsorships make it far easier for me to take the trips in the first place. And even more than that, your sponsorships change my perspective. 

It makes a difference to know that I am painting and writing not just for the random person who stumbles along, but for each and every one of you. 

Thank you so very much for your faith in me and your generous support. 

***

Here's the van, half-packed and nearly ready to go.