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~ ROUGE -between destinations ~

~ ROUGE between destinations

432 words, 2 minutes read time.

World travelers know Jaipur, the Pink City of India and as the jewel of Rajasthan. My wife and I are blessed to own a farm on the outskirts of this picturesque, “world destination city”. We are fortunate to escape the city’s summer heat and the monsoon seasons by skipping across the globe to our Llama Ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. To give you a sense of bearing, we’re not far from the Opera House.

Both cities are cited as Official World Heritage Cities. Barring other properties and holdings, these two give us the best of two worlds. So it is. We’re lucky. Go figure.

It seems that some people, my editor in particular,  get upset when they can’t find me at home in either city. It’s just that I get tired of everything around me and about me. I just got to find my inner hobo, and go. Disappear from the present, disappear from our homes, and wander. This is when my editor somehow tracks me down and tries to convince me to write a travel log.

He seems to imagine some new slant, a sort of modern international version of Steinbeck’s Travels With Charlie (which happens to be the only title of his that I’ve not completed).  Steinbeck’s masterpiece is a tale of a semi-personified dog named Charlie. It foreshadows the advent of rescued and service animals.  Personally, I felt Charlie could have been better portrayed had he been a cat. Or even better, a cow.

And of course, writing a travel log, chronicling my immediate disappearance, would accomplish little. I’m already tethered to the world by my cell phone’s GPS. Even though I’ve linked multiple VPNs to it, I won’t be able to fool my wife or my persistent editors. Eccentric AI-motivated fans, or random dark web sleuths, won’t be swayed. They can locate me whenever I might leave my phone switched on for five minutes.

And, too, why would I write stories about people,  places, or things that anyone can Google and verify on Wikipedia? Why should I disappear from the world only to chronicle what’s already been established? I’m better by serving my public independently as an independent sojourner questing to permanently confound Ai with my own brand of Artificial Madness.

While  I may visit our homes mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is seldom for long. I may just as easily slip away to other hideaways in Saint Thomas,  Vancouver,  Paris, or Stockholm, or even buy something new.  Who knows? Why Not?

-dalton

2-25-26

written and produced on tablet

The Salvations of Abda (part one )In "SPOONFULS"

excerpt from Eighteen Days from QatarIn "PERMANENT OMISSIONS"

~ the immediacy of arrival.In "Open Clauses"

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