We're in Moab, UT at a semi-upscale Vietnamese inspired restaurant called 98 Center (yelp it, it's awesome.) Dim lights, delicious drink menu, and lots of vegetarian/gluten free options. We came here the night before as well, because when you live in a camper and boondock on a regular basis, you need electricity to power your devices, and we needed to get a little work done. And so, we ordered some dinner and drinks (vegan bahn mi sandwiches and some truly inspired bahn mi nachos) and did a little work before we camped out on some street in Moab.
This is our first time in Moab, but it's held this special place for us for some time. As we were driving through at sunset last night, watching the red dirt rock formations cast long, purple shadows across the highway, the sky becoming a brilliant blue before the sun's last reaches fell behind the mountains and Moab was plunged into the light of every other star, Mallory said, "This is my favorite part of the country." Today we drove through Arches National Park and surveyed the canyon lands. It's beautiful here and we would stay for a long time if we could.
Today's song is "Done Laid Around," written by and made popular by The Weavers. We first came across it in a Weavers songbook we found at a thrift store in Minnesota. It's a song about moving on. The chorus goes,
"Done laid around, done stayed around This old town too long
Summer's almost gone, summer's almost gone
Done laid around, done stayed around This old town too long
And I feel like I wanna travel on."
It's a song about waiting for someone. Well, it's a song about realizing that you can't pine forever and that it's time to travel on. Maybe you've been there? We certainly have. Sometimes it's not premeditated and comes to you in a flash and sometimes you know it's time to move on but you drag your feet and do everything you can to remain in that comfortable place by checking their Instagram and going to their favorite coffeeshops hoping to bump into them. You can stay somewhere for a long time, even after you know it's not good for you. But you gotta get up and travel on yourself. No one can do that for you. Not your friends. Not your partner. Not your counselor.
Whew. That got a bit personal, there, didn't it?
For the uninitiated, every week for Double Americana we research a folk song, learn it, blog about it, and type up a lyric sheet with chords and everything. And for those of you who don't know, we type that up on an electric typewriter. It's this big, bulky thing and makes a lot of noise whenever Mallory pulls it out. We turn heads whenever we take to a public place, like a Starbucks, or a laundromat, or a rest area. Anyway, we really loved our drinks last night, and those nachos, but we really had to get some work done and type up those lyrics. So, last night we went down to our fancy Moab hangout, 98 Center, ordered up some drinks and some truly inspired bahn mi nachos, and brought out the typewriter. And judging by the turning of heads and the couple who just moved tables, it's time for us to travel on.
