A major part of travel is what we hear and what we see. Whether it be the colors of a market, the peaks of mountains or the crying of a baby, our senses are critical to our experience. More specifically, reading and listening are also crucial to what we do on a daily basis.

READING
One of my favorite aspects of travel is the fact that there´s so much time to read. In the short time we´ve been gone I´ve been fortuante to have already read:

Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart: One man´s story of convincing his wife to buy a rustic farm in Andalucia, Spain and the comedies and tragedies that come with it.

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: The classic journey of the great explorer Fogg in his attempt to win a fortune if he travels around the world and returns to London within 80 days.

(currently) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: The powerful story of an Afghani family in Kabul and America...telling of when times were good and when times were bad. (I´m loving this book and can already highly recommend it)

Rachel decided to challenge herself with the Spanish right away and purchased a copy of El Maravilloso Mago de Oz (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). There were flying monkeys and Dorothy made it back to Kansas. She´s currently reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

We also devoured the Rolling Stone, Blender and Spin music magazines within our first few days, the three staples I pick up at every airport, along with a bottle of water.

LISTENING

On an early summer evening in June, Rachel and I were hanging out with our good friends Neal and Jen in Naperville. Neal and Jen share a similar passion to music as we do, and the countless number of shows Neal and I have chalked up since high school always leaves us plenty to reminisce and discuss. When the topic of whether or not Rachel and I should travel with an iPod came up, Neal and Jen were completely adamant that we travel with tunes. Music can leave lasting memories and it would be such a comforting luxury. The problem: Rachel and I have never owned a computer, let alone a digital music file.

An incredible offer was made, and quite quickly accepted, that Neal would give us his fully loaded iPod for our journey. He had been planning to upgrade and all we would have to do is buy a set of earbuds. The deal was done, with the expectation that we would report our iPod experiences to Neal and Jen...especially those experiences that involved the shuffle songs option. A random selection from 6999 tracks of jazz, rock, funk, bluegrass, classical, etc. We agreed and I declared all reports involving our newly gifted iPod would be known as: NJiPE (Neal and Jen´s iPod Experience)

The first installment of NJiPE comes from a three hour siesta I took the other day: (shuffle)

Ratdog: Playin´(reprise)
Phish: Camel Walk
Phish: Crowd Control
JGB: Gomorrah
Bob Dylan: Freight Train Blues
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells: Sally Mae
The Black Crowes: She Talks to Angels
Del McCoury Band: Blackjack County Chains
Tribe Called Quest: Oh My God (remix)
Phish: You Enjoy Myself (40 minute version from 10-31-95, Rosemont Horizon)
The Bottle Rockets: I Quit
Saunders/Garcia: Welcome to the Basement
London Symphony Orchestra: Delius Viloin Sonata #1
Odetta: Jim Crow
Jack Johnson: It´s All Understood
Phish: Water In The Sky
Willie Nelson: I Couldn´t Believe It Was You
Bruse Hornsby: Mandolin Rain + Black Muddy River (awesome!)
UB40: One in Ten
Phish: Tube
Cat Stevens: Wild World (this was the inaugural tune on the iPod when Rachel and I acquired it back in Naperville. As Jen says, "The iPod knows".)
10,000 Maniacs: Don´t Talk
Grateful Dead: Not Fade Away
Garcia/Grisman: Jenny Jenkins
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One other magical iPod experience I had was when I sat to watch the sunset the other night to Hendrix´s Axis: Bold As Love.

Neal and Jen-Thanks for all the wonderful music and memories!

jason