Cambria

CAMBRIA

I.
Tourist town . . . trinket shops,
art galleries, and over-priced eateries
(Lim’s offers New England clam chowder
for homesick easterners).
A visit to a quiet garden shop with flowering
shrubs, an orange burst of a blossoming arbor
over a wicker bench, and a sea air weathered
clapboard shed full of cement pedestals &
urns, dried floral garlands, and birdhouses:
a peaceful oasis in the midst of hyper
consumerism in a town both laid back
and urgently trying to make a living.

II.
My traveler’s eye spots a big black dog
waiting for its owner outside The Bottle Shop
with its nose just inside the open door---
making sure its master doesn’t disappear
in the maze of crowded shelves.
Is it the same dog we met later
at the laundromat on the outskirts of
the tourist area (right next to Rick’s
            Auto Parts)?
He was trying to make friends with a
shepherd mix in the back of a light blue
pickup---probably sharing his adventures
just outside the liquor store.

III.
Later, the evening air grows cool and damp
as we drink our ice-coffee (!) on the deck
of The Coffee Den, before returning to
                  The Creekside Inn.
Another day and night---passing by like
the oncoming traffic of the American road.

Author's Note

My continuing saga of "An American Journey West."

Reviews

[barleygirl]

I am deeply fond of Cambria, even tho your vividly accurate consumerism portrait isn't the part I love. Used to get the best abalone steak in Cambria, big thick steak, & it didn't cost $100 per plate. I am just like you, I remember the oddball observations not the kitschy biz. The memories I remember from many places are of critters roaming free! Love this! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[kentuck14]

Margie,
Thanks for your revue . . . yeah, that's what I look for!!
T

[Robert Trakofler]

I have been all over the country except the west coast:( one day) I love to drive and take trains to anywhere I really love to go to the old diners and the locals haunts for that very reason to see the humanity of the place:) I owning a store and a popular tourist spot I just love talking with folks from all over the country and the world we get a lot of foreign travelers too:) I always try and give them suggestions of where to go in the area to get a good feel for what pittsburgh is really like and not all of the silly touristy stuff I have even driven a few to places over the years LOL hopefully one day I will make it to the west coast and see Cambria too thanks for the share Kentuck!

[kentuck14]

You are very welcome Bunny. Thanks for stopping by.
T

[R.E. Ray]

T., having traveled all over the USA, including all parts of California, I have been in this scene so many times. It’s not always the wonderful one-dimensional, tourist-brochure experience we expected. Wherever we go, we find people just like us, living the hum-drum life we’ve temporarily escaped, perhaps where others want to escape.

Though I still enjoy traveling, I find not escape but comfort in knowing we’re more alike than we might think. There are black dogs, traffic jams, laundromats, and even second-rate clam chowder all over the USA, maybe just like Cambria, someone’s vacation spot, another’s hometown. It’s still a great place!

An enjoyable journey in poetic form, T.

[kentuck14]

R.E.
Your comments are so true . . . The USA is pretty much the same all over . . . diversity in sameness!
Travel helps one appreciate their country . . . gets your mind off politics! Thanks for sharing my friend.
T

[Einstein Noodle]

hmmmmmm the setting and scene draw me in ... there is a Cambria in NY .. a Lim's in RI ... where is this place kentuck?? i love clam chowder and i love the North Eastern States .. quaint towns abundant .. in reading ... i am on the journey with you ... going to google the Creekside Inn now ;) i like the closing two lines ... can be like the surprise of glaring headlights .. how quickly time goes by ... and/or the danger of the open road ... love those lines .. nice simile
E.

[kentuck14]

E,
Actually, this place is on the central coast of California. Thanks for your encouraging review.
T

[Einstein Noodle]

ahhhh no wonder the "..homesick easterners.." line :)

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i like the quaint little towns...and i remember my dad and i vacationing at Kentucky Lake in the late sixties, and early seventies...
the little shops...the atmosphere of the place...different from home...but i didn't miss home so much...i like the character of the place...
i liked being away from what i was used to...sooner or later home looks good again.
but journeying to something different is quite pleasant.
another wonderful trip with your pen as chauffeur.

j.

[kentuck14]

Thanks J for your comments and the word of encouragement . Actually it's meeting different people that attracts me to travel . . . at least to a point, then I'm ready to return to solitude!
T

[Eilis]

This reminded me of a trip my husband and I took to St Augustine, Florida many years ago. The sense that the town was teetering somewhere between a village and a tourist attraction. And it being obvious that the tourism was something that kept things afloat.

It’s interesting how towns balance that need for income with the need to maintain the smallness and identity that make the place somewhere people want to visit. A lot of coastal towns seem to function like that. Of course, your poem doesn’t seem to be about the coast this time, but it did make me think of those places.

I really enjoy your chosen details. It’s a travel poem, but it feels very much like a window into a particular time, place and state of mind. I look forward to any further installments. I am enjoying this travelogue.

[kentuck14]

Actually I'm amazed at the American passion for what is sometimes called a tourist trap. Manufactured appeal to our sense of adventure . . . as if entering and browsing in a "gift" shop is really the reason for coming to a certain place. Oh well . . . guess I'm just a cynical old man!
Thanks for viewing and commenting, E. And this point I'm about 2 or 3 poems ahead . . . but don't want to saturate cyberspace!
T

[DAH]

Cambria, California? Or some other one?

Nicely played-out with vivid detail and imagery.

Cheers
DAH

[kentuck14]

Thanks DAH . . . California.
T

[DAH]

My Pleasure!