August 1978, black and white ~

My wife Janet and I took a road trip from Iowa City to Glacier Park to Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco at the end of the summer following my college graduation.  This roll of film is from our time around San Francisco, hosted by Diana Powell.  There are no photos of her because she did not like my taking any of her.  I regret that I didn’t send her the thank you she deserved for showing us so much in the area.  When we returned to Iowa we learned that our rental house was being sold and we needed to find housing in Iowa City just as the students were arriving.

This was the first time that Janet had seen the ocean.  Her first time west of the Rockies.

It was my first time seeing Asian Buddhist art.  I got to ponder how their representations interacted with what I knew of Buddhism.  

The strangest part of our time there was our arrival.  We had driven down from Portland, about 12-hours on the road, and got somewhat near our final destination in San Francisco, Diana and Craig Murrin’s apartment.  We stopped at a random house to look at a map, and out walked Diana, calling, "Is that you?"  She was visiting a friend and we just happened to arrive where she was, rather than where we were supposed to be going.  Miles away, in an unrelated neighborhood.

I remember feeling then that my marriage with Janet was hit and miss, like an engine sputtering and missing as it tried to come to power.  I remember wishing I had the perspective, the tools, to figure it out and wondering where I could find them or what I could do.

Though it wasn’t photographed, I remember our drive home and watching the full moon rise over the plains of Nebraska while the radio played the theme music from Star Wars 1.  

Diana, thank you for taking such good care of us.  Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you.