WANDERS
TRAVEL
TRAVELING IN THE MIND BY JEREMY WAYNE
50
WAGMAG.COM
MAY 2020
“Not now, when it’s all over. When it’s behind us.” So says the foxy Miss Debenham to suave Col. Arbuthnot, refusing his proffered kiss, in Istanbul at the start of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” The “it,” of course, is the upcoming, planned murder of the child kidnapper, Ratchett, on board the luxurious train. But Mary Debenham’s words might also sum up our own feelings now toward travel itself, in the age of coronavirus. Trains are halted, airplanes grounded, hotels shuttered, vacations canceled or indefinitely on hold, our best-laid travel plans in tatters. Man proposes, God disposes. But while plans are one thing, dreams are not so easily disposed of. Where are yours taking you? Right now, I’m “California Dreamin,’” driving out to Malibu in a rented convertible (red for preference), heading north along Pacific Coast Highway. I’m dreamin’ too of Big Sur, of the Sierra Nevada mountains, of the clean, sparkling air of Yosemite. I’m even fantasizing about the cities, the trolley-cars and steep streets of San Francisco (stopping for a chicken at Judy Rogers’ legendary Zuni Café), and the sidewalks of Beverly Hills, swaggering down preposterous Rodeo Drive in the sunshine.
Top: Dingle, Ireland. Photograph by Suhail Parvez. Right: Hong Kong sunset view. Photograph by Simon Zhu.
