Friends Upon the Road

Friends Upon the Road 1976

(what are those chords anyway ? - My guitar/music knowledge is very rudimentary , it’s really always just been how it sounds and feels to me ,stumbling into something good on both accounts. The story is that on our first trip to Europe in 1976 long postponed and shortened (leaving a too young to enjoy Joe with the grandparents -and having the flight from NYC that next stopped in Columbus Ohio- hey wrong way!! , we had a week in Amsterdam and then a car to drive down through Bruge to Paris. A side trip from Amsterdam by train was to the Peace Palace at the Hague and the last tour was in Dutch but we went anyway and there was one other couple who spoke English ,very friendly from New Zealand on an extended European trip in their VW camper van . We hit it off and they asked if we would like to accompany them to another tourist site Madurodam , miniature replicas of world capitals sites and tales. Afterwards we went with them down to the North Sea as the sun set and they cooked up a meal for the four of usshare together. We shared life stories ,felt a fast friendship and kindred spirit, and values ,urge to travel . It was probably our first real “international encounter “ …parted with hugs and kisses , they dropped us back at the train station ,the names and addresses long since forgotten ,but a wonderful memory and theme which I started to write down on the train back to Amsterdam…It became something of a musical /friendship/travel theme song…it was really fun one time to play it solo at some open performance in a plaza in San Francisco and have a young woman do an interpretive dance to it! )

There by the cold North Sea , as the sun set
We shared a lifetime,though we’d just met.
In the heart of the Netherlands,
The four of us became fast friends,
common means and common ends -
Taking to the road.

Sail on the crest of the wave of adventure
Fly miles high on the wings of a dreamer.
On the rail and on the road ,
Wonders come and wonders go,
More to learn and more to know ,
It’s a constant magic show!

There by the cold North Sea as the sun set,
We shared a lifetime ,though we’d just met.
On the train to Amsterdam,
Like a dream without an end ,
We will someday meet again,
Friends upon the road.
Friends upon the road.

( So many years later this was how I started and ended my remembrances of our beloved Dennis with whom we shared so many happy road adventures….we will someday meet again.