by Chris Thorn

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - Jack Kerouac

Landscape, long and winding road, Lancaster, PA.

The cycling this Fall, during our run of Dial M, has been particularly choice. Here's a recent Facebook status update of mine as evidence: "Lancaster city to Marietta at twilight: top ten bike rides of all time. I rode the last three miles as a cold rain started and swirling winds laid out a blanket of freshly raked leaves before me. Sweat. Sweet. Heaven."

I have a 20 year love affair with the bike and the road. A relationship made all the more rich during my last five weeks in Lancaster. In order to know a place I have to learn its pavement and experience it at street level. I've had many afternoons in Lancaster running laps on the streets downtown. I've had long rides east, west, north, and south. I finally found the Susquehanna in Marietta, PA. Lancaster county stands out as some of the most beautiful terrain I've covered on two wheels.

Being an actor requires a relationship with the road. New cities and new people are always on the horizon. Every actor handles the unfamiliar geography differently. It is a bittersweet thing to come to a community, be a part of its cultural life, and then quickly move on to the next experience. A friend of mine calls acting making "statues in snow." I've also heard it described as "writing in water." There is little to hold on to after a performance. Maybe you're able to take a small prop or purchase a costume piece or salvage a part of the set during strike; but the thing you really want to hold onto exists only as a memory. That's what I value about the road, it's a map for my memory. I'll remember the landscape of Dial M both on stage and off very fondly.

The following quote from Blue Highways ( a book about a man who circumnavigated the lower 48 states in a Dodge Caravan using only the pre-Interstate U.S. Route system) captures some of what I go through when I move on down the road. Thanks for having me to the Fulton and thanks for paying the taxes that help maintain the gorgeous Lancaster County pavement.

"What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road." ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

Please stay tuned for the final installment of the Dial M blog--I'll be writing it from Brooklyn on Monday as the last couple of days here in Lancaster slipped by too quickly for me to devote to the blog the attention it demands. Margaret