I accepted the position with Americorp Vista in the southern tip of Texas on the Rio Grand, the Mexican border. I want to see Yosemite, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon on my way so I’m headed out with more than two weeks to get to McAllen, Texas.I left Port Orford on a cold, rainy morning. It had been a great stay. I’d been there for almost 2 months. It was an amazing summer. Corey was very nice to let me stay. Not many people would have gone out of their way like he did for me. I’ll miss him and all of the wonderful people and sights on the southern Oregon coast.
I drove south on the 101 into California. My fruit and fire wood was inspected at the border. The apples that Jutta picked in Port Orford passed even though they were not store bought and my firewood passed too. Apparently Montana is not on the list.
I looked for a place to stay in the Redwood Forest. One state park campground was closed and another was full so I just kept traveling. My lack of trip planning seems to get me further down the road as I’m never quite sure where to stop.
I had fish and chips in Klamath California and kept rolling. I turned east on highway 299. It looked as though it would be a straight shot to Redding California and Interstate 5 which I could take south to Sacramento.
Ever since Red Lodge, Montana I had been on curvy, hilly, treacherous roads. I was looking forward to driving flat and straight for awhile, not to mention averaging over 50 mph.
Highway 299 is not straight, nor is it flat. It does confirm my theory that the more difficult the journey the more spectacular the view. Highway 299 is beautiful. It goes up and over the Salmon Mountains, through Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Trinity Forest, Trinity Lake, Trinity River, everywhere I looked I was reminded of my good friend.
Miles ticked by slowly as the road switched-back through the mountains. Road construction slowed things down too. I felt far from anywhere, so I listened to my Lake Wobegon pod casts to feel close to Minnesota. I was a bit frustrated until I saw the best rainbow I’d ever seen. I stopped on a pull-out to get a picture. A young couple also stopped. I talked to Bradley while his girlfriend took pictures. They were from Boston and too were wandering. We agreed that without wandering we never would have stumbled across such an amazing rainbow. After we left we wound up leapfrogging down the highway honking as we’d pass each other. Thanks to Garrison Keillor, Bradley and the rainbow I now felt great and thoroughly enjoyed the drive.
As it got dark I turned on my headlights. I was a bit worried because when I was bringing the bus home from Florida the summer before, the headlights cut out a few times. I’d traveled during the day and hadn’t needed them at all since leaving Minnesota and wondered if they would work. They were very dim. So dim that several people flashed their lights at me. As is grew darker it was harder to see, then the lights went out completely. I was sandwiched between a rocky cliff and a drop-off with nowhere to pull off and unable to see the road. I turned the lights off and on and flipped them from low to high beam frantically in vein to try to get something to happen. The lights flickered on and off randomly. They didn’t seem to be doing it because of my actions. I came to a safe place to stop and eventually the lights stayed on so I proceeded. This scenario repeated itself over and over. I looked for a place to stay, but the best option was to try to push through to Redding.
It was very dark between the tall pine trees. I was afraid to go too fast in case the lights went out again. I know to not “over drive your headlights”, but now I was trying to not “over drive my NO lights”. Traffic would stack up behind me and I’d find a place to pull off and let them around. Even when the lights were on they were very dim. I tried driving with my high beams on, which were almost as bright as regular low beams. This seemed to make the lights shut off more often so I opted to keep the lights on low.
I can’t be certain, but it seemed like these were the tightest mountain curves I’d been on yet. It may have just been due to the circumstance, but there is no doubt that this was the most difficult driving I’d been through in the bus. I often wondered if I would seriously be plummeting to my death that day.
Patiently, cautiously I kept plugging along. Redding, just 60 more miles, 48 miles, 35 miles, 27 miles, 16 miles, 10 miles, it took forever. At the 3 mile sign I saw the bright lights of Redding. The road flattened and straightened and soon I was on lighted streets. I still had a mechanical problem, but figured I was no longer in a potential life threatening scenario.
I got on Interstate 5 heading south. I stopped to let my sweat dry and my nerves settle. I looked up the Redding Wal-Mart on my laptop and found that it didn’t allow overnight parking. The interstate was flat, straight, lit and had no on-coming traffic, so I headed south looking for a place to stay for the night. I pulled into a rest stop. The sign said, “No Overnight Parking”, but there were many trucks and a few motorhomes. I investigated a bit more. The official rules said that you can stay there for 8 out of 24 hours, so I decided to stay.
Rest stops are not supposed to be very safe places to sleep, but I felt safe tucked inbetween the semis. I was thankful to have had my trucker training and felt right at home. The diesel engines that kept me up previously on my journey now comforted me. Their gentle rumbling was like a lullaby which quickly sang me to sleep.
I started using my Rosetta Stone Spanish computer program. I’d had it for awhile but hadn’t gotten around to using it. With the possibility of moving to the Mexican border I’m eager to start learning the language. I also have a Spanish pod-cast to use.
I needed to scan and email my passport and driver’s license to the potential Americorp position on the Rio Grande in Texas. I’ve basically been offered the position pending budget approval. It’s a very exciting opportunity that I hope pans out. My old scanner wasn’t compatible with my new laptop, so I got rid when downsizing. I went to the Port Orford Library, which is new and modern, but didn’t have a scanner. They sent me to Downtown Fun Zone a small video rental / computer place. They were able to scan and email me what I needed for just $2.
Still hungry I biked to Port and Starboard. I longed for the comfort of a cheeseburger from a good restaurant. All of the good places here specialize in seafood. It’s hard, and almost embarrassing to order a cheeseburger when the seafood is so good, but I’m a “Cownoisseur” and was in need of some turf. I went with Jalapeño Poppers and the Patty Melt. I chatted with the waitress and a couple of travelers, the only other people in the room. They were reading their paper placemat map and wondering what the Heads were. I was surprised when the waitress said that she didn’t know. I teased her, “Aren’t you from here?” “I’m a transplant” she said. She had just moved there in May. I encouraged them all to go to the heads, “the short walk is well worth it”.
I was super hungry and walked to the Paradise Café for breakfast. I had the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs. There was one waitress and one cook. The two young women had no trouble keeping up with the medium size crowd. There were two kinds of people eating; locals who all know each other on a first name basis and travelers just stopping once on their way through. The waitress made everyone feel like a local. The cook was pumping out amazing looking plates of food. Basic American stuff like pancakes and sausage, biscuits and gravy, Philly cheese steaks, regular steaks and onion rings. The entrees were all over the map, but amazing looking and huge portions . My food too was a sight to behold. She even made my hash browns brown enough. I like ‘em crispy.
Trinity left. She wasn’t going to leave for another day, but found a cheap motel on the way and packed up and went. We had decided over a week ago that we should just be friends. The romance just wasn’t there. We are very similar and everything looked good “on paper”, but there was simply a lack of spark. I agree that it is for the best, for both of us to move on, but it’s still very hard. We both believed that we had found the love of a lifetime. It’s disappointing to say the least that it didn’t work out. I think I loved her more once she became a friend. We spent so much time together and saw so many cool sites. I quickly grew used to having her and Sebastian in my life. We lived closely in the confined quarters of the bus. Even when she was thousands of miles away we felt close. This time she was leaving for good and expressed that she would need some time without contact as part of her healing process. She and Sebastian drove out of my life around noon, leaving me cut-off and painfully empty.
I was at the RV park, scraping dried dog crap out of the tread of my shoe when a man with a clip board and name tag came out of nowhere. “I’m the health inspector” he said. I was freaked out by the idea of a health inspection of the park having spent time cleaning and working on the trailers. They were a lot better now, but still probably not totally up to speed. “Do you know where the manager is?” he asked. I knew Corey was home, we we’re going on a bike ride. I pointed him in the right direction. As he walked away I felt like I had made a horrible mistake. I could have said the manager was gone or something to buy time. I threw my shitty shoe on the ground, ran inside, dove for my phone and called Corey. “Pick up, pick up!” I shouted. It only takes seconds to walk to his place. He picked up. I frantically warned him. He was very calm and not worried at all. I guess I was freaking out for no reason. Corey came out and talked to the inspector for awhile. I rode around the neighborhood waiting to go for our ride while they talked. I rode close up to the mural on the wall of the Savoy Theatre. I rode to the other side of the block and ate black berries.
Trinity and I got up at 5:00am to see the beach during the new-moon at a negative tide of .8 feet at 5:16. It was dark, cold and we were tired, but we got up and went anyway. We drove, and just like when I went to the full-moon low-tide there were deer standing on the road. The gate to the park that accesses the beach was shut. The park opens at 8:00. We parked and walked quietly around the gate. The park hosts are retired people in a motorhome. There’d been a switch in motorhomes recently. I assumed the hosts were new and that we were probably more familiar with the park than they were. We made it to the trail without incident. With no moon it was dark, very dark. We were going to bring flashlights, but forgot. My camera has an LED flashlight on it, so we used that to make it to the beach. It auto turns off and takes a few seconds to turn back on. We had to stop often in the dark while I held the button. We could hear the ocean long before we could see it. The stars were super bright. The beam from Cape Blanco’s Light House spun around and around cutting through the night. There was a brightly lit ship out in the ocean. Other than that there was no light. We stood listening to the crashing waves, watching the lighthouse swing around from the coast to the ocean and staring at the stars. Trinity pointed out two satellites crossing the sky in orbit. We wanted to hunt for agates at the extreme low-tide. It was too dark to see not only agates, but also the threatening waves in the rarely exposed agate zone. The sun wouldn’t be up for at least an hour, so we went home and went back to bed.
It was a perfect sunny day. Trinity and I went on a bike ride south on the 101. She rode my mountain bike. I rode my dad’s old Trek road bike that I rebuilt over the winter. I hadn’t ridden it much, so it was good to get on it and give it a good work out. It’s light and fast. I’d been over this path many times now and was able to feel the differences between the mountain bike and road bike. The road bike offered much less resistance. Hills seemed smaller. I got more distance for my energy. Ultimately it inspired me to push hard through the hard spots which eventually wore me out. I cranked out 5 miles then turned around and pumped back into town. It was a quick, but intense ride.
Favre debuted in his first real game as a Minnesota Viking at 10:00am. Due to the hoopla surrounding Favre the game was on national TV and broadcast here.
Corey was busy and couldn’t help at Melanie’s garage sale so I went with Trinity in his place. It seemed early, but we got there by 8:00. We helped her get ready to open at 9:00. I walked down and put up signs on the 101. The wood stakes pounded into the soft coastal sand much easier than they would have back home.
I’ve been looking into volunteer positions with Americorp and one particular program seems to be opening itself up to me on the Rio Grande on the Texas Mexico border. The program focuses on preserving the Rio Grande and its history, while growing recreation and tourism through things like water paddle sports and building bike trails. Another goal of growing outdoor recreation is fitness and fighting obesity. They are considering making the program mobile with RVs and have a “Donate Your Old RV” program. There are many aspects of the program that fit me well. The location intrigues me too. I would like to head south. This would be about as far south as you can get in Texas. I’d love to soak in the Mexican culture.
Corey knows a retired woman who he helps for cash sometimes. Melanie is in the process of moving form her home into an apartment. She’s getting ready for a garage sale and needs some help. We rode our bikes to her house at 9:00am. She had us move boxes from a garden shed and unpack them on her patio so she could price things for the sale. We also did some light gardening. It was easy and she paid very well. We worked for less than 2 hours and she gave me $30 cash.
After riding around Humbug Mountain yesterday I wanted to hike the trail to it’s summit. The trial is a loop, about 3 miles up and about 3 miles down. Corey, Trinity, Sebastian and I drove to the mountain, then began the hike. Switch-backs back and forth, the trail ascended constantly. Corey turned back, Trinity, Sebastian and I continued on. Towards the top of the mountain Trinity seemed to want to turn back, but I coaxed her to keep moving. Sebastian, who is 63 in dog years, was full of energy. He’d run far ahead on the trail, then back to us, then back up the trail. He must have gone three times the distance we did. The forest was thick, with occasional views through the trees of the ocean. I could see Port Orford miles up the coast, with Cape Blanco in the distance miles beyond it. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the summit. The decent was a bit quicker, about an hour. It was a good work out, but we were glad to get to the bottom.
One of the domestic, wild turkeys was wandering around the RV park. This is normal and most people are used to it. I’ve seen it a few times, so I’m mildly used to it to. I went out and talked with the turkey a bit. It was obviously used to human interaction and actually came over toward me. When I got too close it flapped its wings, squawked and jumped back. I went inside to point the turkey out to Sebastian. I knew he’d think it was a big deal. He did and barked and barked.
It rained steadily all night. It was the kind of rain that didn’t change in intensity, like it would never change or let up. Both of my bikes were out in the rain, along with some shoes and cloths that were supposed to be drying. The rain did let up mid morning and I was able to dry off my road bike and stow in an underneath bus compartment. I dried off my mountain bike, lubed it and made a cover for it out of an industrial strength garbage bag. I wanted to leave it out, so it’s handy, but it looked like it might rain more.
Trinity went for a walk, picked wild blackberries and made black and blue berry and vanilla custard French toast. It was delectable.
The trailer park looks a lot better since Corey took over as Manager. He wanted to send the owners some new pictures, so I did a photo shoot in the morning sun.