Along The Road

Zigged when I shoulda Zagged

Well, little darlin', it's been a long, cold, though not entirely lonely winter. The rain (and snow, though it never snows in the foothills) only dripped through a couple of times into my little trailer at Safan Ranch. Angela and I (Steve spent the winter in Argentina) built a shed for, installed, and installed solar panels for her new solar powered well, which will be irrigating her new garden plot this spring (when the next crop of WWOOFers gets around to planting it). We also built a greenhouse, watched (and occasionally helped with) delivery of about twenty goat-lets, put in about 600 feet of fence (over the river and through the woods), installed an automatic gate opener (complete with wireless intercom...boy was that a struggle), and generally did stuff. Later on I went to stay with Larry and Martha, neighbors who had some projects that needed an extra hand. Then, just a few days ago, I hit the road again, heading north through the Sierra foothills.

The buckeye trees are leafing out, and I noticed a few redbuds already budding. Other than that, all was pretty grey and wet. Further north, across the great Modoc plain into central Oregon, the vistas were a bit more bleak. Towns along the way are either dying or turning into tourist traps, pretty much the same story as everywhere else in the country.

When I discovered that the Bend Cascade Hostel is just a memory in faded internet pages, I decided to take the relatively short hop over the cascades into the friendlier territory of Eugene. I wasn't expecting the blizzard, but fortunately it was late in the season and the road stayed clear enough that I only got a little nervous. Unfortunately the Eugene International Hostel was all booked up...but I've spent nights in Rest Areas before, and the drive up the Columbia River gorge was interesting enough.

Was there ever any place that survived, sustainably, on its own local resources? The Amish seem to be able to accomplish it, though certainly at a cost (technology) that few (i.e. only the Amish) are willing to accept. Of course there used to be a great number of folks who accomplished it unwillingly. Most of them (China, India, et cetera) are working as hard as they can to "modernize." New research indicates that China's rate of carbon dioxide emission is increasing twice as fast (11% per year) as earlier estimated. And, of course, here in the good old USA, folks are busily filling places like the Columbia River gorge with boutique hotels and McMansions, unhesitatingly paying going on four dollars a gallon for gas, and hoping, I suppose, that the next generation will learn to love living in a hothouse. Just you wait, 'Enry 'Iggins, just you wait, you'll be sorry but your futile efforts at cutting global CO2 emission will be too late.

Well, anyway, the Columbia Gorge is gorgeous. And not yet full of happy vacationers happily vacationing. I'm heading to Windflower Farm, in Mosier, Oregon. After that I'll be heading norther still, up to Alaska, hoping the roads will be open.