Along The Road

Coasting

It is rather amazing, when you think about it. Over the course of less than three hundred years the landscape of coastal Washington, Oregon and California have been completely transformed! A thousand cultures and languages have been replaced, first by the several cultures of the lumber camps, of the fishing and farming villages, the shipping ports. Finally, they have been reduced to one, the monoculture of tourism, almost two thousand miles of vacation homes, resorts, RV parks, State parks, county parks, city parks and parking lots.

We should feel lucky, I suppose, that so much has been "preserved" in public lands, where we have the opportunity to share a few acres of trees with hundreds of others, with our cars and tents, our camper-shelled pickups, our travel trailers, and our monstrous motor homes, to follow, down the shelving shore, the footprints of gulls and sandpipers, of hiking boots and bare feet, knowing that all will, someday, be washed away.

And that someday is coming sooner than we expected. It won't be long before those beach-front homes will have the beach behind as well, the ocean views will be of waves washing around the davenport, as global warming lifts the seas, and the tide of humanity draws back from the edge, taking their Ikea furniture with them.

After a short stay near, roughly, the mid-point, I'll continue on down the coast, the endless passage of tree, stone, sand and tourist attraction. I'll think about what was, and what will be.