Homeward bound....but first...

Salem, Oregon....to Timmy's house on the farm! Connected up with our great friend, Tim Greer who boards horses and practices law in Salem. He's the one with the bald head!

Portland, Oregon. What a lush city, with so many bridges snaking over the Columbia River. We explored downtown, specifically seeking Powell Books, one of the most comprehensive bookstores on the west coast, maybe even the country. We never made it to the 4 story main branch because we got side tracked at Powell’s Technical store, only a few blocks away. Spent hours there perusing countless isles of material sciences, mathematics, cosmology, cooking science, geology, engineering, ceramics, glass making…and on and on and on. Incredibly interesting stuff. The next day we got a grand tour of the glass making process at Bullseye Glass where we watched chemists work on tweaking various colors & textures of glass, to the process of pouring and forming hot liquid glass into colorful sheets. Kent will be back for glass classes that are offered in several concentrated weeks of study later this year; I’m tagging along to further explore the city, and Powell’s!

Onward into British Columbia, Canada. Yikes…snow again! After several days of driving, we arrived at Laird Hot Springs where we soaked our weary bodies in the natural springs for a couple of hours under lightly falling snow. Yakked with Canadians about their health care system (we’ve been polling people and so far, no one is unsatisfied).

California was wonderful and warm, but B.C. is grandiose (like Alaska)! The next night, we stayed at Takini Hot Springs, west of Whitehorse and soaked the night away again. This time we got a good education from a very talkative Swiss woman re: Canadian politics which was pretty enlightening.

Next day, miles and miles of frost heaves on the roadway (like rolling on an angry ocean) from Kluane Lake (where dozens of Dall sheep were grazing on the rocky slopes) to White River, Yukon Territory. Almost to the Alaskan border. We are really “smelling the barn” now. Holy smokes!!! Three lynx crossed in front of us (how exciting…30 years here & I’ve never seen them in the wild). We were thoroughly jazzed by that. Then, a few hours later, a herd of caribou trotted across the road…omg, we turned into a ball of frenzy…get the cameras…*#@*! *@!*! Lens caps flying…hurry up...*#@*! …too late. Darn. So off down the road we go and Kent says, “now maybe we’ll see a wolf” (yeah right…nobody has that kind of luck)…when, about 5 seconds later, the biggest fattest black wolf I’ve ever seen crosses the roadway. Oh gee, maybe he’s after the caribou herd. Again, we were too flustered to get a shot; we just looked at eachother and busted out laughing.

We stopped at our cabin on the Copper River before heading all the way home. The river has a few open leads, but is still a few weeks away from break-up. We'll be staying there most of April finishing the building process and readying for June fishcamp. River break-up is fascinating if you're there when it happens. The power of moving ice is pretty cool. Click your heels together 3 times Dorothy...and say, "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home." Voila! The End...for this adventure, anyways.

Going coastal ... again!

Drove back to the coast and camped at Wright Beach, one of the most dangerous beaches in California…sleeper waves, strong backwash and rip tides! Great beach for collecting colored stones and jade pebbles. We’re headed for Redwood National Park in northern California. Ultimately, for the short term, bound for Coos Bay, Oregon to meet Arnold & Lucille (Alaskan friends-Athabascan) for a pow wow. Not just a rendezvous, but a real Indian pow wow…dancing, drumming, and music. At the pow-wow, we won a free night's stay at The Mill Casino, so we stayed another night. Played a few slots, watched movies, then headed back up the coast the next morning. Stopped in Salem, Oregon and visited my old college friend Tim Greer; he lives on a beautiful farm. We had a good dinner and great conversations about long lost friends...to the Big Bang theory...to Oregon politics...to the health benefits of cursing....ha!!! Loved it. Next stop, Portland.

Point and Shoot

Monterey, oh Monterey! Pacific Grove, oh Pacific Grove! Lilies growing bigger than your fist, birds of paradise blooming…and it’s winter! We hooked up with Jay Ireland (ImagingFoundation.org), a professional wildlife photographer that Kent befriended on various dive trips. They did a couple dives in Monterey Bay, and checked out kelp forests, abalone, neudebrancs (sp?), sea pins, sea bass, link cod, and various crustaceans. Kent made a few purchases at Backscatter, updating his underwater camera gear. Jay took us out in his Zodiac in the Elkhorn slough, which is a wildlife refuge. Here you can view scores of sea otters, California brown seals, and hundreds of birds just hanging out…a photographer’s dream! On the morning we left, we had some trouble with the truck (I won’t go into the embarrassing details) and ended up stranded in Prunedale. Actually, the guys who owned the auto shop were pretty interesting characters, and we had a hearty discussion about the movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know….” (check this movie out if you haven’t seen it; portrays the power of thought to assist in shaping one’s reality). We spent the night in the auto shop parking lot and the next day, Jay drove down, picked us up, and off we went again for a full day of scanning the slough. Click, click, click. We ended the day at another fine Mexican restaurant for seafood tacos and libations in the marguerita family. Onward, ho! Drove a few hours inland to visit Jill Duthie. We worked together in rehab. in Anchorage many years ago and she now lives in Stockton, where she is professor of speech pathology at University of the Pacific (whom, by the way, UCSB just kicked their butts in basketball). Go Gauchos! The first time Kent & I (being Midwesterners) had artichokes was dinner at Jill’s house in Anchorage (she’s a California girl), and here we were, eating artichokes together again, talking about old times, our kids growing up, and “shop talk” about caseloads, therapist friends, language theories…until almost 2 am. Jill made our wedding cake (carrot, with Alaskan wild flowers on top), and we always said it was the best carrot cake we ever had (she pulled the 28 year old recipe from her recipe box and made us a copy). Just a wonderful time seeing her again after so many years.

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I'm with the band....

We arrived in Arroyo Grande and spent 4 days with our old Alaskan friends, Kit Roberts & John Pope who have recently left Anchorage for warmer climes. It’s a beautiful community where life is a beach! They have just begun eating “raw”, which is all uncooked whole foods, which I must say, even for the short time that Kent & I participated, was absolutely delicious. We are committed to adding more fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet and bought a juicer, which we had been thinking about for a long time prior. This was the little nudge we needed. We drove up the California coast to a beach and watched wind and rain pound waves into the rocks as we combed the beach for jade stone. Lunch: vegetable cakes and carob brownies. Yum. Breakfast: Mango banana smoothies. Yum. Turns out Kit plays ukele and sings so we jammed old Hawaiian tunes, some upbeat and fun, while others were gorgeous as a Hawaiian waterfall. I love traditional music and the Hawaiian language is purely magical. I accompanied Kit to a “jam night” with other ukele players in town and we rocked the house, so to speak. I was the only guitar player, but no matter......"I'm with the band" (I've always wanted to say that) Dinner: zucchini fetticini and lemon-date parfait. Yum. Departure: Up the coast we went again, slowly and sure footed. Camper packed to the gills, with enchanting music Kit prepared for us that matched the breathtaking landscape of the Pacific’s steep cliffs and pounding sea. Camped at Plaskett State Park, right across Hwy. 1 from Jade Cove, where Kent spent the morning rock-hounding the precious stones. That evening, whilst starting a fire with damp wood, Kent was eating his sandwich, with his back turned to the picnic table. It was a dark night. He picked up his sandwich & noticed the top bread was missing. He asked me..."did you eat part of my sandwich?" Suddenly, I turned and saw a huge coon sitting on the table, munching on Kent's bread. I could have sworn it had a grin on its face...stealthily he carried out his task, right under our noses! The bandit stuck around. We felt like we were being keenly watched. He came back 3 more times, but now we were vigilant, and he, unsuccessful. Are we not easily entertained?? To top that off, the next morning hiking back from the beach, we followed a bobcat mozying down the road. Bingo. Off again. Whoa, the farther north we go, the steeper the cliffs, and the more beautiful it gets. Spent an evening at Esalen, getting massages and soaking in the mineral baths 300 feet above the ocean at sunset. Livin'.

Soaking in the Santa Barbara sun

The green sea folds and crashes to shore here on Jalama Beach. A kite surfer flies across the waves with enormous speed in expertly carved motorless motion. Amazing. Looks like tons of fun…the guy never falls and starts over, like in surfing, coz the wind keeps him clipping across the waves for as long as he wishes. Wow! The next best thing to flying. That reminds me…I recently read that the newest craze in the snowboard world (Chris says he sometimes dreams about snowboarding, now that he lives in California) is called No-boarding. This is a snow board with NO bindings; just a traction plate for your feet and an attached cord. 40 degree drops off clean air cornices. Wish we were 20 again! So here’s our update: the last couple weeks in beautiful Santa Barbara watching basketball games, hiking the beaches, collecting more rocks and reading in the sun. This is such a gorgeous, peaceful, small-town feeling, conscious place, with the Santa Inez Mountains on one side and the blue Pacific on the other. Great nightlife, whether you’re young or old, wonderful art galleries, stimulating lectures on all sorts of subjects, and superb restaurants. Went shopping downtown and parused the Farmer's Market where we scored fresh fruit and vegetables for the trip down the road. Paul and Jo (UCSB basketball boosters) invited us to housesit for 4 days at their home in Hope Ranch. We took care of their dogs, Sitka and Juneau (yes…named after Alaskan towns!) and their 2 cats. After that we hung out with Zach and Jenna before heading down the road to Jalama Beach. Life is good.

Mojave Desert Camp

Yesterday we camped atop Mt. Palomar and drove through San Bernadino National Forest, and through back road pastoral towns where we saw miles and miles of old fire damage; even the air smelled charred. Soaked at Desert Hot Springs (where we had interesting conversations with a group of traveling peace pilgrims), encountered a sand storm that nearly blew us off the highway, and finally settled down Old Woman Springs Rd. and into the sweet smell of pinon trees. Today: “Ain’t nobody here but us chickens...” We’re off-road about 30 miles into the Mojave Desert, and I kiss the ground with thanks that I’m married to an adventurous man (who doesn’t mind loud music). Open your heart and “Say what you need to say…” (that would be John Mayer at about 120 decibels; also a theme song for Bucket List) as we creep through barren desert sands and burnt out tumbleweed. There is actually a plan: find Opal Mountain on land owned by the BLM (the locals have labeled the Bureau of Land Management “bastard lowlife morons” with very impressive professional looking signs I might add). I don’t think they like those guys very much. We have found our rock hounding site, and with a rock pick, collecting bag and chisel, Kent (after parking us atop a mountain to catch menyana’s (spelling… “tomorrow” in Spanish) desert morning sun, immediately boogied in search of the common opal and agate (stones carried to increase one’s self-esteem, which makes me want to barf;) I was hoping for something lofty like enlightenment! No matter. Common opal comes in orange, red, green, yellow and white. Although it doesn’t have the fire attributed to precious opal, it does seem to be “fired” with an inner glow (good enough for me). It occurs in seams in the mountain rock and is easily fractured. After a full day of rock hounding, we came back with lots of specimens. We climbed to the top of Opal Mountain and I remembered this quote: “I wouldn’t trade one hour of this marvelous air for all the cultural riches of New York. It’s as real as a glass of cold white wine.” Fine scene indeed. On the mountain top a single raven came circling above my head; he was cawing and riding the wind currents up and down (no wings flapping)…pretty amazing. I turned to see a pile of rocks and went to investigate; there I found a glass jar with paper and pencil and entries of others as far back as 1998. I added our words of wisdom and started on back down the mountain. We agreed there was no day greater than this one…so far!

Southern California

The days are sunny and bright. We love San Deigo! "Virginia", our GPS, is invaluable in the city; takes us exactly where we want to go, without having to mess with maps and switching lanes in a pinch. Her lovely voice gives us plenty of lead time. Toured Balboa Park and the San Diego Natural History museum and Photographic museum. Art, like nature, is so uplifting and inspirational! Can't live without it... Drove the bridge over to Coronado Island and met up with my cousin Ian at the Hotel Del Coronado. Visited cousins (the Marzonie's, my Dad's side) in La Jolla, which is a gorgeous seaside town. Staying in Mission Park, and today are headed for the Himalaya mine to dig for tourmalene, and a hotsprings to soak in afterwardes. We saw the movie Bucket List last night. We challenge everyone to make a list of all the things you want to do in this life time, and start doing them...NOW!

Bryce Canyon and Beyond

How to catch up on so many days!!! The spires of Bryce Canyon in winter is majestic. We headed to Zion (pretty cold), then south to Phoenix (ah...warmth!). It was good to see Grandma and Frank; we spent several days with a boatload of relatives, watching football games and eating good food in the retirement community of Sun Lakes. Then headed back north with Anna & Joe in search of a hot springs. Took the camper off-road into some spectacular scenery, i.e., saguaro (sp) & barrel cactus, sagebrush, palo verde, creosote, and other natural wonders that Anna pointed out. Kent & Joe explored an old mine they found in the side of a mountain. Me and Anna hoped they wouldn't get "shafted" (we decided to stay outside in the sunlight) and told them not to make cave widows out of us. Soon after, we were back on the road. Spent an entire day roaming a Rock & Gem Pow Wow in Quartzsite, Arizona. It was fabulous. Left the desert and headed west toward the Pacific... Drove through a wind farm north of Palm Springs that made us feel like we were plunked down in the middle of a sci-fi movie...really cool. And now...Santa Barbara. Great to hang with the boys and their friends, watching basetball, playing guitars, and yakking about life in general. The ocean was a welcome site, indeed

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Southern Utah is a backpacker's dream

1/15/08: Rule Number One: Never camp in wash bottoms. OK, so we didn't camp, just hiked the Grand Wash trail along a narrow wash bottom with sheer canyon walls on both sides. There is something humbling and glorious about being in the midst of ancient rock. Todays' scenes: vaulted white rock domes, colorful cliffs, twisting canyons, graceful arches. Juniper and pinon trees, mule deer. This is great horse back riding country (in another life, cowboys are my weakness!!). Tomorrow we're off to the soaring spires of Bryce Canyon. No more words...see the pics...

Moving South

1/14/08 : Many days with no Internet access. The city of Provo, Utah has not one Internet cafe ; we inquired at the Visitor Center why this was so and was told it just wasn’t popular enough to have in their town. Hmm. Funny how they’re available in some of the remotest places on the planet, but not insular Provo. Currently we’re headed for Capitol Reef in southern Utah, and will visit Bryce Canyon and Zion. Diverse landscapes yet close in proximity. We spent last night at 8,000 ft. elevation on the road to Fish Lake. Elk and deer, horses grazing, cattle feed lots, small towns, country cafes, and, finally, flat out in your face blazing sunshine!! Amazing how good it feels on your body. “Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun, but Mama, that’s where the fun is!” (what band was that??)

Bellingham Arrival

The road trip continues. We have had 4 days of welcome rest here on board but are ready to start driving again. First stop Monica's friend Amy's, then on to Meridian, ID, where we will pick up our new (to us) camper. I have picked up some sort of respiratory bug and am fighting it off with hot liquids "I shall overcome". More later...

Amy & Jim

Inside Passage

1/10/08: How the days fly by when traveling. Turns out we’re on the water for 4 days, from Haines, Alaska to Bellingham, Washington. Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the U.S. combined & half of its coastal cities are unreachable by conventional road, thus the Alaska Marine Highway System. This is public transportation, not a cruise line (forget the gym and shuffleboard) but safety and comfort abound. Aboard the Malaspina, we are gently rocked to sleep at night like babies in cradles. It is a tranquil voyage with forests, fjords and peaceful communities along the Inside Passage. Sitting in the front lounge, with 360 degree views and lolling along at 16 knots is incredibly relaxing; reading, playing BananaGram (like Scrabble w/no rules), listening to our IPODS and coloring (I bought a mandala coloring book) feels almost timeless. From Ketchikan to Prince Rupert as we make a crossing at Dixon Entrance, exposure to rolling waves of the Pacific and the rebound waves off the shores creates what is called a “confused sea”; walking like drunkards and hanging onto walls disrupts our serenity, but only for a couple of hours. Then the sea becomes flat as we sail through even narrower passage in British Columbia, Canada. Back to my book, “Mind of the Raven”. I think my spirit medicine is the raven, since I had a raven dream and bought a beautiful raven painting that I couldn’t walk away from (by the Canadian artist, Natalie Porteneau); now I notice them everywhere and pay attention. Au revoir! (sp)

Hello Haines

After an uneventful day of driving, we stayed in a hotel and started anew. From Haines Junction, Yukon Territory, Canada to Haines, Alaska. Wow, more mountain vistas. Red fox, red fox, what do you see? I see 2 humanoids staring at me! I'm wondering how a red fox survives in these monstrous white mountains, but we startled up enough spruce grouse to shake a stick at, so that must be his soup de jour. Dozens of eagles perched in trees along the Chilkat River as we enter Haines; tomorrow is a day of photography as our ferry does not leave to sail the Inside Passage until 7:30 pm. We'll be on the water 3 days, with a fine state room to boot. Bon voyage!

Eagle River to our cabin in Tazlina

1/4/08: Eagle River to Tazlina:

We skeedaddled out of Dodge, or, should I say mozied after numerous stops for tire chains, haircuts, snack purchases, a postal rendevous and a couple cups of joe…geez. Good thing we don’t have to be anywhere anytime soon. Slightly slippery roads and 18 degrees, which gradually decomposed to minus 21 outside Glennallen. We’ve driven this road a hundred times before on our way out to Tazlina and the scenery never gets jaded, No traffic whatsoever (who the hell does road trips in the winter????); just snow peaked mountains at dusk, pink skies, blue glaciers and frozen rivers. Winter is cool. Soft, quiet, eerily still. The cabin is fr..fr…fr…freezing cold, so we lit a fire in the stove and went to town for a pizza. Still warming up as I write this. In time, the cabin becomes cozy. As we lay down in the loft,( in science, it would be called the “energetic advantages of huddling”), we spoon tightly to generate heat, then dream back 30 years. Three decades ago, we were cuddled tightly under a thick velour quilt, on the lower level of Kent’s partially constructed house in Fox, Alaska, an outpost north of Fairbanks. The walls were soundproof; the wood stove, fashioned out of a large piece of the oil pipeline, blazed, and snow blanketed the floor above us. That day started our journey together and now we have come full circle. Another partially constructed cabin home, blanketed with snow at 22 degrees below zero, we lay huddled and grateful and happy. Tomorrow we continue to Tok, one of the few places on earth where I have bad bad memories of a winter trip many moons ago. Clutching baby Zach between us on a hard bed in a Quonset hut and being charged $100 a night to half way freeze to death…THAT’S my memory of Tok; we shall buzz right on through that shanty town this time! 1/5/07: I love words, especially these two: Kandahar and Chistochina. I love the way they sound as they roll off your tongue and into the atmosphere. Kandahar, of course, is in Afghanistan and as I say it, I envision the similarities of these two polar opposites as we pass through Chistochina (doesn’t that sound pretty?), a tiny Athabascan village. It is minus 9 degrees, very little relief in the landscape, gray skies, black spruce blanketed in white, mountains sugar coated white, black pavement dusted in white; ice fog (you guessed it, white), and the hurricane of snow whirling perpetually in front of us as we travel in the wake of a trucker, whose rig looks like a freight train hurling through, um, white. So back to Kandahar: zero relief in the landscape, people bundled in cloth to protect against the elements, 115 degrees, imperviously dry desert sand and whirling dust devils, a relentless yellow sun singing exposed body parts…perhaps the sun’s blisterous perilous sting is almost as painful as frostbite.

Kent just hooked up “Virginia”, our Garmin GPS mapping tool. Which is pretty ridiculous because there is only ONE road out of Alaska so it’s virtually impossible to get lost. But he likes to know where we are in relation to other parts of the world. Like, we’re now at the Little Tok River, which means we’re a long long ways from say, Monkey Forest Road in Ubud, Bali Indonesia. Yes, my darling gear head, that GPS is sure useful right now. “Virginia” informs us of our next destination: drive 290 miles, then turn right, she says in her monotonous diction. Well, DUH!

In Kent’s defense, while driving in a snow squall created by the wake of a 16 wheeler, “Virginia” alerts us to the existence of a T-bone intersection two miles down the road. And, “Virginia” just told us the sun has officially risen, at 10:06 am. Of course, you never actually see the sun, it’s just that in our world the sky has turned from darkness to light. So I correct Kent’s initial blog entry where he states, “in March we will return to sunny Alaska.” Sunny Alaska? Isn't that an oxymoron? Kona is sunny. Fiji is sunny. No, in March, we return to the light.

Beginnings

Third life, sometimes referred to as retirement, begins at the moment you free yourself from years of working at a regular job. I see this as an opportunity to do, while you're still healthy, many of the activities you have been putting off; to express yourself artisticly in ways not yet tried; teach what you can to willing learners; to visit old friends and family; to Reflect on what life has given and rejoice. So thats what we are going to do! Our beginning will start with a trip out of Alaska by pickup truck. We will travel to Haines, AK where we will catch the ferry headed south, land at Bellingham,Wa and drive to Boise, Id, to pickup a camper. Then we are off to destinations south, Utah, Arizona and California. Eventually we will return to sunny Alaska. Along the way Monica and I will be journaling our thoughts and observations through our writings and photographs ... stay tuned!