So, I packed everything I own into my little van and headed for Eugene. The van was completely filled, even the passenger’s seat, with all my stuff. That included: my clothing, my tools, a tent, two sleeping bags, crampons, ice ax, about 800’ of climbing rope, one kayak, cross country skis, snow shows, a folding bike, one kite, two boxes of books, my Mac laptop, a cooler, two nice pieces of teak lumber, a shovel, an ax and a machete, one oil painting and an Ansel Adans silver print of Half Dome. The poor van was noticeably lower to the ground once packed, I only hope that the wheels will stay on.
It was a wild ride, I’m still buzzing from the experience. The weather was epically cooperative. With the excepton of about 45 minutes of nastiness in Nebraska, I couldn’t have asked for any better.
I entered the road like it was a river and didn’t come out till I reached the other side. I started the trip at 9:30am in Connecticut and arrived in Eugene at 12:30 (EST) on Friday (last night). That’s driving just over three thousand miles in just under three days, a very strange and wonderful trip indeed.
I wasn’t on the road more that five minutes when tears began streaming down my face. Tears of joy, sadness and release. I’d waited so long to start this trip and now it was finally here. The cathartic release was welcome, wonderful and overdue.
Once on the road I quickly fell into the driving grove. The Northeast passed by in a blur of familiarity. Pennsylvania was much greener and wooded that I had expected. Huge forests populated by smallish trees. I arrived in Ohio almost before I knew it. I didn’t even know that I was in Indiana until it was over. Illinois, you can have it. Iowa was a welcome relief from the urban madness of Illinois. I saw my first triple semi, I didn’t even know they existed. Iowa was all about cornfields, combines and silos.
From Nebraska on the trip just got better and better. Nebraska is amazing, why didn’t anyone ever mention this to me before? Graceful and stately wind farms in fields of corn and sunflowers too, then the prairies that seem on go on forever. I almost went into Colorado but I-80 just grazes the top of the that state without ever actually entering. In Wyoming I chased the sunset over the vastness of the land for and incredible three hours. Then, when full darkness finally fell there was a thunderstorm way ahead of me that continued to produce heavenly pyrotechnics. Utah, I can never seem to get enough of that state. The very northern end of it has it’s own special kind of beauty. Idaho, scenery wise, was the only let down west of Nebraska.
Finally the drive across Oregon was truly amazing. It starts off in the high desert with it’s own sparse beauty and the goes wild after that. It was an amazingly vast open track of land with no billboards, buildings, power-lines or cell towers, just miles and miles of trackless land. Then I came to the valley that provided a hair-raising and beautiful decent into central Oregon. The highway (two lane back top) follows a meandering river with many beautiful vistas and an equal number of precipitous drop-offs. They didn’t waste much money on guardrails, which is great for view but gave me a serious case of the willies as I focused hard to keep all four wheels on the backtop. Driving an over-loaded minivan definitely added to that challenge.
After all that I’ve heard about it, the town of Bend didn’t do much for me. On the other hand, the Deschutes and Willamette national forests knocked my socks off. I stopped amongst the huge pines at one point and was stunned by the ancient silence of the place. Then I wondered; hay what happened to my shocks? At that point I hadn’t even seen the ancient lava flow, the biggest I’ve never seen. I was stunned by the contrast between the living, virulent forest and primordial rock-flow. Tears of joy came and started streaming down my face. It seemed like I could feel my past life coming apart molecule by molecule. I was hoping for something completely new and wonderful, I didn’t expect find it on the very first day.
I was again surprised to discover that the trip had one more delight in store for me before it was over; the trip down the McKenzie river valley. At that point I’d used up all my superlatives so I just sad yowza and then pulled over to try to pop my eyes back into their sockets.
Once in town I quickly found a motel and turned off the car. At that point I had been driving 18 hours straight; my ears were ringing and my body vibrating so much that I thought the car must still be running after I turned it off.
So here I am and what lies before me seems daunting; the construction of a whole new life for myself. A life after Susan, a life after all that sailing, a life after my long career. Where to start? First I’ve got to find a place to live, I need a home.
No comments:
Post a Comment