Life in the Gorge

Today is really windy here. So windy, it is hard to stand up. I went to town to pickup my mail and there was no wind. So it must be like a wind tunnel where the air velocity peaks at the narrow neck. Now I know why all the branches on one side of these trees are ripped off.

Moonlight Zipping

Wow!! This Columbia Gorge is gorgeous. Tonight the moon is almost full and the air is still and freezing. The fog rolls in from downstream and looks like a river flowing by about 100 ft below the cabin. Beautiful. So.... The ground is frozen.. right.. Yippee, 750cc of artic cat atv, 80 acres of field. About the 5th spin around, cold tears freezing at the corner of my eyes, I began to ponder the fact that my body was kicking a surge of adredilin into my system. My heart began to race, my attention became in the immediate, and the atv became part of this high speed experience across a frozen field. I could hear this annoying high pitch whooping (need to work on that)...

Well, that was so much fun. I figured I would throw on a harness and be the first to Zip at midnight. So scared of hieghts here, sure enough, zipadeedohda, zipped 'the sting, cliff hanger and mission impossible. WoW!! The water fall is just gushing with all the recent meltoff, and the moolight really lit up the spray. Then I could see a barge lights through the fog. Way pretty!!

Is adredilin addictive, physically or mentally? Does it become harder and harder to get a adredilin kick? Are base jumpers really just crazy junkies?

Sorry no picture ;)

Stuck again

So I finally headed to Washougal and the cabin in the Gorge. Jolene had been telling me all about the big storms they had over the holidays. But it had rained the last few days and most the snow was melted. So I was a bit surprised to find huge snow drifts in my drive way. WoW!!

No Problem.... The ground is frozen, I can just drive on top of the frozen field to the cabin. Zipadeedodah.... Things are going great on my way to the house. And on my way back to town until I hit a patch of thawed, frozen slushy, mud... Stuck again. Again, as in, I think I need a 4x4 with a winch instead of this Camry.

I mixed a bit of the mexican sand with the washington mud and felt thankful that I had experienced both.

A picture tells a story

Traveling through old ghost town of Shasta CA and I noticed this old Mason's lodge, built in 1856 and used every since. This bag caught my eye. A full size suitcase, out in the middle of no where. Uhm..... I told myself, I should at least check for Identification then help get it returned. So I give it a nudge with my foot. No ticking. It appears light and fluffy. I open the top pocket and there are a pillow with clothes for a girl about Kamilla's age. No id... Well, I hope the child is better taken care of than the suitcase. I thought about all the children that go missing each year. I told myself that a loving family must have stopped to have lunch, had the suitcase down to grab a sweater and simply forgot it,

So I ate all the gummy bears I found in the side pocket. No, just joking. I left it on the porch of that Mason lodge. They meet every first Tuesday of the month, perhaps they'll know what to do with it.

Soul Factory?

I was looking for a car parts store outside of Chico when I saw this large building with this sign on it. What is a 'Soul Factory'? What is a Soul? And are Souls made? In a factory? I decided it must be a farce for the simple fact that all the 'Souls' that I know are so different than each other, they could never have been made in a factory. Like snow flakes, no two the same.

Chasing windmills

I drove up to Arrowhead lake today, outside of San Bernadino, CA. Very steep and winding road. Lots of people just driving, like me, around the loop. Thousands of cars backed up, but since they are from LA, no cares. Lots of people sledding and picnicing. It is amazing how much fun just a few inches of snow can be.

On the way back down I saw hundreds of windmills. I found it interesting that out of say, 200 windmills, there would be only 5 turning. What's with that? Are they all broken? Do we not need the free electricity?

I drove all the way to Fresno CA. They are having a Hmong New Years celebration. It last a whole week here at the fair grounds. Many Hmong are from Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. A very happy people, after all they have been through. (is there a correlation?) I will never forget the 2 brothers from Laos who helped bundle firewood one summer. Read up on the history of Laos if your curious of what happened in the late 70's. Makes you appreciate your own trivial trials.

Stuck in the sand

I had a great plan to escape the winter weather and run off to sunnier parts. I did not want to deal with all the snow and ice. Sooo.. once I got to San Filipe and went to find a quiet place, I came upon a sand drift, very simliar to a snow drift, or so I thought until I got my car stuck up to the axles. I worked on getting un-stuck all day long. First, jack up the car, place short boards under tires, drive 6 inches, jack up car......... Ugh!! The whole time I was thinking how similar to snow the sand is. At least it was not frozen.

When night fell, I was only 20 feet from where I got stuck. I have never been so away from everything. Not a soul around. No sounds except the surf. No lights except the billion of stars. The next morning, after sleeping on the sand, I was able to find some old 2x6 boards, and finally free my Camry. What a relief!!

I then went on down the 'highway' to drive to the West side of the baja. Well.. The highway got smaller and smaller until there was just this trail. The only road I've been on that was worse, was with Bill Hart. The road was rough, but it was also very long. I turned around after seeing the faces on some of the locals when I drove by. Jolene may recall the trip down the Washougal river, when the locals tried to stop us. 'you'll kill yourself, at least leave the little girl here'

After a few days, I had enough. Back to the border. It is much easier getting into Mexico, than back to the US. Here is a picture of the border fence. I had a hard time sorting out the real purpose of the fence. Still not sure what to think of it. So much freedom, yet here was a fence to keep humans in. Is this really the best we could come up with? I was glad I had my passport. After waiting 2 hours in line, and a quick check of my trunk by the border patrol, I was back in the USA. Yes!!