After getting lost in terrain like this for 3 tense hours yesterday, made it out to Cottage Grove last night.
Hot afternoon, went into McKenzie River here. Brrr! About 53 degrees, but refreshing.
Water tower near Prineville this afternoon. Sculptural.
Your guess is as good as mine; this was on the outskirts of Colusa, a wierded-up VW bus.
I’m in Ashland this morning. After I left Colusa yesterday, I drove north about 3 hours, and went to Stewart Mineral Springs, just northwest of the town of Weed, and lucked into getting the last opening of the day. You soak in the heavily mineralized water, then get in fabulous large wood-fired sauna, then in the cold creek. Mineralized, flushed of toxins, rejuvenated, I wanted a beer, walked into the one bar in Weed, Papa’s Bar (Well, YES!) and voilá, Joe Cocker on the juke box (with good sound system), doing You Can Leave Your Hat On. One good song after another, a lot of Stones. My kinda bar. In giving me change, the bartender included a Native American $1 coin AND stood it on edge on the bar.
Then for dinner to Asian-American Bar-B-Q, recommended by worker at Stewarts Mineral Springs. Bingo! The chef, born in Chicago, grew up in Thailand, barbecuing over wood coals, I got try-tip and rice ($12), with coconut juice, it was perfect, smoky, juicy, homemade hot sauce (no mass-produced Sriracha), sat at table out on road watching one 18-wheeler after another go by. America!
Tammy Wynette, Stand By Your Man, came on the radio as I headed out for dinner; what a beautiful voice:
And then there’s Lyle Lovett doing it:
Drove to Ashland, out to dead end road east of town and slept in the back of truck (my 13-year-old Tacoma 4×4, stick shift, 4 cylinder, 130K mileage, my baby…).
Up this morning, latte and cinnamon roll at Pony Espresso Coffee House in the rather precious town of Ashland. Going to have lunch with bodybuilding legend Bill Pearl and his wife, Judy, then head for Umpqua Hot Springs, then Lew and Krystal’s on outer edge of total eclipse zone.
A lotta adventures in just 30 hours away from home!
Foster Huntington quit his job, where he was working 70-hour weeks for Ralph Lauren in New York City, and took off living on the road, first in a (very) used VW Synchro van, later in a Toyota Tacoma truck with a spiffy fiberglas camper shell. He started The Restless Transplant, a blog that became enormously popular. I remember seeing it years ago and thinking this is my kinda guy.
These days he’s living in a treehouse in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington, just northeast of Portland and he has 1 million (!) Instagram followers.
His latest project is this book, and the publishers have printed 35,000 copies. Vans are tremendously popular right now, and this book shows them in all their glory.
Built on a Subaru Brat. Jay got the idea of the tiny wood-burning stove from Bruno Atkey.
From Minor Wilson in today’s mail
Photo by Godfrey Stephens, in Victoria, BC:
Kent Griswold’s Tiny House Blog was the first full-time blog dedicated to tiny houses. Its subtitle is “Living Simply in Small Spaces.” It’s the standard-bearer and station central for the tiny house movement online: https://tinyhouseblog.com/
Kent also puts out the Tiny House Blog magazine: https://tinyhouseblog.com/magazine/
I’m taking off tomorrow morning — for a week in and around San José del Cabo. For about 12 years, I went to Baja whenever I could. I kept a 1983 4-wheel drive Toyota truck down there, would fly down, drive 12 miles east of town along the coast, let out air pressure in tires to about 7 lbs and drive 2 miles on the sandy beach to a place gringos called Roosterfish Cove, put up my flea market tarp for shade, unfurl the rooftop tent for sleeping, and hang out for 3-4 days, all alone, surfing, swimming, running on the beach, seldom wearing clothes. In hot months, it was pretty unbearable from 11 AM to 5 PM, but the early mornings and early evenings were exquisite.
It’s been 8 years since I was last there, and I know it’s built up immensely. I’m taking fins. Haven’t surfed in months, due to cold water here and a damaged shoulder. I’ll see what happens down there. I’m staying at a few different places on the beach. Meeting my good friend Chilon when I get there, he’s making lunch for us.
Here are some posts from years back: https://www.lloydkahn.com/?s=baja
Stay tuned.
Hi Lloyd,
Last we spoke, I was telling you about the “Lost Sea Expedition”. It was just mule Polly and me traveling across the USA in our wagon. We were looking for stories behind the Lost Sea, the ancient seabed that once covered the Great Plains.
I filmed the journey without a film crew, support vehicle or sponsor. I charged my camera gear off the solar panel bolted to the wagon roof. Now, that footage has been turned in to the “Lost Sea Expedition” TV series.
First, a bit about the journey:
As I bumped across the USA in my wagon, I folks what they knew about the Lost Sea. Early on, a Lakota elder told me about “buffalo stones” – fossils from a marine creature called a baculite. From there, the story took off in all directions. I thought I was looking for a vanished sea. Instead, I unearthed an all-American web covering topics as far ranging as the Ogallala Aquifer, Creationism, Evolutionism, Prairie Fever ,and Depression-era horse breaking.
Who knew that diving in to the origins of a long vanished sea would turn in to a journey to the heart of America?
2,500-mile wagon route across America
