The Furious Spinner

I feel like these posts are my contribution to American kitsch. So here goes. I don't promise Steinbeck but there be dragons here...

We drove about five hours today. Going over the pass was relatively easy. For about two hours after the pass we went up and down, up and down, on terrible roads. No ice, no snow, just bad roads with heavy rain. Finally we got out of the rain and passed the bad roads to see Mount Shasta in the fog. Isn't she lovely? Every time I'm in this part of the world (near Shasta) I feel something strange: I feel a wee bit touched.



Here's my sweetie and the car at the viewpoint for Mount Shasta.


By the way, these three always go with us on long trips. The bear is turquoise with a salmon in its mouth. (We dropped it once, and it broke. Mario somehow glued it back together.) A tiny metal statue of Tara is next to the bear. (Mar got it at Artifacts in Hood River for ten bucks years ago.) Then the raven, with green eyes. We've both forgotten what kind of black stone it is.


Here's a warning about rattlesnakes at a nearby rest area.


As we drove along, Mario said, "There's a dragon."

"What?" I thought he was joking—or he was seeing it in the clouds.

"A dragon," he said. "I saw a dragon on the side of the road."

I glanced over his shoulder and just glimpsed something on the other side of the expressway. I had to see the dragon (especially given I'd just had dragon treatments last week), so we got off at the next exit and turned around. Just then a rainbow arced across the gray sky. Soon after I saw the dragon sculpture just yards from the expressway. We pulled off the road, got out of the car, and went to see her. (She struck me as a "her.") We took several photos of her. (I believe s/he is a creation of Ralph Starritt, but I can't say for certain.)


Isn't she gorgeous?


Then we got back on the highway. We were going to have to drive nine more miles before we could turn around again, so we sneaked across an access road instead and were soon travelling south again.

We went through miles and miles of flat land as the sun went down. Hawks perched on fence posts every few miles. We passed hundreds of egrets, their white bodies so close together the field looked covered in snow. We listened to the Power of Now as we went.



Later I called my father, and we talked about Bushy, and then he told me my mother got an operation on her eye today! Last week they started pulling out her teeth. Next week she gets another eye operation. My mom has been through the ringer this year. My parents are not leaving for AZ until January 15, and we're leaving the 20th, so we probably won't even see them.

About an hour from Sacramento, I decided I wanted to stop for the night. Mario had called about 10 hotels and couldn't find a single one that didn't use pesticides. (Truth of it is that California is saturated in pesticides. The majority of the air in California has pesticides in it.) But we drove up to an Holiday Inn Express on the chance they didn't use pesticides and they didn't. Yeah!

Now for the exciting part of the post. I promised you strippers...or organic food. So here goes...

While we're on road trips, I figure Mario does so much when we're at home that I'll "cook" the food on the trip. So I heated up some Amy's pea soup. (Sorry, Tom.) I added peas to it. I also microwaved an Amy's burrito for him. I added some tofu, spinach, and carrots. Mmm-mmm good, eh? Hey, I promised organic food and I delivered.

Now we're going to take a walk...around the parking lot.

3 comments

3 Comments:

Kim has always been a master of road food, whipping up a great meal out of next to nothing with the barest of equipment. Kim, tell them about our portable "kitchen."

Mario

By  Anonymous, at 8:47 PM  

hope you get to teh great state of az ok! i'm in phoenix, sister is in tucson, parents are in flagstaff, various other family all over the place. mmm, lots of cotton around here, scottsdale area, lots of pesticides i'm sure, but at least our bad air advisory is over (i believe, haven't watched tv in a few) if you use the 101 to get around phoenix, you'll see scottsdale community college (me school). k, thats my sightseeing advise :)

By  Anonymous, at 10:47 PM  

Yes, we haul a tiny kitchen around. Don't tell anyone. A burner, pan, steamer that fits in the pan, some utensiles, oatmeal, couple cans of soup, etc. It's all in a little suitcase so no one can tell. It's smaller than it used to be because most motels have some kitchen facilities now.

Sightseeing: Thanks for the advice. Last year we went to the Frank Lloyd Wright place and took a nature hike. We also hiked near the Superstitions. Yes, those cottonfields are regularly sprayed. My bro-in-law said he'd come out of the college and sometimes his car would be covered in the pesticides. Don't know if that still happens. We only travel between Oct. and Feb. because most crop and roadside spraying happens between March and September. *sigh*

By  Kim Antieau, at 8:05 AM  

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