heathervescent

returning to the "real" world

I'm back in civilization. Covered in playa dust and head spinning attempting to process the past 7 days. It's good that I'll have a long drive down scenic 395 to let all these things percolate in my brain. Watch Mt. Whitney raise herself to white splendor over the high desert and lone pines and joshua trees.

I went to burning man with little expectations but expectations none the less. (They were shattered.) I went to burning man with intention, for some kind of mark or pointer or something to pay intention to as I leave the starting line. (And a character I did meet.) I went to burning man to experience something. And experience I did. (From playa blisters to raining cinders.) I went to burning man to solidify my recent change. I will not know how solid it is until I return.

"I went, I went and took. What did I leave in return?
My change."

Oh and it wasn't all just spiritual, it was a hell of a lot of fun too! As I wandered around the playa, I realized that my dream to be in a Fellini film had come true. It was better than Fellini, it was real. (As real as costumes can be.) And I was a fish in the wonderful bowl.

Now it's time to live that myth. (and no it's not the burning man one.)

heading a north

I'm about to load up, lube the chain and and mount. Lady Knight and I are heading north to meet up with burners, motogirlies and a special friend. It's a lot to pack into a short jaunt, but it's what I'm doing. I'm excited to get my custom leather suit started by Helmut at Helimot's in San Jose.

Well, gotta load on up. Type at ya later.

Burning Man Costumes

The man burns in 25 days and I am working on my costumes today. With very minimal shopping, but major digging out the old costumes, Heather has put together 6 different costumes. I've taken some pictures of them in their safe ziplock bags. I may see if I can get someone to take pictures of me in them before the burn. It's amazing what you can do with a hot glue gun and some imagination at the fabric store. I'm sure I've spent too much money already, but hey, it's Burning Man. It's a vacation, it's a participation, It's an experience man and I'm not going to do it half-way.

The only thing on my mind is glow. I've got blinkies on order and I want to use some EL Wire to light up my costumes... so the glow is in the works.

Glow, glow, glow ideas....

conversations with the road

Highway 5 and I have had an intimate tumultuous relationship this month. I spent another 5 hours on her paved slick surface yesterday attempting to beat the heat as I drove south. She's been showing me her pleasures and delights. A field full of datura plants, their white trumpets singing in the late morning sun. The snob and I tease the big rigs with her top down, my blonde hair blowing in the light. They blow their horns and spill bits of their loads of tomatoes, onions, garlic or carrots. I see their spilled load at the side of the road and think of stone soup. I could stop and make road soup. I see the bloody death of smashed tomatoes by the side of the road. The orange horns of hundreds of carrots sticking up from the top of the truck. I stop at my favorite places: Mike's Roadhouse Cafe, the Beacon Station, Willow Ranch. I know where the rolling hills turn to the San Gabriel's (it's by Gorman). I feel the change - in smell and by feeling as I leave the bay area, drive down the San Joaquin Valley and then cross the hills again. I love the dry golden hills. The grape fields with oil wells. The sparkling blue water of the aqueduct.

I think about what we as humans are doing to this planet. I've been an environmentalist all my life. But how the hell can I as a puny human know how the earth wants to evolve? Maybe we humans are here to do exactly what we are doing? And a kick back to "the good old days" is like absorbing your little toe - or stopping the development of your ability to perceive with your eyes or fingers. How can we know how the earth even sees it's self? Can an ant have any concept of how I see it? Or can I have any concept of how an ant sees it's self - or can I have a concept of how YOU see yourself?

The road and I have these conversations. She tells me stories. I ask questions. I watch the scenery and drive too fast and listen to music too loud. It echoes back to some words I wrote in my past: "tires kissing several highways." The connection I have with the road is an intimate connection. I feel it in the rubber of my exoskeleton. I experience it in the wind. I feel a certain connection, freedom and delight in the drive. Because after all, the journey is the destination and as sure as time keeps passing, we will all reach our destination eventually.

BM here I come

I just bought my Burning Man ticket. I'm a first year burner, but I don't feel like it. I've been on the fringe of BM for a long time. I was thinking BM would be fun to attend this year and then my friend, Jon, from the snowy mountain up north invited me to join his camp. It sounds totally great and I am very excited. Now I'll start collecting my camping gear, readying my toys. I think my didj is definitely coming, along with kites and costumes and other effluevescence.

noonday sun

My friend Scott is traveling around the world. Here's a snippet from his latest report. I've been reading about Scott's travels for months now, just as I myself have been changing. In this last report I noticed a touch of something new in his writing. This is a lifetime experience and he is having a blast. It's great to live not so much vicariously through him, but experience what he is experiencing from his point of view. I would have a different experience even if I was doing the exact same thing Scott is doing. And that's the delight of so many people - so many points of view. And by reading their travelogues, or web logs or minds you experience something from someone's point of view. It's an experience you wouldn't be able to have any other way.

"As we approached the village, the chickens scattered
and the cows moseyed out of our way (yes, a cow can
actually mosey, who knew), but the huge hogs basking
in the late afternoon sun, couldnt be bothered. So we
walked around them."

airplanes and adventure

I've been fascinated with airports all my life. They represent adventure. Because my mom was a flight attendant we traveled all over the world at the drop of a hat. Airports were always hubs of opportunity. I would look up at the departing flight TVs and see the destinations in alphabetical order. I knew, with my airline ID, that I could get on any flight if there was an open seat. I would stand in the international terminal in St Louis and see destinations of adventure: Barcelona, Paris, Cairo, Athens, London, San Francisco, Honolulu, Munich, Amsterdam with flights leaving in the next few hours. I would look at my open ticket and look in my bag and realize I didn't have my passport with me. I was planning only a domestic flight. I knew I could go to those places. They were not foreign. I was scared. At 14 I didn't have the guts/charge/irresponsibility to change my plans and jump on a plane to Rome at the last minute. I dreamt of doing this, every time I was in the airport, but I thought my parents would be worried when I didn't show up in San Diego or John Wayne or Kansas City. Thinking back, I wish I had done that at least once.

When I wasn't traveling I still loved airplanes and airports. I used to go out to the airport at night to watch the airplanes take off and land. The red and green and white lights. The blue lights on the ground. It was magical to me. If I couldn't travel, I could at least watch people traveling. I imagined the people on the airplanes. Wondered where they were going. If they were excited because they were leaving cold Iowa to go on vacation in California or Florida or the Caribbean. Or were they coming home to visit family after they moved away from college to places like San Francisco, New York, Boston, Houston.

Then the roles would swap and I'd be up on that airplane. It would be taking off. My body would be pressed against the seat. I would relax and feel the pressure increase, my delight increasing in measure until the ultimate climax and we were no longer earthbound. The cool release. The game I played with the clouds and sun and earth below. I would think of the my colleagues on the airplane. Wonder about their stories. The teenage girl who sat next to me by the window. Words overhead in SFO at the United International baggage check-in "Raj, I need a thousand dollars" and their accompanying stack of boxes and luggage with a couple women and several children silently waiting behind them. The couple on my left going to San Juan. Was it their honeymoon or their first vacation together? I looked out the window at the blackness of the ocean. I would be meeting my boyfriend in San Juan the next day. He would get off his boat at the crack of dawn and wake me up in my hotel room with kisses. I wondered about the people on the ground. Those box houses, many with turquoise pools that I could see on a clear day in my approach to LAX. Two weeks in a row, I pointed out the Hollywood sign in the Hills. First to a son and dad couple going to DisneyLand. The following week to a college girl and her boyfriend going to her film school interview at UCLA. Both were excited to see it from the air. I kept thinking, this is my town. This is my town.

In an airport, the mundane and everyday mix with the excitement of the unknown. It's what I wrote just a moment ago. It's a magical place of many opportunities. Of places to fly off to. You don't need an open ticket to go to places like business school or rock star or father of 3. It makes it easier. But you'll pay for it some way. You pay for it by making a choice. And once you are in one destination, you can always leave and go to another destination. The ticket is always open, until the destinations cease to exist.

When in Maui ...

Be sure to check out these fun activities!!! (Be aware that my spelling of these names is very poor. Pick up the "Maui Revealed" guidebook for great fun.

No need for a 4WD unless you are planning some serious off-roading. You can go all the way around the island (all round Hana and west Maui) with no problem. Even the one lane roads and gravel are fine.

Petroglyphs just south of Lainha in Olwalu. These are a short walk from a parking area with native (and not so native) vegetation. The petroglyphs have seen better days, so be careful, there are lots of big rocks hiding in the grasses.

Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahina. Go to this place. It's a great outdoor eatery. Not that expensive and good traditional mixed Hawaiian food.

Stone Mushroom and the Olivine Pools. Be sure to drive around west Maui. You'll find these beautiful pools right where the pavement changes and the road narrows. There are a couple pools just west of the "official" olivine pools that were really empty. They get a bit more ocean movement - so be careful when the ocean is rough.

Last year when I visited Maui I got a fabulous scrape at the Olivine Pools. This year was no different! I was really tempting fate when I was splashing about in this pool and a 15 foot wave crashed in on these lava formations. I was attempting to hang onto the lava when one smashed into me and took me for a rock surf. Luckily I only got a little scrape on my hand, arm and butt. At one point in the surffest I looked down and saw only foam. I thought, hmmm, this is delightful. I popped out of the foamy surf laughing. I am no Birth of Venus - cool and reserved.

The Iao Needle. This was ok. There were kids playing in the streams here which was cool and it was nice to see a canyon, but all in all I was not blown away. I may have been a bit tired.

Pa'ia. I love this town. It's billed as a "hippy" town on Maui and I guess it is. It reminds me somewhat of Haight Street (SF) and Telegraph Ave (Berkeley). First thing I do when I get to Maui is go to Paia. It's only about 10 minutes from the airport. I buy my straw cowgirl hats there (there's a hat place on the right just as you come into town). I got my bikini at Maui Girl on the main drag (turn right at the light and park). And I fueled up as we came back from Hana at Charley's. The burgers and beer were just what we needed after a 11 hour day of driving and fun. Stop here and check out the stores. Support local color.

The Road to Hana. There are a ton of guides for this. Do it backwards. Start out by skirting the volcano (don't go to south Maui) and then drive on the oh so scary roads on the southeast. There are stretches of gravel and badly paved one and one and a half lane roads. These are great roads and if you go early you'll meet only the locals. The upcountry is beautiful with highland meadows with cows grazing and pheasant. We even met a tractor on the road.

The seven sacred pools. It's a national park so you can use your national park pass. Try to get here early because this is a well known place. Maui revealed has a great description of this place and the Pipiwi trail, so use that. Let's just say that you'll not only see amazing waterfalls, guava trees, huge banyan trees and a bamboo forest! It's a great and fairly easy 4 mile roundtrip hike.

My friends and I stopped off under the huge banyan tree to do some tree climbing - it was a huge tree and looked so fabulous for climbing. We noticed some flip flops at the bottom of the tree but we didn't see anyone up in it, so we started climbing it, only to find a couple people having an intimate moment. There's plenty of room for some action up there - but I'm not so sure about the comfort level.

I stopped by the Venus Pool and that was beautiful. And I heard great things about the blue pool. Be sure to take lunch with you on the Hana trip because Hana has not many food options... There are lots of places looking to get exchange your money for a hana packed lunch. ;)

I've still not made it to South Maui or the crater. I've heard amazing things about La Perouse Bay (especially snorkeling at Fishbowl) and the Sliding Sands trail in the crater.... I can only imagine that it must be somewhat like the Mojave, yet completely different.

So, go have fun now!!!

A dip in snow melt

Friday afternoon I headed north to some Mineral Springs near Mt Shasta. I really like spending time in hot water.

I've never driven up 5 north of Sacramento. It was beautiful open country with rolling hills. Off to the east volcanic peaks. Shasta lake, pines, more volcanic topography. Beautiful. I pulled off in the sadly named Weed and headed west to a higher elevation. The road followed a swiftly running creek up the mountain.

It was raining when I reached the bath house. I noticed the sweat lodge set up near the front. I crossed the wooden railroad tie bridge and checked in. The bath set up was different than I had experienced. There were small rooms with individual bath tubs. The mineral water had silica in it and was very slippery and had a slight sulphuric scent. Nothing like other mineral springs I have been to. I filled the tub with warm/hot water and slipped in. Then I went into the wood stove heated sauna. After sweating and heating my body up I decided to check out the cold running snow melt creek. I am a fan of cold plunges. Usually the first one is very hard and then I am addicted. If I can get myself to get in, I am usually glad I did. I was standing on the edge of the creek with a sheet wrapped around my body. It was switching between rain and sleet and the air temperature was under 40 degrees. I knew the water was much colder. It was probably just above freezing, but I thought, why not experience this fully? I have nothing to lose? I have nothing to be afraid of. I can always get back out and then I will have had the experience. So with that in mind, I left my sheet on a nearby rock and slowly picked my way into the stream. I can not overstate how cold the stream was. My body was in shock. I couldn't feel anything except my heart beating rapidly and my mind freaking out. I took deep breaths and submerged my head and shoulders in the running stream. I had to carefully make my way back to the edge of the creek because there were lots of boulders and rocks and drug myself out of the water. My body was completely and utterly alive. I grabbed my sheet, which gave little if any protection from the rain and cold, and sat down outside on a bench. I was in the water for no more than 20-30 seconds.

My skin had goose bumps all over it and I saw steam rising off my body and breath. Yet I didn't feel necessarily cold. As I sat outside I felt an expansion coming from my neck vertebras. It was a white yellow feeling and moved up and down my spine. It was mostly a feeling of expansion in my whole spinal column. I sat outside and felt this feeling until it subsided and I noticed I was shivering. Then I went back inside and did the whole thing a couple more times.

I tell you, the cold plunge is addictive, if you can get yourself to do it once.

a woman on a bike

Some friends of mine told me about an interesting weblog. It's a woman's motorcycle rides through the Chernobyl dead zone with photos and commentary. It's pretty amazing and I suggest you check it out.

I'm thinking more and more about a solo motorcycle trip. I researched Australian desert tours the other day and found a good candidate in a self guided tour loop up the eastern coast then west to Alice and Ayers Rock then south and east through New South Wales and back up the coast. Of course I'll want to spend some time in Melbourne (the SF of Oz) and I'm pondering a short (3-4) day liveaboard in Ribbon Reefs or Barrier Reef, but we'll see how time, travel and money goes.

silence calls

I hear the call of the desert. It's a time to be dusting off the nighthawk and a traveling to the Mojave. I've got this idea in my head that I want to moto in the australian desert. It's the bruce chatwin rubbing off on me and my experiences of the mojave. If I do this, I'll have to feel a lot more comfortable on dirt.

a weekend with water

This past weekend I went northeast to Wilbur Hot Springs. The hot sulphur waters are relaxing, the countryside is beautiful, it’s very quiet. There are no phones or TVs. It's very quiet. It's a different kind of hotel. The Hotel is old, first built in 1865. It has a huge sweeping screened porch with tables and common rooms are big with tables, couches, musical instruments, a pool table and games. There is a library with National Geographic magazines from the 1950s!

The main attraction of the place is the hot springs. There are three soaking pools filled with stinky hot sulphur water. Pools are open all day and night. Friday night we were up in the middle of the night and spent a nice time soaking in the pools and hanging out in the library. I love the calmness of the dead of night.

On Saturday we hiked into the canyon on some trails. There are lots of fallen down buildings - old farmsteads and rusting mining equipment. There are various sulphur springs just oozing out of the ground. One spring has a huge obelisk build up around it, so that at one time, hot water from the geyser, spurted out. The geyser still erupts, but the cement structure is eroding away. I was lucky enough to be passing by when the geyser was erupting and I climbed on top to see why it wasn't coming out the top. It was pretty dangerous and exciting to be on top of this boiling hot erupting geyser. I didn't get burned from the water (only the sun and sulphur).

We hiked to the top of a ridge. This time cows were all over the place and we must have freaked them out because they were bellowing alarm cries. The sun was shining, a light wind was blowing, all was quiet for the electrical crack of overhead wires. We hiked along a salt creek looking for interesting bits of shard and found a couple of old graves from the mid 1850's. The earth had sunk into the graves, the old oak trees roots were bare. Walking back I took my shoes off and walked in the cold stream. I was reminded of another stream walk. Merritt and I were traveling in southern brazil and went to some park to look at waterfalls. The stream that fed them became very wide and shallow at one point, so we took our shoes off and walked down it. It was the wide flat part between two falls. The water that was running over our feet had just fallen 60 feet and was about to fall another 20 or so. Erosion. Change by constant pressure. I found out orchids flower only when they are stressed. Interesting... Do people change only when there is pressure?

Back to waxing Wilbur. Since the weather was still cool, the swimming pool was filled with warm sulphur mineral water. It was milder than the soaking pools and so relaxing. I spent most of my time balanced on two wooden blocks floating, suspended in the pool. It was exquisite. Floating suspended in a slippery green fluid. I'd get out of the pools all hot and steam off in the cool wind. It was a great weekend.

If you're going to the mojave desert

I've become a bigger and bigger fan of the desert the past few years. A few years ago, I took a solo motorcycle trip to Joshua Tree from SF. It was my first long trip on my bike - a new bike (the nighthawk you see in the picture) and it was amazing. I rode through a lot of 100+ degree heat. But that was ok. I saw amazing scenery.

In the few years since then I have returned to the desert. Some of my favorites include

Amboy Crater
It's off the old Route 66. It's an old crater with cool lava flows and rock. It was used as a location shoot for many early Hollywood Sci Fi movies. Don't each lunch in the Amboy Diner though, go down the road to

Ludlow Coffee Shop
When I motorcycling it alone, I stopped here for lunch. I love the place. The waitresses feel like my grandmother, with home made pies, cookies, good sandwiches. Standard Farmers Brothers Coffee. I love remembering this conversation:
The waitress: Are you on that bike alone?
Me: Yeah
Waitress: Isn't that scary?
Me: Not really. It's great being out in the air.
Waitress: Do you know martial arts.
Me: Actually I do.
Waitress: Well the cooks in the kitchen thought you did.
Me: Chuckling.

Needles - the wagon wheel
When I'm hung over and dehydrated from spending too much time in the desert (and unsoberly drinking way too much whisky) I eat at the wagon wheel, just inside California and the Nevada border. They have an amazing breakfast special. Pancakes, bacon/sausage and 2 eggs for something like 2.99 or 3.99. A truckers heaven. (And I think they even have a smoking section???)

Lone Pine
It's up north on 395. A very cool frontier town. I think it was used in Hollywood films too. There is an old time classic photoshop (where you get black and white photos in old time clothes) there. I've always wanted to do this, but I've never passed through when it's been open and I've been clean.

Kramers Corner or Junction
There's a cafe at this junction, which leads north into the Death Valley, east into Baker, south into the desert communities past LA and west to Mojave and Tehachapi. It's a cross roads of sorts. A dusty intersection of two two lane highways meeting. There's adventure in any direction.

OK. that's it for now. I'm going to spend the morning getting my bike started and see about spinning it around the bay. I've gots to be saying goodbye to all these roads my tires have kissed.

LA Stories - The Museum of Jurassic technology

When I get to LA for any amount of time, I always like to stop by the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's on Venice Blvd in Cluver City between Roberts/on and Overland. It's like entering a different world. Usually the LA weather is sunny, mild, beautiful, typical Southern California weather. You open this metal door - you're not even sure if it's the door to the museum, and upon entering you step into another world. The lights are dark, there are sound emanating from the nether regions of the museum. It's dark. Did I mention that the lights are low? It's cool. A complete and utter difference from the sunny California weather outside.

The museum is like a maze that has no exit. It's not about following a path through to some realization, it's about the experience. My awareness always shifts in the MJT. And that's why I go there. I wind my way past the coyote with the man filmly superimposed upon it's brain making barking sounds, past the kirtchner globes, the viewing alcove with the 3D glasses into the room with glass cases with interesting metal glasses like structures attached to the glass cases. The lenses in the glasses are juxtaposed against each other. Looking into the glass cases without using the attached glasses, you see a panarama - the caves of egypt or some flowers. Looking through the glasses you see people, flames, the hand of god, creatures alighting on flowers, or coffins, or in caves. The images are etheral and only seen through the attached glasses. In the center of this room is a circular item, with bells that at an interval circles one way and then another. The consistant sound of the circulating bell and looking at the panarama with their etherial companions is breathtaking.

MJT also has decomposing dice. You'll make your way through the hall and find yourself in a room that step up into X-rays of flowers. These pieces also have 3D glasses to view the X-rays. The experience is amazing. Imagine in 3D, in etheral X-ray vision, a cala lilly, a rose with an aphid, an orchid. The room is lit darkly and the cool blue of the x-ray images is well... etheral.

These exhibits are two of my favorites. There are others that are wonderful. Trailer parks of LA. Foz do Iguacu. Tiny sculputures that fit inside the eye of a needle!

This time I found the tea room upstairs open. There was a samovar steaming away. I had a cup of tea in the beautiful room while I waited for the film room to clear. The viewing room is also new. It's a small theatre that was built to show a documentary film on a Russian master. In another post, I'll tell the story of the girl with red sails.

If you're in the LA area, I highly suggest going to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's an amazing place that may take you into another world of your own. It's unlike any museum I've been too... with the exception of the Museum of Lost Wonder.

McDonalds in Pasa Robles

This is a crazy Mcdonalds in pasa robles. It has huge neon arches on both sides of the building. There is also this strange little guy - not Ronald McDonald. I saw the McD sign, but other than that, I had no idea it was a McD. I had to take a picture. It's kind of hard to see though. Cameraphone technology for ya.

A sea of fog

My friend Genna took this photo. I like it a lot.