Flagstaff - chill day

Saturday, August 14th

Chilled out day mainly characterized by not driving.

Woke up not feeling well (menstrual cramps, trembling).

Hostel had breakfast on offer, and we made it downstairs before the 10am clean-up deadline. Met Chekes, a petite Brazilian on her way to Sedona to check out yoga teaching opportunities there, having just spent a year in Spain. She's been a nomad for 8 years now, ever since finding her yoga teaching calling in the steppes of Central Asia.

Packed up and made it out by 11qam, just. Chatted in the lobby for another 1/2hr (Wren with Tyson, me with Chekes), before heading out to explore Flagstaff.

Wandered down W. Phoenix, photographed the old motel sign, dropped in at Red Thread, then photographed the corrugated iron studio (it was closed, as was the gassblowing studio across the street), dropped in at Revolution Bikes and were directed to the wheat-glue photographer (who pastes his B&Ws up on walls around town).

Thirsty by now, we stopped at Macy's, the European bakery cafe.

Restored, we called at the tourist info center adjacent to the train station and picked up a map of galleries, and made it to the closest one before W&I headed back to the hostel to book Imi's flight and do some laundry.

I had a nice convo with Paul and looked in on some galleries, then returned to the hostel.

Time by now (3.30pm ish) to get going to the Grand Canyon

Drove up 180(?) past the Univ of N Az and Wren's arm was hurting so we switched.

Very green, very wooded plateau; goes on and on. Condodino Forest, Kaibab Forest (more like bushes). Then an IMAX and motels and McDonalds shortly before the gate to the park. Entrance was free, lucky us.

Followed signs to the Visitors Center an entered a cavernous hall with maps and models of the Grand Canyon. Enquired about parking aty ttrail head, and were told the water pump was broken at Phantom Ranch so we should get a water filtration unit.

Off to the General Store at Market Plaza. (We've still not seen the Canyon). A filtration unit costs 99.99. We settle on some iodine drops, and pick up some bread cheese salami chocolate for the hike down.

Then race West to catch the sun setting on the Grand Canyon. Park the car and head up the rim trail, as the rocky chasm glows red. Make it up to the second bus stop, then catch the red line bus back. Imogen remarks I use 'one' a lot, as in: 'One could hike down the canyon'

Drive to Mather Campground, find Aspen 20, and pitch our tent. Then back to the Market Plaza for some dinner at the Canyon Cafe. I eat half a cantelope.

Then sorting and repacking our stuff for the hike, under a streetlamp in the parking lot. 'This is getting quite exciting' quoth Imogen.

10.30pm we're done and return to our tent, brush our teeth, and conduct a 5min search for the car keys (for the nth time, this is getting to be a routine) before we crash.

Route 66 and London Bridge

The folly of wealth. The story goes a successful American business man heard London Bridge was for sale and snapped it up, thinking it was the picturesque Tower Bridge, and had it dismantled and transported stone for stone, to Lake Havasu in Arizona.

I was expecting a true folly -- the bridge re-built in the middle of the lake, going from nowhere to nowhere; or the same but on dry land. But in fact the bridge is being used as a bridge, and is a nice bridge at that. The 'English Village' tourist attraction at one end, however, is quite missable. That said, apparently London Bridge ranks as the second highest grossing toutist attraction in Arizona after the Grand Canyon...so the foolhardy businessman didn't get it all wrong now, did he?

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Ludlow consists in a gas station, a diner, and a motel. That's it. We made good use of all three.

Got back on the I-40 about 11.30am and drove on through to Needles (where Snoopy's brother is from), then took the detour South to Lake Havasu and London Bridge. Desert heat, 97F in the shade.

Drove the 88 miles along the Old Route 66, from Kingman to Seligman. None too spectacular: one or two tiny hamlets, tough green scrub and a desert air. Seligman is a veritable Route 66 kitsch heaven -- facades, in-store content, all branded branded branded. (See photo)

Got into Flagstaff after our approx 350 mile drive at about 6.30pm. Booked into the international hostel (got a room with 4 bunk spots to ourselves), and had dinner at the Mountain Oasis.

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I'm writing last thing at night before going to sleep, on my blackberry (as I can be fairly sure of a mobile connection, whereas wifi access/coverage has been sparse and/or weak). I'm planning to return to flesh out posts and add photos once we stay in one place for more than a night.

Thanks for taking the time to visit in the meantime :)





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Mono Lake (and Petroglyphs)

Mono Lake, just East of Yosemite, presents an inspiring example of community-based ecological rescue in the nick of time.

Plus it sports bizarre (and bizarrely named) 'tufa towers' along its Southern shore (see photo). These formed over thousands of years around underwater springs, where the encounter of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) with sodium nitrate (salt) formed limestone (I'll have to double check the chemistry...).

The ecological destruction of Mono Lake began when Los Angeles decided to source water from the area in the 1940s, piping water from the lake's tributaries via an aqueduct over 350+ miles to LA. By the 1970s the level of the lake had dropped by 20+ feet<check> with a related increase in salinity and alkalinity, and the lake's ecosystem of brine shrimp, flies and birds was in peril. The lake is the main breeding ground of the California Gull, as well as the only stop over on some other birds' 5000+ mile migrations. Not only were changes to the lake's mineral concentrations threatening the shrimp (food source for the birds) but the drop in water level meant what were once island breeding grounds for the gulls were fast becoming peninsulas, accessible to coyotes and other predators.

Thankfully David G and a band of concerned citizens noticed what was happening, and with some pro bono legal help, managed to barter an agreement whereby LA would draw less water from the area, and agreed to restoring the water-level of the lake to 1960s levels by 2012 <check stats>.

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The Save Mono Lake Committee <check name> has done a great job -- achieving what it has, practically and politically, and continuing to keep the public informed. There's an info center in the town of Lee Vining, and a dedicated park center overlooking the lake, as well as an informatively sign-posted trail through the tufa towers on the lake's south shore.

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Camped off of 120E (the road into Yosemite) at a small site with toilets but no running water (aside from the river). Went to bed under the thickest blanket of stars; awoke to the greenest of fir/pine trees. Took a 1/2hr walk along the wooded river and back through the scrub-land. So lovely to be oudoors; such clean clear morning light. Breakfast of fruit (down to our last mango now) and did some yoga stretches. Shame about the RVs and their generators.

Got a tea fix at the organic cafe in Lee Vining and perused their Andy Goldsworthy coffee table book. Ah, so that's the kind of stuff he does: leaves and stones and ice; color and contrast and translucence; improbable and delicate balance; perishable, fleeting, impermanent. Love it.

Browsed the bookstore & info center; then (noon) drove down to the parks center and caught their movie on Mono Lake; and finally (1pm) visited the lakeshore and meandered through the forest of tufa towers.

Hit the road about 2.30pm and decided to make what turned out to be a 44mile detour at Bishop (where we stopped for sandwiches from the Bakkery about 4pm) to view the local petroglyphs at three different sites along a gravel road that runs parallel to Hwy 6. Mostly pacman-esque scratchings (circles with crosses, globular shapes), but the last site did have some stick figures. Beautiful 'painted' mountain range off to the East (grays and pinks and blues and golds, as though they'd been powdered with pastel dust).

Filled up on gas at 6.30pm and W put the foot to the pedal down Hwy 395. We switched in Johannesberg (there's a Randstad nearby...) and around 9.30pm I blew through Barstow where we'd planned to stay the night, and we've ended up in Ludlow, domain of long-haul truckers and midnight migrants like (or not so like) ourselves.
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Lake Tahoe

Place holder while I have a signal

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Solar Living Center

SLC strikes me as having gotten stuck in a 'proof of concept' stage. It wants to show the world (well, its visitors) that we all CAN live sustainably -- and here's how: with solar energy and cobb buildings and permaculture. But with limited examples of each (barring an impressive array of solar panels), and sparse signage with some stats on sustainable energy in California -- it doesn't feel very 'convincing'... It's as though it is preaching to the choir, and it's the believers who will take the trouble to make a pilgrimage to the site... Rather than its being a shining beacon luring in the Ignorant or the Doubting Thomases with its delights, and sending them home with a fire in their belly to install a solar shower or run their cars on bio-diesel.

The SLC has beautiful grounds and magical buildings and artwork and landscaping to discover...but it's as though the architects imagined part of the charm was to have visitors 'stumble' upon things. The signage at the road-side announcing the SLC's presence, for example, would do a down-market garden center proud, and once you've proceeded down the driveway and past the 'Welcome Station' (please pay $2), you are in the embrace of a large dusty parking lot. So... Where is this Solar Oasis I imagined?

The 'heart' of the center has its back to where visitors arrive, the 'Tree-thru-Cars' (vs Drive-thru-Trees, get it?) sculptures are in a glade down an overgrown pathway, and even the lovely ponds feel like they're 'round the back, edged by the dusty driveway .

Everyone we met -- especially the two site interns, a couple of volunteers, and the care-taker couple -- were very welcoming and happy to have us poke around and answered questions freely as to cobb recipes and solar oven cooking times etc etc. However, it seems like the center was short-staffed...and rather short of visitors as well...a bit more of a ghost-town than a serene sanctuary. Admittedly, it was a Monday, and I imagine weekends would be a lot busier.

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Wren & I had a fresh fruit salad breakfast and then nosed around the Pacha Mama cobb building the interns had plans to finish plastering and flooring. Wren commented it's like working on a clay pot, where it's an artistic as much as a structural endeavor. The caretakers, meanwhile, were busy working on the roofing of their (very) compact (but very cute) pseudo-mobile-home.

Then we (all three, W&I&me) walked into Hopland with Andy (one of the volunteers), along the abandoned railroad tracks to get some coffee and some tacos from one of the two rival taco trucks (owners are from different parts of Mexico).

Back at the ranch, we took the self-guided tour, and discovered all sorts of lovely nooks and crannies.

16.30 dept, E to Clear Lake, cont E to Hwy 5, S to Sacramento, E on I-80. And here we are in Auburn at a Super 8.
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Rebar Interview

Filmed Wren in conversation with Matt Passmore, one of three Principals at Rebar (along with John Bela and Blaine), at Rebar's office at 3330 20th Street in San Francisco.

Covered Rebar's latest project: Street Life (under construction in the workshop below Rebar's design loft and due to be unveiled August 18th in Visitation Valley, San Francisco), as well as its earliest: Cabinetlandia (in the middle of nowhere New Mexico).

Interesting commentary on the coincident appearance in the US of early environmentalism and monumental land art in the 60's -- which does NOT necessarily mean the latter had any kind of environmental conscience.

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Itinerary notes: interviewed 11-noon, shopped for supplies, loaded car, dept Haight 14.50, scenic HWY 1 along Pt Reyes to Bodega (brief stop on Stinson Beach), cut inland to HWY 101 at Santa Rosa (dinner at PE), straight shot north to Hopland.

Gates were still open at the Solar Living Institute tho' officially it was closed for the day. Came upon a group trying to erect a straw bale arch while their mates sipped beer 'round a table (the staff and interns). Asked if we could camp on the grounds and got permission. Night was falling as we discovered A&T's tent would in fact fit the three of us comfortably. Strolled the grounds (gribbet spoosh! go the frogs as they escape into the lily pad pond) and admired the oh-so-many-stars overhead. Tested the bike-generators (the lightbulbs attached DO light up, at least on some), and marveled at the solar cooker (like a satellite dish, just reflective silver on the inside to heat the grill attached across the face of the dish, from underneath).


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Sunday in San Francisco

This is a place marker for more in-depth comments:
Today we visited and communed with --

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Marlies & Wren enjoying the Skyspace

Goldworthy crack

1. James Turrell, 3 Gems -- at the De Young
2. Andy Goldsworthy, Spire -- in the Presidio by Arguello Gate
3. Bandshell -- at Fort Mason
4. SFMOMA
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The oculus of the Skyspace

Child following Andy Goldsworthy's crack at the De Young

Wren entering James Turrell's Skyspace

Wren seated inside the Skyspace

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Wren testing the sound in the middle of the Skyspace