Greetings from Kansas

I arrived at this musty house and threw open lots of windows at about 3 pm, and my Journey to the West (well, the first step, that is) is complete. I'm sweating and tired and grumpy and tempted to turn on the air conditioner even though I don't normally do that before July. There is so much around here that still needs to be packed...or left behind. At least sorted through. I have approximately one month before I'm loading a moving van to take to Portland. I wish I could fastforward and already be in the apartment in Portland.

In Phoenix it was pretty funny when Jennifer was appalled that the gas was up to $4.09 a gallon, when just yesterday it was $4. I said, "Wow, is that all?" thinking of the gas station in California where I spent $4.49 a gallon. The greedy and environmentally destructive oil industry is such a mega motivation to sell my car and use public transportation (not to mention let my feet do the walking).

It's hard to see a computer screen through a cat, so please excuse any typos.

Yesterday evening I stayed at a basic hotel in a Texas town called Darnhart or something like that. The hotel was $5 cheaper than the Econolodge that I stayed at in Albaquerque while traveling out west, but the ice machine didn't work; fortunately the room had a fridge and I filled bottles with water and left them in the fridge overnight.

I've only seen a little of Oklahoma, but what I have seen suggests that it has many towns that consist of a handful of trailers and a mill.

I stopped at a tiny Kansas town to buy gas, even though the location is best known for having the hideout of a famous 19th century gang--the name begins with a D and I've forgotten. Brain fart. Anyway, I decided it would be safe to stop there as long as there aren't any more recent gangs. The pumps were archaic and I had trouble figuring out how to use them; I also had to go inside to pay, because the pump had no card swiper.

It only took me a total of eighteen hours to get from Phoenix, AZ to Topeka, KS.

A purring cat in desperate need of petting and brushing keeps getting between me and the computer. Not pleasant to have a shedding cat rub against your sweaty face.

Departure from Phoenix

This morning I left Phoenix and drove ten and a half hours. There’s a town in Texas called Dalhart, population slightly over seven thousand people. This is where I-54 turns—I had to turn left onto Denver Avenue, which is also 54 East. There’s a basic little hotel on the corner, as soon as you turn left…and that’s hwere I am. Going to be in a few minutes—though I’ve already lost two hours and the clock says it’s 9”30 though it feels more like 7:30. (Phoenix is on the same time zone as CA and OR, at least for six months of the year.)

Last night, I had the Ikea shopping experience with Francis, Jennifer, and Malcolm, and made a wish list because there’s an Ikea store in Portland.

Last night I also thanked Francis for treating me so well, and he said, “We’re family. Our mom’s side of the family are a bunch of dicks, but relatives don’t have to be that way.” Very true. Living in Topeka and having so much contact with my mother’s side of the family, I’ve become over the past few years accustomed to thinking of relatives as an abomination and as my worst enemies. Francis has reminded me that this doesn’t have to be the case and that I’m generalizing.

I’m so looking forward to being back in Portland!

Dreaming in Phoenix

I had a dream in which I was walking on a concrete or grey stone path. It had four steps that went down, and I stepped mindfully, and then the path curved very slightly, and alongside it on the left was a long dark wooden arbor with very green plants covering it and covering a wall on the left side. One or two foot tall colorful creatures, like plaster statues come to life, were headed under the arbor and transformed into tiny brown birds, perhaps sparrows.

I woke at 6 am and took a walk from 6:30 to 8 am. When I got back, Francis was still sleeping and Angelkitty was on the bed with him, but she’s a scaredy cat and quickly, after one look at me, got up, jumped down, and hid under the bed.

Back in Phoenix

It only took me five hours and fifteen minutes to drive from the Los Angeles vicinity to Phoenix, and I only stopped at two gas stations (and my tank was still almost full when I arrived in Phoenix).

As I was leaving the Los Angeles area, there was a dust storm, something I don't think I've ever experienced firsthand. I rolled up the car windows. The trees were dancing and dust and debris was flying at my windshield, and the sky looked sort of foggy in a beigey sort of way. I've read that Tibet has dust storms during a particular time of the year. And then of course there's the Dust Bowl. I went through a great deal of wind and flying debris throughout the trip to Phoenix--it's extremely windy here, at this very moment, and there's a weather advisory out. I mostly kept the car window closed and the air conditioner turned on during today's drive. Besides the wind, there were lots of purty mountains and palm trees.

My brother was at home when I showed up, and I took a shower and changed before we went out and picked up Malcolm (my six-year-old nephew), and we went out to eat at a buffet restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes. Francis had asked me what I wanted for supper, and I said, "Something that involves broccoli and/or cauliflower." Sweet Tomatoes was a good choice--there's a big salad buffet with broccoli and cauliflower, and I also had steamed vegetables that included broccoli and cauliflower. Yum.

I was expecting it to be over a hundred degrees here, and normally it would be about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, but instead it didn't reach a hundred today and is currently 89. When we left the restaurant, it seemed nice out--I'm sure the wind makes it feel cooler, not to mention the sun had begun to set. It's supposed to be 99 on Friday.

Attack of the Mutant Tumbleweeds!

Now that I have your attention....I thought that subject line sounded better than "Greetings from someplace else in California!" which is what I was about to write. It's actually Corona, CA--I'm at my cousin Teddi's house. I showed up considerably later than I expected, because when I got to Los Angeles the traffic became strangely slow and congested. I guess this city doesn't have a subway system. Hectic. It only took me ten and a half hours to drive from Portland to Val's house a little south of San Francisco, so I showed up about three hours earlier than I expected. For the trip today, it felt like it took me the same length of time. Actually, it took approximately eight hours, not the six that it was supposed to take, but that was in part because the bridge was out on 129, so I ended up backtracking on the highway and using the Mapquest directions; and later on Hwy 46 the traffic came to a complete stop due to construction. I don't really think Mapquest is omniscient, but given that it didn't want me to take those routes, I almost have to wonder.

I had no idea there was such pretty scenery near Los Angeles: I think Los Angeles and the first thing I think of is pollution. Nasty. But no, there are some green dramatic mountains, and something called the Angeles National Forest before you actually get to the city itself, and there's a beautiful lake called Pyramid Lake, probably because of the weird triangular trellised formation in a mountain on the lake. It scarcely looks like a natural formation.

Oh, yes, I have to mention this:

As I was driving toward Los Angeles I saw tumble weeds in a field, and they were bouncing around like gamboling gazels, and since they were approaching the highway, I slowed down...although not quite enough. The tumbleweeds attacked my car! They bounded out of the field and into the highway, and a couple of them hit the front of the car, and one smacked into the windshield and then flew up above the roof of the car. It didn't damage the windshield, but it sure was startling.

Six dogs live here. I'm glad cats don't bark. There's also a black cat that lives upstairs and came mewing down and was all cuddling and purry on the living room floor--actually, he wanted to go outside, but I just pet him and gave him a massage. The dogs bark if I'm on the other side of the gate (in other words, beyond the kitchen), and they even rather oddly barked at me when I was out in the back yard. One of them is a basset hound (I first typed "basset house" perhaps because this is the biggest basset hound I've ever seen). The others are a big poodle and a small poodle and a terrier-type creature and something that looks like vaguely like a Muppet. Oh, yeah, and a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. And there are coi in a little pond in the back yard, and there's an aquarium with some more fish--it's 13 in the pond and 9 in the tank.

Tomorrow I'm planning on leaving at approximately 10 am to head for Phoenix and crash at my brother's apartment again.

More on the Grand Day Out in California

Last night we went to Val's insight meditation center, and we had a 45 minute sitting followed by the dharma talk from the above-mentioned Sri Lankan monk. He wore brown robes instead of orange, but he had a charming smile. And his voice reminded me of Mukesh--people from Sri Lanka, surprise, talk like people from India. I'm sure the language is very very similar. Anyway, he told us stories about the Buddha that I wasn't familiar with, like the one about a monk who decided to go ask for alms in the evening because that's when people take the time to make rich food. The Buddha didn't argue with him, even though this was against their vows, and when the monk got a bowl full of rich food, someone dumped dirty dish water on him, and some of the water got in the food and ruined it. The visiting monk also talked about his childhood and his dysfunctional family, during a question and answer session, since someone asked about behaving compassionately with her teenage kid. And after all this, we each went up to the monk and he tied a multicolored blessed three jewels ribbon around our right wrist. He had knotted the string by hand, rather like a crochet chain. It reminded me of Sarnath.

Oh, yes, also Val introduced me to a couple people who went on Shantum's pilgrimage previously. And they knew some of the people who I met on the Dharamsala trip--in particular Paula and Richard, Manny, and Kathy. It was one of those "it's a small world" moments. And of course Val and I talked about the pilgrimage and India quite a bit. She and her husband and the couple I met at the meditation center are all going trekking in Bhutan and Nepal, and it turns out that in Kathmandu they'll be staying at the Vaishali Hotel, the one where I stayed.

Greetings from California!

I'm visiting Val right now, in the vicinity of Santa Cruz, CA. She took me on a tour of a Tibetan monastic community called the Medicine Buddha, which was pretty much out in the woods (like redwoods), with winding paths and prayer wheels and a temple with a big gold Buddha and murals telling the life of the Buddha and children rehearsing for a play. And there are seven special places where there's a wooden sign in front of a bench, and the sign has dharma quotes from a book by the Dalai Lama called Lojong something something. There was also a little pond containing timid little coi.

Then we stopped at a little cafe and got snacks and beverages and took them to the beach, where the water was very blue with white waves along the sand, and we were actually on a cliff overlooking all this, and there was a concrete ship rotting away in view of us, just off a pier. Not a safe place to climb on anymore, rather like a condemned building. I rather enjoyed seeing seagulls and watching doggies playing in the waves.

We went to an idyllic place that's actually a nursery, and it's called the Bamboo Forest (I kept thinking the Bamboo Grove, because that's a place we visited in India, an early monastery of the Buddha's). It had a shop where you can buy bamboo mats and pottery and bamboo fences. There were also paths into the bamboo woods, with a wide range of bamboo--I had no idea it came in so many thicknesses and colors. There was a pond with a waterfall and a gazebo, and in the pond grew what looked remarkably like lotuses. They may have been water lilies, but they sure looked like the lotuses we saw in India.

Tonight I'm going with Val to her sangha, Vipassana Santa CruBhante Seelagawessi who's from Sri Lanka. This is so exciting!

Tomorrow I'll be driving to the Los Angeles area and visiting my cousin Teddi, before I head for Phoenix the next day.