THAT was before my intuition got me stuck driving around Seattle for 4 hours without a map, circling endlessly on one-way streets, unable to find parking, and accidentally heading out of town on freeways with no hope of turning around (multiple times, might I add)… All I wanted was to park, to wander, and to serendipitously run across some really cool things, maybe a nice little coffee shop where I could regroup...
Apparently my intuition was not up for the task.
Next stop: Portland. I had a date to meet one of the teachers at the Village Free School. I had the basic directions saved on my cell phone, so I was good to go. Arrived in Portland in good time…now to find the school. Two hours later, after stopping to check wifi at a McDonalds, stopping at a pizza place to get written directions, and stopping to bang my head on the steering wheel and pull out some hair, I finally found the school an hour late.
I’m beginning to think that making the Tourist Information Bureau my first stop in every city might be a very good idea.
After Portland I headed to Eugene. I didn’t have anything planned in Eugene. I did see some cool things there, and found street parking overnight. Did a lot of walking and BBQing in the rain. My last day, after several hours of research online in a coffeeshop, I came across information about an intentional community 40 minutes out of Eugene that had a democratic outdoor school, organic gardens, a model based on gift economy, and also did tours and let people stay there for free. Yay!! Go intuition! (combined with extensive scouring of the internet!). I emailed them. Got back a form response. Called them. The phone rang and rang. Decided to stay one more night in Eugene and try again the next day. The next day I called from a Seniors Center that had wifi - there was still no answer. Well, I thought, I will just do a drive by. There was an address for their current location, and if I went half an hour north first, it would basically be right on my route to the coast.
First, however, I flipped through a local independent newspaper and, lo and behold, came across an ad for a local Waldorf School that was giving a free workshop on therapeutic eurythmy (a movement form used in Waldorf education). The workshop was starting in 20 minutes! I ran the 15 minutes to where my car was parked, jumped in, drove straight to the Waldorf School, following the google directions I had downloaded, and raced into the office. There was no one there. I asked a teacher standing nearby if she knew anything about the workshop. No…hadn’t heard of it. But she would help me find someone. After walking around the school for 10 minutes, and asking various staff members, we finally found one of the eurythmy teachers. She thought for a long moment, and then said that yes, she thought the other teacher had been planning on doing some kind of workshop, but it had been changed to next month. Damn it. I asked if it was possible to get a tour of the school (it was a gorgeous, amazing, facility!). I was informed that they would normally absolutely love to give me a personal tour, but Wednesdays were half days – all the students were heading home, and the teachers had an all-afternoon staff meeting, starting ASAP. So I wandered around a bit on my own, and then decided I’d better head to the intentional community before it got too late.
Off I drove…got to the tiny town of Triangle Lake around dinner time. Finally, after driving up and down the highway with dusk approaching, I found the number. An old sign that said “Triangle Lake Conference Center” stood just off the road, behind a metal fence with a large gate that was firmly and decisively padlocked. I stood at the side of the road for a few minutes, contemplatively. For anyone who knows me and my current interests, this community embodies all that I love – it is exactly the kind of place I am looking to visit or spend time at. I drove a few minutes down the road to the little “ma and pa” corner store I had passed (Triangle Lake is literally just a corner…with some houses spread down the side of a lake). Went in and asked “ma” if there was anywhere I could park and sleep overnight. “Well,” she said, “You can pull in beside the store there and park. That would be fine.”
“Can I use my camp stove there to cook supper?”
“Sure. Won’t bother us.”
So I made supper, and then went to sleep overlooking a beautiful lake as trucks and cars pulled in and out of the store beside me.
The next morning, around 9am (a good time for a gate to be open that has a school, yes?), I went back to the Conference Center entrance. Locked. No sign of people.
What to do now?? Drive on and wave goodbye, I guess. What other option is there, other than climb the fences and trespass, which might not be the best self-introduction for someone looking to spend time for free somewhere.
So off my intuition and I went, driving to the coast to spend the day in a library, doing more fruitless research, and then driving further down the coast to the town of Bandon, where, after much driving around town, scouting out locations for sleeping, I knocked on the door of the priest’s house at a Catholic Church and secured myself a nice spot in the parking lot for the night.
The next day I ended up in a young, hip, hippy town named Arcata. Found a place to park, made myself some supper in a park, and then wandered into a large health food store. There, in the free newspaper and postings area, I discovered that I’d just missed a free organic vegan dinner in the square (“Food, Not Bombs”) the evening before, and a by-donation breakfast that morning in the downtown area. There was also a concert by one of my favourite musicians who was coming to town in 2 days (which would make me late for my next meeting), and I had just missed a free meditation and movement seminar.
Really???
Is it that I HAVE no intuition? That I’m not listening properly? That’s my gut instinct isn’t calibrated properly and I’m just missing everything slightly??
I feel like I’m wandering around cities and towns, walking right by all the people and places that I would love to meet and visit, if I only knew they were there. How do I find them???
I’ll tell you one thing I’m learning….intuition or no, get a MAP before you drive through a new city!
My intuition is going to have to learn to collaborate with things like maps, Visitor Information Centers, and Google…if I can ever learn to tap into it!
Heading into San Francisco now, map in hand, to see if I can find a place to sleep for free. Come on gut instinct…do your thing!
(Ps. Yesterday I did a short, half hour walking tour of the most popular section of the Redwood Forest. Very beautiful. I got lost. Turns out there were 2 loops connected by a short path. I went around the second one three times before I finally bumped into another hiker who directed me back. Ironically, as I was getting lost, I was thinking about how it was going to be important for me to start using maps.)