Hi, John,

I arrived in Kunming about 48 hours ago. It is quite the place. I just got back from a meal with the president of SWFC, Mr. Li, Zhan Hui, an elder Japanese man, and the two other teachers here. There also was a foreign expert there named Gary from Idaho who studies beetles here. Yunnan is a hotspot for tiger beetles, of which there 145 species, 78 living in Yunnan. The larvae live in tobacco plants and prey on harmful insects to this valuable cash crop. Consequently they receive virtually unlimited funding from the government. There have been two new species they've discovered. He's been here for four years; possibly you've met him. We went out for mushroom hotpot and drank plenty of moutai--especially Yoshizawa-sama. Forgive my tipsy fingers if there are typos. The president happens to speak Japanese (as do I somewhat) and there were quite a number of toasts. I ate click beatles (bamboo worms) and dragonfly larvae. It was an excellent feast.

I am impressed with the college. We had a tour yesterday of the campus and met some students conducting some plant research. There is cooperation going on between SWFC and the Field Museum of Chicago and the Nature Conservancy (Mr. Li is fond of wearing a jacket from that institution). I met the province's foremost authority on GIS (geographic information systems), and an insect expert who had quite a collection of bugs.

People stare a lot at me here. At the same time, I feel like I have a lot of privilege. It's not like being a foreigner in the US, that's for sure. I can pretty much go where I want and do what I want and people are pretty accommodating. Language is a problem however, but that will improve as I learn more Mandarin. It is amazing seeing people practicing taichi in the morning (I'm going to try to join them in the morning), retired people playing "mangjiu" (?) Chinese croquet. One lady said that she is my "nupengyou" which means girlfriend, hehe. That's all I could understand.

There are so many different types of vehicles on the road--electric scooters, bicycles, horsecarts, tractors-like contraptions, three-wheeled bike taxis. General madness and sensual overload, but that's what I was seeking. My apartment is a welcome sanctuary at the end of the day.

This is all in two days. This excludes the Orwellian medical exam which is a chapter in itself, especially the ultrasound organ exam; the paperwork at the PSB; the market (!!!). Exhausting but fascinating. A fellow teacher, also a fellow Iowan, is a funny guy. He sent some of the "hell money" that people burn for their ancestors here in China to his congressman and to Pat Robertson. It actually says "Bank of Hell" on it. Hehehe.

School starts next week. There is a lot of development on and around campus, including new apartments for the faculty where we will be moving in October. Looks good. I'll let you know how that all goes. We should be meeting the English dept. faculty soon.

This is less than 48 hours in Kunming.

Ryan

Dear Zhan Hui and Mr. Li,

I am currently en route to China. Yesterday morning at 4:00, I was supposed to fly from Cedar Rapids to Chicago and then from Chicago directly to Hong Kong, but my first flight out of Cedar Rapids was cancelled because of bad weather. So they put me on another plane to Denver, and from Denver to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.

When I arrived in Denver, the flight was delayed by two hours so I missed my connection in Los Angeles. I arrived in LA at 2:00 this morning and stayed at a hotel near the airport, and that is where I am right now. Today they've got me on a new flight from LA to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Hong Kong. I think I should arrive in Hong Kong on Saturday evening.

When I arrive in Hong Kong, I will take the train to Guangzhou and go to the CITS office next to the train station. I'm having problems buying a plane ticket from Guangzhou to Kunming because Dragonair's website doesn't book flights before Aug 31, China Southern's English website is down, and China Southwest Airline's website doesn't even work.

Flying is my preference, but I may have to take the train. I'll call you when I arrive in Guangzhou with more information about my arrival. It seems that every step of this trip is fraught with obstacles, but overcoming obstacles make us greater people.

Even if I have to swim, I will make it to China.

Ryan

P.S., When I was in Denver, I had a eight hour stopover, so I called a friend. He picked me up from the airport so we could go out to eat. We never made it to a restaurant because his car broke down on the highway, and his girlfriend had to give me a ride back to the airport.

Near Macs Inn, Idaho.

I awoke to a cold morning and immediately ventured out, into Mountain Time, through Stinkingwater Pass, the Great Basin, across the state line, into Idaho. Through the encroaching suburbia of Boise, across the scrubland and ubiquitous brown mountains that define southern Idaho's landscape. Upon arrival in the county town of Fairfield (pop. 394), I got directions to Worswick Hot Springs. It was about a 20 mile venture into wildnerness, up and down the V-shaped mountains that give name to the Sawtooth National Forest. With some helpful maps, I finally came upon the springs. And there were real live cowboys there! Border collies, horses, hats and moustaches. I found the source and found it to be much too hot. In frustration, I followed the stream down a little, and there it was. Paradise. Hot bubbling water from the Middle Earth. I drank it, swam in it, absorbed and utterly alone (cowboys were long gone).

I continued down Highway 20 through the Craters of the Moon National Monument, complete wasteland and then into the wasteland of the Idaho National Laboratory where the sun was obscrued by a strange haze. In the middle of the Lab is the world's first nuclear reactor EBR-1 and some machinery destined to create a nuclear powered plane (Kennedy shut it down). I was utterly alone there as well and ate lunch in this ominous environment. I was hungry anyway.

Now I am parked in a gas station parking lot about 15 miles from West Yellowstone, Montana. A sound of a helicopter distracted me for a moment until I saw it lifting off immediately before me, and an ambulance pull away, and a lone car circle the lot after that in awkward loops. It just sat there with its lights on.

27 mi West of Burns, Oregon

A journey of 11,000 miles began today. I left Eugene with a tear in my eye and headed eastward, up through the Cascades where a forest fire impeded my march, made my eyes burn, and the air hazy and smelling of campfires. On through Sisters, Oregon and Brothers, Oregon and into the high desert, scrubland, wide open spaces and Highway 20 unfurling before me, the longest road in America.

This is the way to China. Tonight I am holed up in my car in a rest stop outside Burns, Oregon and the Burns Indian Reservation.

There's a wagon train of long haul semis around me, one carrying bales of hay whose fragrance add character to the starry night. A lonely streetlamp provides what little light I have to scribble this on a notepad. Not much to report on this lonely night, a deep swaying feeling in my soul to suddenly be so far awway from Yuka (and getting farther). Two hundred fifty miles down, 1750 to go.

It was one year ago today that I made a remark about going West. I made it out to Oregon, and in fact, a week ago today, I was on that edge of North America, where Lewis and Clark saw the mighty Columbia River surge into the great Pacific Ocean. With my good friend Jason Walker , we traveled on Highway 101, from Astoria to Newport, Oregon. We camped in Cannon Beach, watched over by the rock from the Goonies. Enough said. Pictures soon, and we'll get into Mt. St. Helen's as we were there too.

It was one year ago today that I said I might take this project worldwide, and now I am. In two weeks I will be on an airplane to Hong Kong. I have my Work Visa and Work Permit, am authorized entry and have a job at Southwest Forestry College. This, too, involves going west, so far west that it becomes East, and then I shall continue going west, always West, across Hong Kong to into the Mainland via Guangzhou and finally Kunming, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China.

Right now I am in Eugene, Oregon...hobo jungle. Great place, a number of great people I have met, including a good Bhutanese friend named Pema Chhophyd who's been to Amish Iowa and a guitarist Nick Moore from my 7000 inhabitant hometown of Washington, Iowa (who'd guess?!?). He played at Washington Sesquicentennial back in '89. More about that later. If you can't wait, check out Nick & me, along with the great master of drumming Kenny Reed (he once played on Monk's piano) at Papa's Soul Food Kitchen (it's at the bottom of the page if you're following the link) on Friday night 11 August in Eugene. If you can't make it, keep your ears out for the music.

In order to get to China, I'm going to drive my car back to Iowa via the great and historic coast-to-coast US Highway 20. I'll join the road in Corvallis, Oregon (whose Beavers are erstwhile champions of college baseball), cutting through Yellowstone to Sioux City, Iowa (to visit Tommy Bolin's grave and Al Capone's house), and fly out from Cedar Rapids. The driving part will happen next week. The town where the Wright Bros. once had a bicycle shop will be my airbourne departure.

The flying part will take place after a few stops in Omaha & Iowa City to see Andrew Michael Jackson and Nima "The Muslim" Sahbet, Mo-T of Khartoum, and Volkmann, who once stared down a drunken Morroccan on top of a hotel in the Rif Mountains, Chefchaouen, Morrocco.

Many thanks to everyone's support and excitement. As always, Yuka, you're #1! My light, my love, and my important person. Mom & Dad & family. Then the list gets long. I pray to repay my debt of gratitute to these people (and twice as many as what's listed because I'll forget): Adrian of Donegal, Deeznuts, Elodie from the Alps (my hero!), Jet-C, Jim & Chieko, Kenny R., Mark & Mika & Sen, Mathilde, Maxime de bourgeouis Portiers, Dr. Meyer, Nick Moore, Nakazono-sama, Pu Li, Mr. Shufro my mentor, Suresh the Brahmin, SWFC alums who've paved the way: John & Leigh & Zhan Hui, Tomo-chan, Wingert, Yancy, Ziols...there are more of you out there, don't worry.

It's been almost seven months. What's going on out there? A sudden crisis in Israel over an abducted soldier. I read some quotes by the international community. This one caught my attention:

Mikhail Kamynin, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson

The right and duty of the government of Israel to defend the lives and security of its citizens are beyond doubt.

But this should not be done at the cost of the lives of many lives and many Palestinian civilians, by massive military strikes with heavy consequences for the civilian population.

Sioux City, IA

In my pockets.

A TriMet ticket from Old Town, Portland, Oregon, Dec 20, 2005, 2:17 p.m. Postcards from the Cheese House in Kalona, Iowa. A fake carnation from my sister's wedding last March. A copy of Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia. Right now in the book he's on the beach in San Julián, Santa Cruz, Argentina, contemplating a dinner party in Sir Francis Drake's cabin.

As a bookmark, pp. 102-3 from the Boeing 767's Component Locator Guide, originally from a stack of papers used as firestarter for a woodstove near Tonganoxie, Kansas on New Year's morning 2006. The pages show the component location for the landing gear. Buddhist prayer beads and gongyo book from Sakae-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan. Two Rolling Rock bottlecaps from Zach Harris's apartment in Iowa City and some Sacagawea dollar coins from Chinatown in Portland. On May 12, 2001 I rode the train from Ormskirk, Lancashire to Liverpool. I paid £1.85. Métro pass from Montréal, lundi 27 déc 2004 au dimanche 2 jan 2005. 18$ Canadian.

Alas, no mobile phone. Forgot my cellphone at the Bellevue this morning. I want to be in Yunnan in three months. Dreams of Xishuangbanna. Don't even know how I'll make the 100 miles to Omaha tomorrow. I'll be playing my double bass there, at Sean O'Casey's, 10:30 p.m. The Saturday Sound.

Two days ago was Black Friday. It is consumer madness, retail hell. I was at Office Depot as of 4 a.m.; doors opened at 6 a.m. I did this last year at Staples in Sioux City, and what never ceases to amuse me is the first people in the door. Running. To shop. People all over the world are lined up outside places for bread, for water, for medicine. It's like that here in the United States, only people need that $350 laptop and it's a nationwide epidemic rather than a local problem.

Sure, there are plenty of things that are ridiculously cheap, but exactly how many of those things is a retail going to sell at a loss on the biggest shopping day of the year? In the fine print of the ads, you would read things like "store has a minimum of 10" laptops, cameras, flatscreen TVs, etc. Replace "minimum" with "maximum" and that's a little closer to the truth.
Also notice the can of chewing tobacco in the gentleman's back pocket.

For Thanksgiving, Yuka & I went to some friends' house and had an excellent vegetarian Thanksgiving, complete with some homemade 2002 and 2003 homemade pinot gris, grown south of Eugene, aged in Serbian oak barrels. Some of the best wine I've ever tasted.

I heard back from a school in Kunming, China. Southwest Forestry College is interested in hiring me and will soon be conducting a phone interview. More to follow.

From what I've researched, bringing a double bass on an airplane is quite a hassle. I don't want to put it in cargo (hell no!) so I'm going to bring it aboard. I even bought a seat for it, one way from Omaha to Portland, via Denver.

My dad was going to ship the bass to me via FedEx Freight, but that's a lot to worry about. A lot of things can happen between Iowa and Oregon. Just read my earlier posts on this weblog. A lot of things did happen between Iowa and here.

I am flying to Iowa for the holidays, so I had the idea of bringing the bass back with me. At least it would always be by my side.

So I tried calling United to request an extra seat. I ended up getting a call center in India, thanks to Globalization & Outsourcing-R-Us.

Call Center Rep: You want an extra seat for a double bass?

Ryan: Yes, it's like a cello, only much larger.

CCR: Let me put you on hold while I research this. (Five minutes later.) Sir? Is that instrument like a guitar? You should put that in cargo. ...Oh? You want to buy a ticket for it?

And around and around we went. I ended up calling back the next day and getting an American call center with a customer service rep whose expertise in this matter is only due to the fact that she's "been doing this for too long," which is precisely the kind of person you want to talk to on the phone when dealing with these matters. By the end of it, we got everything set.

Now I've got a ticket for Mr. Instrument (first name Double Bass). He'll be traveling with me on 7 Jan. I can't wait to hear the jokes from the other passengers: "Hey, I don't think that's going to fit in the overhead!" "Can I have his peanuts?" Etc.

RDRR

I'll be in Sioux City on December 21. Apparently many people from outside of Sioux City are making it a sort of homecoming. So I guess I'll go too. So to all the non-Sioux Cityans who are in that town and then quickly leaving thereafter: See you there, Tavia, Sarah, Nima, Mr. Green, Mariko, Yoko, Kana, Nami, Wataru(?), Himi(?), maybe even Haithem. To all the other Sioux Cityans who will be there, sometimes it seems like for all eternity: See you there, Wingert, Darijia, Ilisja.

And then there's Washington (Iowa that is), the great city who is planning to tear down the nation's first county tax-supported hospital in favor of progress, and Washington County, who is opening the Washington County Casino Resort in Riverside, the future birthplace of Captain Kirk.

Also I'll be seeing my old college roommate (thereby a future political appointee) Walker who is apparently not that far from Kentucky. Hey, all you need is cornmeal, water, sugar, salt, yeast, and malt!

I ride the bus a lot. I've got a bus pass, and public transportation is really good, plus there are great bike paths (and I've got a bike), so I don't drive a whole lot. Anyway, coming home from work, I met a guy on the bus named Daniel.

Daniel: I hitchhiked here from Indiana. Hitchhiking's not like what it was in the 80s. You gotta be crazy to do it now.
Ryan: How long did it take you to get here?
D: Two weeks. I got stuck in Harlem, Illinois for a day. No one would pick me up because there's a mental institution there. I almost got arrested.
R: Why did you come to Eugene?
D: I thought this would be a nice place, since I'm an artist, a drummer, and a peace activist. I tell you what. I was living at the mission just to get off the street. Now I'm living in a quad at West University. The guy tried to get me to bribe him just to shampoo the carpets. I couldn't even walk barefoot there! I went down to Rainbow [drum circle and free potluck held each Sunday before the full moon] yesterday--they had was organic food. I realized that I haven't eaten real food all my life; I've been eating chemicals. They said next time if I come down early, I can hand out ribbons.
I'm thinking about getting into goldsmithing or silversmithing.

I'll be back in Iowa from 20 December to 8 January.

I met with the ESL tutor coödinator at Lane Community College's Downtown Campus two weeks ago. She informed me of a part-time ESL Computer Lab Specialist position, teaching computer skills and basic English. I was all for it and dropped off the application last Monday. Now it's the waiting game....

In the meantime, I have also applied as a (paid) ESL tutor, possibly starting next semester at the main campus of LCC, and have been looking at assistant classroom teaching positions at Downtown English (a low-cost ESL program in Eugene), and tomorrow I will check out the University of Oregon's American English Institute.

I keep thinking about going to China. It would only be for 6 - 7 months, though. I think I would miss Yuka too much otherwise.

I've met some French people who really like jazz, so I've been going to Jo Frederigo's, a jazz club on 5th Avenue. Still patiently waiting for my bass to arrive, and when it does, I'll be on stage playing too.

This Saturday is my birthday. 26.

I have recently become very interested in teaching English. I went to the University of Oregon's coffee hour with Yuka about a week and a half ago, and had an intense two hours of conversation with people from all over the world. I met a guy from Bhutan and a cool dude from Haiti. I also met an American guy who just got back from a year of teaching English in China. That really got my itch going.

So I've done some research into teaching English in China. There are more people in China learning English than the total population of the US. Crazy, eh? Plus, to be a good global citizen of the 21st century, you should know China. So, there, that's my goal. Teach English in China. I signed up for the English Conversation Partner Program at Lane Community College and I got matched up with a Japanese student. Basically, you just have a conversation once a week or so with an international student and help their English get better.

Also, I am enquiring about a more serious position in downtown Eugene, at the ESL center. I'm hoping to get on as an assistant ESL classroom teacher so I can have some experience & know if this is something that would truly interest me. I have a feeling it will.

T'ai Chi is going great. I usually have Tuesday & Thursday afternoons off so I can go to the afternoon session in addition to the morning class (and don't have to pay extra!). It's a difficult practice, but already I'm seeing the benefits in increased flexibility, increased leg strength, better posture, and probably better circulation & balance. Also, I'm noticing how things move in nature, how people move. It reminds me of T'ai Chi Chuan.

I start T'ai Chi Ch'uan (太極拳) tomorrow. First of all, what are these crazy symbols called? Chinese characters? Hànzì? Kanji? Hanja? 汉字? 漢字? 한자? I'm not sure what to call them. I usually call them kanji since I study Japanese.

I like learning Chinese characters. Although most are not pictographs (actually the majority are based on homonyms of other characters), they still convey a certain meaning and elegance that our clunky phonetic alphabet does not. So I hopped on Google to understand these three characters.

太 (t'ai): greatest, but with a nuance of extreme or too much, so usually it's translated as "supreme."
極 (chi): extreme, utmost, furthest, so translated as "ultimate."
拳 (ch'uan): fist.

T'ai Chi Ch'uan is a martial art. But how can a series of slow movements protect you in the fury of combat? Laozi (老子/Lao Tzu) said in his Tao Te Ching, "The soft and pliable will defeat the hard and strong." In a fight, if both opponents use hardness, both will sustain injury to some degree. On the other hand, if hard is met with soft, soft is met with hard...in other words not resisting an incoming force, but meeting it, and sticking to it and neutralizing it. Of course, it takes many years to become disciplined enough to know the Way of these things.

I think T'ai Chi is about finding balance--your center of gravity, your place in the environment, and adapting to the changes in the environment.

A Taoist saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

It has been raining since Friday night. The change of seasons here is dramatic. I'm used to Iowa's scorching summer, followed by about 2 weeks of autumn, then bitter coldness. Here I think the seasons are more equal in duration and more temperate.

Last Saturday, Yuka and I ascended the great Spencer Butte. It took maybe 45 mins to an hour to climb, and the view was spectacular. The summit was very small and about 15 people and 15 dogs were milling about up there. All of Eugene was visible, as were the distant Cascades (the Three Sisters, Mt Jefferson, and a curiously named Three-Fingered Jack). A panorama of the Willamette Valley was all around, along with appearances by the great river itself. It was a fine day, as it has been for the past two weeks or so. In the mid-70s, clear skies, low humidity.

Everytime I see someone here who is bored or upset or otherwise negative, I just want to say, "Take a look around you!"

I'm trying to enjoy as much time out of doors as possible. The rain will start in a couple of weeks. It will continue raining until spring, from what I understand. I still believe though that it will beat snow & ice & Iowa cold.

This weekend is the Eugene Celebration, a citywide festival downtown, with food, beer, and music. The North Mississippi Allstars will be here tomorrow night. I will too. Frank Slugsnotra was crowned Eugene's Slug Queen for the festival.

Enjoying work at the O'Depot.

This is the bike path through Amazon Park, going south to my house. The path goes directly to my street. The mountain ahead is Spencer Butte (2062 ft./625m). A butte is an isolated hill or mountain with very steep slopes and a flat top, but with a smaller summit area than a mesa. It is covered in Douglas Fir trees. I hope to climb it sometime soon.


There are over 30 miles of paved off-road bike paths in Eugene. Some go along the Willamette River, which make spectacular views:

The river is left undeveloped, which preserves the natural beauty of the area.

Today, Yuka and I drove out to Florence, Oregon, about 55 miles west of Eugene. It is at the end of North America. Sand dunes, high winds, empty shores, an abandoned crab shell. I put my feet in the great Pacific Ocean.

Florence, Oregon

The beach is a very spiritual place for me. Maybe because of the waves rushing in, the constantly shifting sand, the flux of change all around. It as evident here of the universal law of change as anywhere, I suppose. A few months ago, I trudged up to Nagoya Bay in central Japan. It was my last day there. I stood there, under the cloudy sky, watching fishing boats and huge ships sailing into the Taiheiyou, the Pacific, that great expanse of water that has no memory and knows no equal on this earth, a sea that reaches all the way to America. Now, today, I was looking back toward Asia, that land impossibly far away but yet always connected by the rolling waves and shifting sand.

Got a job offer yesterday from Office Depot. I think one may be in the works for Market of Choice as well. Six interviews done as of this morning. Well, it will be good to be working again--it's been about six weeks.

I was thinking about my Japanese friends today--the ones in America & the ones back home--what's up!

oooh yeah!!!

Also, I got a bike. A Schwinn. It's got a flat tire. So I'm learning Zen & the Art of Bicycle Maintenance. I learned about a the quick release lever on the front wheel (a ten-second way to get the front wheel off the bike) and how to take the tire off the wheel (using the backs of spoons as tire levers!). The tube has a hole in it that was previously patched, so I'm not sure if I'll patch the hole or get a new tube and save this one for future scenarios. I got the bike for $50, by the way, from a guy named Dave in a storage lot. Long story.

Eugene's a great bicycling town. According to a website, Eugene's bicycle path network "includes 30 miles of off-street paths, 89 miles of on-street bicycle lanes, and 5 bicycle/pedestrian bridges spanning the Willamette River." Near my house are great bike paths--I can bike all the way to grocery store without touching the street (about seven blocks). This grocery store deserves attention. It's called Sundance, and it's been open since 1971. All of its produce is organic, and much of it is locally grown. Also, you can buy many things in bulk. They have hot vegetarian options for an alternative to fast food and around 170 beers available. I go there almost every day.

Finally got a call back from job my job apps. It's for Market of Choice, a locally-owed, progressive food store not three blocks from my house. They place organic products right next to the GM items. Also you can buy many items in bulk, which is great for single people like me--you don't have to keep buying family sized items and not being able to eat it all. Also, they have the biggest beer selection I've seen. There's beer from Austria, Kenya, Belgium, even Stella Artois, which I have never seen in the US (only Europe). I also bought a bottle (yes, you can buy single bottles here) of Kotayk, the most famous Armenian beer. Plus there are tons of microbrews from the Western Oregon area and also northern California which are all quite tasty.

Did I mention that we are in the middle of Oregon wine country? I'll have to check that out and write more about that later.

I should make a plug for Yuka's Time, my favorite weblog.

Found a house. It's with a guy from New Hampshire. Big fenced-in backyard, a couple of picnic tables, tiki torches, a garden full of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cucumbers. A washer and a dryer, dishwasher, quiet street. It's also got a wireless internet connection so I can use Yuka's laptop here in the back. Not bad. It took about five days to find the place.

Haven't found a job, but already approaching double digits on job apps, so one should turn up soon. That will provide some money until I can find "a niche in some unconventional but satisfying way," to quote a mentor of mine.

First impressions of Eugene:A Grateful Dead-painted Volkswagon van three houses down. A psychadelic VW van three houses down the other way. Tie-dye is in style. Mohawks of such brilliance and stunning coiffure to be art forms. Three weather forecasts: one for the Coast, one for the Valley, and one for the Mountains. Foggy, cloudy mornings giving way to cloudless days. Used book stores, local food, recycling, urban shamanism, organic restaurants, bicycles, aging hippies, long beards & army pants. A true American city.

You can rent dune buggeys for rides along the Pacific Coast, jump off cliffs into 40-ft. pools, take a dip in a hot spring, climb mountains, go white-water rafting. All this is about an hour away. Zazen meditation every weekday morning at 5:15 a.m. at the local zendo.

Pictures from our trip

Eugene, Oregon.

We've made it. Now the tricky part has come. I need to find a place to live. I need a job.

Yesterday, we left Boise and crossed the Snake River into Oregon about an hour later. I've seen the Snake a couple of times on our way out here, and it never ceases to amaze me. It cuts wide swaths through deep canyons, and winds around enough to keep popping up, from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to southern Idaho to eastern Oregon where it finally dumps into the Columbia River and heads west to the Pacific Ocean.

Although I don't have a digital camera, I plan on taking my finished rolls of film to be developed tonight and paying a little extra to get them on a CD-ROM as well. That way I can publish them on this weblog and you can see pictures of the Snake River and other things that make this country truly great & beautiful. Stay tuned.

Eastern Oregon is mainly badlands and lava flows. We stopped at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, a geological wonderland where an astoundingly complete fossil record exists--40 of the 65 million years of the "Age of Mammals & Flowering Plants" are here. You can see perfectly intact skulls & skeletons of animals that are just not around anymore--four-tusked elephants, deer-mice, badger-skunk-dogs, wolf-horses, I'm serious. This is the only known place in the world where the early period of mammals is so perfectly preserved. There are prints of leaves & flowers & seeds, even one of those ubiquitous cicada shells from back in the day!

After about five hours of volcanic ash, we arrived at the snowcapped Cascade Mountains. We spent the night in pretty Sisters, where there were no tent camping grounds, but we were allowed to stay in the city park. This morning, we drove through the scenic McKenzie Pass and over & around the McKenzie River and down, down, down the mountains through 15 mph hairpin turns, signs counting down the elevation 5000 ft., elevation 4000 ft., elevations 3000 ft., ears popping, until we reached the fabled promised land of the Oregon Trail pioneers, the Willamette Valley, and my new home, Eugene, Oregon 97401.

We are staying the night at Eugene Kamping World in Coburg, about six miles north of town, and for practical reasons we may stay at a budget motel tomorrow. I'm kind of at a dilemma. What is the first thing you do when you get to a new town where you know not a soul and have no home, no gainful employment? The post office? Only three pieces of mail, none important.

We met Chieko, a nice lady who runs a district chapter of Soka Gakkai International, a branch of Nichiren Buddhism that Yuka belongs to. She's going to hold Yuka's stuff until she finds an apartment with her younger sister (who also will be attending the University of Oregon). My dad will send me my stuff once I find a place. Thanks, Dad. Still not sure how we're getting my double bass out here, but that's another story.

Wow, I've got an audience! People are actually reading this, as far away as Albania & Serbia. I think I'll continue writing, as I have a feeling things will be getting more interesting in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all the emails and well-wishes; it really means a lot in this trying but exciting time.

I gotta start looking for apts & jobs, and I'll let you know how that goes next. Also, watch for pictures! Everyone loves pictures.