November 11th, 2003
Sunny morning at
Sea Lion caves

Nighttime bridge

We spend the day in a café finishing an article and leave Newport after nightfall. Everything’s fine until we hit the outskirts of town and leave the lights behind us, we begin crossing a bridge in the pitch black and become very sketched out. There is no guardrail to stop us from falling into traffic and we can’t see the edge of the sidewalk unless a car is passing. Going down the other side we begin to enjoy our fear and scream as loud as we can. We find ourselves a campsite, get some food in us and conk out. The next day is long and has an enormous hill at the end. We experience a dramatic weather change after a sunny morning, the wind begins to blow extremely hard and we have to stop at the entrance to the Sea Lion caves near the top for fear of being blown off the road. We make it up the hill and head inland away from the coast and arrive in Florence in the early evening and buy ourselves a blanket at a second hand store. It has become dark and we decide that it’s time to immerse ourselves in everything we don’t believe in. American culture is calling us, we want to see it from the inside; so off to McDonalds we go. Somewhat sick to our stomachs we coast into the local trailer park to drink some rum, read some anti-capitalist literature, and hit the sack. The next morning a man wakes us up to pay for the camp spot. He wants a whopping twenty bucks because the tent sites are closed for the winter season. We disagree, kick him in the balls, stuff his head in a garbage can and ride off. Let me rephrase that, Johanne haggles him down to ten, we pay, and then we kick him.

Infamous Noti truck scandal
We leave highway 101 and head farther inland towards Eugene. Johanne starts feeling weak and we have absolutely no energy food left, everything we have needs to be prepared. We finally make it to the town of Noti and do a little shopping. Off to find a place to camp and the best we can do is behind the church. It turns out to be the worst we can do because the church sits beside a log-processing yard. They load trucks until 4:30am, our sleep is fitful, and incomplete.

Roadkill stretch
Red-eyed and wonderful, it’s off to Eugene. But not before passing through the dead animal gauntlet. The terrain is flat and brown. Looks like a wetlands preserve or some such wonder. We hear gunshots in the distance so maybe it’s not that protected. Before arriving in Eugene we se dead cats, rats, bats, a deer, two sheep, and quite a number of unidentifiable carcasses.

We get to Eugene and are happy to trade dead animal roadside for well marked bike paths. We spend the rest of the day in the Library doing research on the Internet in 15minute intervals. On our way out to the park to camp we meet an elderly man named Paul who invites us to use his living room floor instead of the rainy grass. The next day we spend at the University where Internet is free if you’re a student, which we are…right? We hit the park again that night and set up our tent in a heavy downpour, which promptly stops once it’s up. On our way through town the next day we are offered a place to stay for the night, we accept and head off to our interview in Springfield. It’s been a long time since we’ve met an organization and Sarah inspires us with stories of activism and workplace injustice. It feels really good to be on the project again. Zorba invites us into his home and we enjoy a succulent meal in front of a magic fan and a good movie in warm company. Zorba and his wife are kind and generous and we set off on our way the next day after another interview with warmed hearts.