“Some hope to take the easy way:
Poisons, bombs. They think we need ’em.
Don’t you know you can’t kill all the unbelievers?
There’s no shortcut to freedom.”
~Pete Seeger
This has been a truly weird week, mostly due to the strong contrasts in the people I’ve encountered. Many of the Canadians left last weekend, and headed back north. There was a group of volunteers who drained the pools every Tuesday morning and power washed them. They picked up trash and raked the area. I will miss them. Many others left as it’s starting to get warmer, and will soon be too hot to live here in an RV. And so the ratio of loonies rose drastically. I had several unpleasant encounters with people who wanted to engage in an argument about how awful Biden is, or how Gavin Newsom is the cause of all the biting horseflies in the area. I refused to engage, and sometimes just left, and a couple of times said “I don’t discuss politics” and turned and moved to the other side of the pool. One man started in about how he hates Canadians. He said “They think they own the place.” I said “Yes, they do seem to take great responsibility of the land and I’m grateful for how well they keep up the area. Maybe we should ALL take a little bit more ownership and responsibility for the land we live on.” He didn’t like that, and he left. Now I was getting somewhere. Not only did I not have to be the one to walk away, but I got him to leave, by agreeing with him. I thought that was a pretty good trick.
I’d been contemplating getting a bike for some time now. The land where I’m staying is vast and runs about a mile from the road separating me from the hot springs. I’m parked closer to the road so it’s an easy walk several times a day to get to the springs. I walked with Cosmo back nearly a half mile and found some amazing, quieter spots away from people. I thought “If I had a bike, I’d move back here and take my bike up the road to the hot springs.” I started researching and when I saw several people with small e-bikes coming and going from the hot springs, I asked one what he had, why he picked that one, how he liked it, etc. He said “I LOVE this bike. I love this company. The bike is at the cheaper end, but is a quality build, long battery life, well-constructed, and the company has excellent customer service.” We discussed how he used it and he uses it much the same way I would. After a bit more research and reading reviews, I bought one. It is being shipped to Steve and Richard in Long Beach and I will pick it up when I pass through in a month or so. It will enable me to not have to pack up the van when I need a few groceries; I could just take my bike into a nearby store. Often BLM land has dumpsters at the entrance. If I’m deep in, I save up my trash and dump on the way out. A bike would allow me to ride down to get rid of it more frequently. There have been many times when I stop near the entrance of BLM land if the road is bad. I fear getting down the road with no place to turn around. But with a bike, I can park, bike down the road and see if there are suitable spots farther in that are passable by my van. I’m excited to get it.
The weather was beautiful early in the week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday got unpleasantly hot, but has cooled off nicely for the weekend. Most people have cleared out for the season. Starting Tuesday, every day gets hotter and hotter with temperatures up to 100⁰ by next weekend. I’ll miss this spot and some of the people I’ve made friends with and will definitely miss my twice daily soaks in the hot water, but it has become clear, it is time to move on to the next adventure.
Lessons From The Road: The Holtville Hot Springs is a nexus for all sorts of people. Among the visitors last week was a man that I’ve seen several times before; the first time he was in a heated argument with another man who was telling him he didn’t own the BLM land, and needed to pick up his trash and shit from around his car. The vagrant was yelling agitatedly that he could do whatever he wanted—it was a free country. The other man just walked away, shouting over his shoulder “You’re not a good person.” I’ve seen the “It’s-a-free-country” man several times. He is not a good person. He invades everybody’s space, is loud and confrontational, and very disrespectful of other people. He always seems to corner newcomers and spouts wild conspiracy theories about Biden and Nancy Pelosi. He actually shaves in one of the hot tubs, in spite of people pointing out how unhygienic that is. There are several other lesser versions of him who show up occasionally. There is a guy in a skoolie parked near me. I saw him in the hot tub and struck up a conversation. It was prior to the eclipse, and he started in this long “Jesus rant” about how the eclipse would pass over 5 cities named Salem, and Salem has 5 letters, and that refers to some book in the bible predicting the rapture. My eyes glazed over, and I didn’t even pretend to be polite. I just turned and went to the opposite end of the large pool.
A child of the 60’s, I tend to be that guy who would put a daisy in the barrel of the rifle of the National Guardsman who is about to murder peaceful college protestors. My goal of being nice has had me being the one to walk away and say, “You have a nice day” when what I really want to say is “Get the fuck out of my face you batshit crazy moron.” I sometimes wonder if walking away politely just empowers the batshit crazy moron, and gives them permission to continue spreading their garbage, both literally and figuratively. I haven’t settled on a solution yet, but I no longer feel I must be nice to such individuals. I’m not willing to be mean, (not only because I think it is wrong, but because it could also get me shot) but I’m no longer willing to be politely indulgent. I fear the left will lose, not only in November, but in the grand scheme of things, because we are too often willing to indulge outright nonsense, hatred, lies and conspiracies. On the brighter side…
I met and had a conversation with a young man from Germany. He graduated high school last summer, worked for 6 months and saved enough money to come to the U.S. He is biking to as many states as possible. Young, extremely smart and adventurous, he was a bright light in an otherwise dim landscape that morning. Later this week, I met another young man from Alaska who has a mushroom business. He forages for mushrooms in the wild and he quit his “day job” this week to go into mushrooming full time. We had a very nice talk about being self-employed, growing a business, and how to do that part you love and hire help for the “business parts” that are not fun. He gave me some samples of medicinal mushrooms, and a big hug. Made my day.