Real Life

The roadtrip is over and we are somewhat settled, Sophie in Redwood Valley and I in McMinnville, Oregon, working the land and starting real life. To recap:

Punctured oil pan
2 nights and days working for crazies
10 WWOOFers, no space
Escaped Thursday morning

After we broke Joey, (the song of the day there, by the way, was "Joey I'm So Sorry" by hit country sensation Sugarland—thanks to Scott Ramsey for suggesting that one) we were brought up to the house where we unloaded our things from the car only to be prevented entrance by the presence of a rattlesnake. Eric Levin, owner of Le Vin Winery, happily recounted stories of the days when he used to decapitate rattlesnakes with shovels and then eat them. He no longer does this because they help with the rodent problem.

Our time at Le Vin was manageable, and even fun, because we had our private space at The Inn. Otherwise, we would have been like the other WWOOFers: left to fight for a spot on the living room floor, in the sauna, on a lawn chair, on the hammock, or reduced to purchasing a tent, which pretty much negates the free housing aspect of WWOOFing. We were very lucky that no guests were staying while we were at Le Vin and the knowledge that this would change is part of the reason Sophie left with me once the car was fixed. The prospect of sleeping outside in a summer-weight sleeping bag with rattlesnakes and mountain lions on the prowl was not the most inviting. Still, we had fun our 2 days working there: mornings in the vineyard, tucking leaves to expose the grapes to morning sun, and then the afternoon in the winery, labeling and packaging bottles while drinking wine and listening to Santana. One of the days we went to a swimming hole near a highway overpass and jumped off rocks. In the evenings we opened up the music room and people jammed on drums, guitar and bass (although once Eric got involved, the jam session ended and turned into a music dictatorship). It didn't really seem like work, and by the end we truly liked everyone there, but it was time to move on.

I left Sophie on Thursday morning, the 20th, at the Buckner's beautiful house an hour north of Le Vin. Their son gave us a tour of the bountiful vegetable garden and we played frisbee with the adorably excitable dogs, then I was on my way.

I was very excited for the drive, as I knew I would see redwood trees for the first time. I drove through two redwood forests, Humboldt State Park and the Redwood National Park, both of which were spectacular. I pulled over a few times to take pictures (non-digital, unfortunately) and even stopped for a quick .6-mile hike through one area. Looking at trees that are hundreds and in some cases thousands of years old is unbelievable. After I walked far enough away from the road to escape the sound of cars, it was natural to just stare and consider that the trees have grown at their slow pace and stood relatively undisturbed while the rest of world has been developing and changing constantly.

My other first was the Pacific Ocean. I turned a corner and suddenly there it was. It's probably just my imagination that it looks different from the Atlantic, where I was just 3 weeks ago, but the California fog hanging over it and the waves hitting the rocks looked strictly "left side of the map" to me. I pulled over, took off my flipflops and put my feet in the water, which was incredibly cold. When I came back to the edge of the beach I couldn't find my shoes so I asked a little boy with long, golden curls if he had seen them and he promptly grabbed his shovel and dug, informing me that he had buried them to protect them for me.

I spent the night in a Best Western in..somewhere, Oregon, near a Seven Feathers Casino. I ate dinner at a diner attached to a gas station store and drank pinot noir with my BLT. A great welcome to Oregon.

Finally, on Friday at 11am I arrived in McMinnville at my new home. The house is beautiful; white with blue trimming, one level, full of light, with hardwood floors. My room is all set up now and I have a bike to get around town. The winery is a block away, which is as good a commute as I could hope for. Tad, my boss, is friendly and independent—I'll be staying here at the house alone most of the time, while he stays at the farm a little bit away. McMinnville is nice, small and manageable, with a cute downtown full of coffee shops, wine bars, restaurants and stores, and a strip mall with all of the unsightly necessities like Walmart and Safeway.

Tomorrow, work officially starts. Tad is going to pick me up to go to the farm where we will be installing a septic system, prepping the land for barley, and doing various construction work. I will even learn to drive a tractor. Over the next few weeks, as we get closer to crush, I will work in the winery more, and once crush starts in 5 weeks or so, I will be there exclusively.

I don't know if this is real life. Maybe real life requires paying jobs, in which case Sophie and I will get back to you all once real life really starts. As my friend Kiana commented today, they spend so much time preparing us for the high school-to-college transition, and none at all for the college-to-real world transition. Part of me still feels that school is coming up, that this is just an internship to fill the summer months. I'm sure that will change as I establish my life here, make friends, get to know the area better, and get into the routine of work. We'll see.

Final mileage was over 5,000. Final "Don't Stop Me Now" playcount was 16. Final number of states hit was 14 (Sophie had Massachusetts and I have Oregon).

Thanks for reading. Hope you all enjoyed following our adventures and misadventures across this huge country! On to the real world...