8. Our Arrival

Only 56 miles to my new home!

We pass through many small road bump towns. I start to get an overwhelming feeling I haven't had before. I experience my first big whallop of culture shock about 30 minutes from our valley. What in the hell are we doing?!

The terrain is beautiful and strange and full of road signs for fossil beds.


After driving through miles of desert, we start climbing up again.. I'm pleasantly surprised by the sight of pines and snaking, clear rivers. El Big is a basically located on a huge, pine covered plateau--a valley completely surrounded by high mountain desert.



We pull into town around noon. The Farmer's market in the town square is still buzzing, so we stop and grab a couple of surprisingly authentic tamales; drag our tired selves up to our empty apartment and toast to El Big.

7. The Dry Side

Dry, dryer, driest... Our new state is big and sprawling with contrasting values. It's evenly divided at the Kaskade Mountains-- not only geographically, but socially and politically. The eastern portion of is mainly desert and socially conservative. The very liberal Western side often refers to the eastern side with sweet nicknames like No Man's Land, The Armpit, or as I like to call it, The Dry Side...

My first Northwest painting. This is a rare, old style wood chip burner left over from the days when air polution and clear cutting just weren't discussed.

I understand that the locals call them hay turds.

At one point I notice that all the lumber trucks are now delivery trucks for the small town-destroying mega superstore giant, Val*mart. We must be getting closer...