Today I leave Humboldt County. The last 3 1/2 years have been an experience without compare. It was my first home away from home, my first adventure into unknown territory. I have glimpsed towering ancient forests, lush dairy fields and pristine jagged coastlines. I have lived under eternal blankets of fog and mist broken by occasional glimpses of precious sunlight. I have walked among the grandest Victorian mansions, and through the saltiest alleyways and bars of old town. I have woken to the sounds and smells of the harbor drifting through my window on impossibly frigid and damp mornings. I have come to know people of all walks of life; loggers and eco conservationists, master woodworkers and passionate teachers, hippies and rednecks, surfers, bike mechanics, tweakers, stoners, artists, musicians, punks, parents, homebrewers, students, crazy neighbors and housemates, and a host of oddballs and characters that would be more at home in a wild novel or movie than reality. Some are rich, some are dirt poor, but they all somehow fit into the bizarre, dreamlike puzzle of Humboldt. It is with these people that I felt belonging, joy, wonder, pain, struggle, beauty, wanderlust, helplessness, hope, and rebirth. I learned a lot of lessons about the world and myself from them, some good and some bad. I will remember these people forever though, as I look back on my strange times behind the Redwood Curtain.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 05:31:35 +0000
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