Month: July 2013

Giants

Posted on July 30, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

Sequoias, I’ve heard, are bigger.

Still.

They almost dare you to photograph them in some unique way, as if knowing that, at least at first, you can’t help but shoot the standard-issue, clichÃ©d image of immense stands of imposing forest.Â Walking among them I didn’t feel small so much as unimportant.

That’s something of a clichÃ© as well, but it fits.

We left the Elk River center, drove up 101 a short way, passing another beach, through mist and gray that separated where we were from anywhere else we might go.

We stopped at the shore, walked between burms of sand, spent time in the non-place of fog and suggestion.Â …

Updates and Bothers

Posted on July 29, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

I received another of those pesky update notices for my blog theme.Â When finished, I didn’t like it nearly as much as the one it replaced, so I’ve chosen a new theme.Â This has taken more time than I liked, but there it is.

In the meantime, a cryptic image from the trip, to keep you wondering till I get around to the next post.Â (Yes, those are boots and shoes atop those posts…I don’t know…)

…

Eureka and Beyond

Posted on July 24, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

Staggering (almost literally) into Eureka that Monday night saved our nerves.Â Oddly, we usually have one day like this on a road trip in which anxiety creeps up to a certain level (because we don’t know where we are and the directions we thought we had proved unreliable) and tension rises.Â We get through it and afterward it’s as if we’ve purged all the bad joss that might otherwise infect the balance of the trip.Â Such was our drive over the mountains from Platina to Eureka.

Picking a hotel because of a chain restaurant might also seem arbitrary, but part of the fun of these is to be arbitrary.Â …

Zipping By

Posted on July 21, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

…

36

Posted on July 20, 2013July 29, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

Having turned away from the traffic jam on 20, we drove back the few miles to I5.Â We’d intended to skip this highway since we’d driven it before and wanted to take new roads.Â Well, we figured, we’d still take a new road.

Just up 5 is the town of Red Bluff.Â Heading west from there is highway 36, which goes through the mountains.Â Or over, depending on your point of view.Â We looked at a map, thought “sure, we can stop atPlatina for the night and cross over in the early morning.”

Heh.

We should probably have stopped in Red Bluff, which seemed to be a charming little place with hotels, restaurants, local color, all on display as we cut through it and boldly set out on 36.…

In Lieu Of

Posted on July 19, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

I was halfway through another piece about our road trip.Â Something about winding roads and mountains.Â I made a bad keystroke and lost it.Â I’ll do it this weekend, after I stop fuming.Â Meanwhile, something in its place.

…

Along 20

Posted on July 18, 2013July 19, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

We had a plan.Â It seemed at first the gods of traffic were arrayed against us.

We flew into Sacramento to attend a reunion, a convention, and start the next part of our vacation, which entailed renting a car and heading for the redwood forests along the northern California coast.Â We’d missed these on our previous trip to the area (2001) and vowed to come back one day to fill in the gap.

Everything went smoothly until we began to encounter the Other Season in California.Â (There are two seasons, we were told—winter and road construction.)Â We intend to take I5 to 101 and head north to Eureka.Â …

Recent Us

Posted on July 17, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

A new portrait, done by Nan Kaufman, who, with her husband Peter Fuss, hosted us for a marvelous weekend of rustic peace and quiet—plus driving all over the place between Alta and Placerville.

…

On The Road…And Back

Posted on July 16, 2013 By Mark Tiedemann

Few things satisfy me more than going on a trip with Donna.Â In the last three decades we’ve taken some fine vacations and she is the best traveling companion I’ve found.

This one, however, contained extra pleasure.

On the Fourth of July we flew to Sacramento, CA, to attend Westercon 66.Â I’d forgotten (if I ever really knew) that Westercon in years past had been a Big Deal.Â Major regional SF convention.Â It had fallen into decline, though, and this one was the first in an intended recovery.Â I hope they manage it because this one was truly fine.Â Even if it hadn’t been, though, it would have been great because two of our best friends, Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge, were co guests of honor.Â …