The El Camino Surreal By Mike Roselle

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting kind of tired of reading these articles in the press by some suburban or citified person who recently moved into the woods and has discovered how nice it is to live in the country, and how shallow and complicated and toxic the rest of our lives are. I didn’t know that! These pieces are often filled with descriptions of Evening Grosbeaks in the old, whitepine down by the creek and peppered with a quote or two from the old wisened neighbors who have absorbed untold knowledge from living a life devoid of people such as them. These modern day Thoreaus aren’t really talking about how much they like the country but rather how much they hate everything else, especially the empty lives of those of us who cannot appreciate the warble of the Grosbeak or have cool wizened old neighbors who understand the puzzle that is life. They are self-hating urbanites.

 Me, I’m in a cheap motel in Berkeley on University Avenue with Floyd and Ramon. We drove up from Los Angeles in the El Camino where we were having our teeth worked on by the famous Dr. Bob, dentist to the stars and Lowbaggers. It’s been a long trip. After Packer Bob’s memorial I left Missoula with Gruver to make the summer solstice gathering at Brietenbush Hotsprings. We hung out with Michael Donnelly, Attossa Soltani, Lorin Linbder John Seed, Cielia Alerio, Paul Delehanty and Quiltman.  It was Seed’s 60^th birthday but he made us watch a campaign video anyway. Short and funny, the video was about their successful efforts to get endangered species protection in New South Wales, Australia. We had a full moon, guitars, and a funny looking pipe; there might even have been some tequila and nudity after I went to bed. The next day Donnelly and I drove to Portland to check in on Sara Perry, also known as The Ex, where I also met up with Floyd. We decided to ride down the coast in the El Camino before I sold it or turned it into planter.

What followed was a surreal trip that involved picking up Ramon in San Diego and driving back with him to Berkeley. I’ll spare you the details, but it included an Animal Rights Convention in LA, weddings, births, a beer with Bobby Weir on Randy Hayes‘s birthday, lunch at the Lodge in Pebble Beach (Ramon’s idea, of course) and scoring a bud on the pier in Santa Cruz after closing the bar down with an 81-year-old Dutchman. None of this should be in a family website. After a few days here, Floyd and I have to go back to LA and see Dr. Bob. I used to go to LA to see music, now I go to get new teeth. That’s what I mean by surreal. And by the way, traveling with two guys in their sixties is not like the roads trips I remember. Again, I will spare you the details.

Meanwhile, while I am having the only part of my head fixed that can be fixed; Hillary Hosta has some good news to report from Mountain Justice Summer, where the Lowbaggers are kicking some corporate butt. Please check their website (mountainjusticesummer.org) for up to date information on this fast moving campaign. Hillary says the anti Mountain Top Removal forces in West Virginia have succeeded in stopping a new coal silo from being sited near Marsh Fork Elementary School, and may be able to force Massey Coal to remove the first one and clean up the site, which is what many local activists like Julia Bonds, Bo Webb, Vernon Hamelton and others have been demanding that they do. This is a big victory for the Mountain Justice Summer Campaign and is sure to be followed by others.

We kind of got our butts kicked on the Lolo Trial last month but we still have an appeal before the 9^th Circuit Court even though the trees have been cut. A successful ruling on this case will make it harder for the Freddies to do this again. Also, attorney Lauren Reagan has informed me that I am to go on trial in Roseburg in November. No, not for disrespecting the patriarchy patrol’s injunction against raising your voice in the kitchen, but for Interfering With Agriculture. We look forward to going to trial in either case, and we think the prosecution has little evidence of a crime.

Right now I am trying to dump these two old men and spend a little time in Oregon, where the lowbaggers have set up camp in the Old Growth. Perhaps they can use an El Camino.

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