I write from a dingy hotel room in Grants Pass, Oregon. I woke up early yesterday in Middletown, Connecticut, after having given an all-day workshop for Wesleyan University faculty the day before. Flew home yesterday, packed, and then left campus this morning for a lovely six-hour drive through the rain. Tomorrow I’ll begin a writers residency with the Spring Creek Project at the Andrews Experimental Forest. This is a two-week residency, and from here I go directly up to the North Cascades Institute in Washington for a month-long residency there.
Only problem is that I don’t have any shirts. Well, that’s not technically correct. I stopped at the Eddie Bauer outlet in Reading, California and bought three flannel shirts to hold me over until the other shirts can be shipped to Oregon. What a world we live in! A hundred years ago, three new flannel shirts could get a fellow through the winter. Now I’m hoping to make it until Monday. And I’m not all that worried that a dozen fresh shirts can be delivered to a remote outpost in the Willamette National Forest near Blue River, Oregon. No, they don’t have cell-phone coverage there, but surely FedEx or one of those outfits can reunite me with my clothing. A couple years ago I read the journals of the Corps of Discovery Expedition better known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. When those fellows needed a new shirt they would shoot a deer, tan the hide, and then sew themselves a new shirt. A shame they didn’t have FedEx back then!
2 Comments
Carol Farnsworth
10/29/2016 07:00:24 pm
It's amazing how much needs to be packed for a two-week trip when your husband is writing a book. You need books, binoculars, computers, cameras, rain gear, sleeping gear, and tons more.
Reply
absolutely!
10/29/2016 08:36:02 pm
It's amazing how much we remembered to pack. Snow chains, thermal underwear, field guides, GORP, spotting scope and tripod, chargers, beard trimmer, Kindle, notebooks, two pairs of waterproof boots, two pairs of rain pants, spare glasses and sunglasses, a spiral ham, two pairs of binoculars, first aid kit, nail clippers, headlamp, leatherman tool, field desk and chair, sleeping bag and pad, camera gear, sunscreen and shave kit.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Details
Cool Links
GGRO Hawkwatch www.scugonewild.com Journal of Natural Hist. Ed. Natural History Institute Center for Humans & Nature Friend Siteswww.kathleenjamie.com |