Days 150-152: Roadtrip from Sandpoint to Rapid City

One of the great pleasures of America turns out to be driving across the country on those big, wide, empty roads with hardly any traffic and rolling, equally empty land all around you.  It isn't exactly an innocent pleasure, what with the gas consumption, but it is something special.  We had really interesting weather, with alternating thunderstorms and clear skies.  Perhaps it is starting to be autumnal here, though it's hard for me to tell.  In Idaho, birds were gathering on electric wires and out here in Montana and Wyoming, flocks of geese fly in V formation overhead.  I love the feeling of not really knowing where I am or where I will stop, and knowing for sure that nobody else does either.  Antonia and I have indulged in various things like buying junk food in gas stations and driving off to those rare rest stops in the middle of nowhere to consume it.  Somewhere in the middle of all that, I finally got to read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, which I borrowed from our friend's daughter.  It's kind of the literary equivalent of indulging in candy, and maybe not a great idea when I had to drive the next day, but I must admit that I quite enjoyed myself.

Sorry, no photographs of this roadtrip, because I can't take photos and drive, and Antonia was immersed in her DS.

Days 148- 150: Back to Sandpoint

Getting to Sandpoint from Port Angeles all in one day was challenging, what with having to take a ferry to Seattle then pass through the city's traffic jams.  I was so happy to arrive, and even happier to see a welcome glass of wine.  I may have overdone it a bit as a result.  When I did emerge the next day, our friends spent more time showing how Sandpoint earned an award as the most liveable small town in the US.  Last time we saw the lake, this time we got to see the ski resort.  They really have everything here!  We took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain with the kids and hiked down again.   There is an incredible view over the lake there, but it was a bit hazy today.  The next day, I was meant to be heading out across country, so Carol and the kids came with us some of the way.  We went swimming under a highway, ate more great pizza, and went to look at a hydro-electric dam.  I really enjoy this kind of industrial stuff, so I was happy, until it was time to say goodbye to our new friends.  Hopefully, we will meet again soon.

Day 147: Goodbye to Olympic

We spent our last day in Olympic at Hurricane Ridge again.  I thought Jane should see it since everyone raves about it.  Also, I thought Antonia should finish her Junior Ranger book, which she has put so much effort into.  Actually, one of the most interesting things about our trip was watching Antonia interview a ranger about her job.  Not only because the conversation was interesting, but because Antonia was actually quite pushy in the face of being told she didn't need to do that.  Hmmm....mmm, it can be quite interesting watching her in action some times.  Apart from that, I am just rushing around getting ready to leave.  There is something about this place that stopped me ever feeling quite settled, and actually that makes it harder, in that all my stuff feels disorganised.

Day 146: Makah Cultural and Research Center

Antonia on the beach at Neah Bay, with the inflatable slideship in the background.

We drove up to the Makah Indian reservation at the far north-western tip of the United States, mostly to visit the museum and cultural research centre there.  This institution was built to house artefacts from the Ozette site, an ancient longhouse village just down the coast that got covered by a mudslide centuries ago.  Although I didn't have time to research the Olympic peninsula very much before I got here, it turns out that I knew about this site.  It's cropped up in a couple of archaeology courses I've read, as a kind of poster child when we're talking about relationships between academic researchers and the communities they're working amongst.  In this case, the relationship was positive because the Makah remained in control of the process and the artefacts, with the position of the archaeologists being closer to that of professional contractors.  Obviously, this worked out well for everyone because the Makah wanted the services the archaeologists could offer, which isn't always the case.  It's interesting to see the contribution the research centre and the Ozette site is making to Makah culture today as well as to building relationships with visitors.  Keeping those artefacts in that place has made a huge positive difference for all concerned.  Obviously, I'm supposed to have thought critically about the tendency to centralise important artefacts in the big cities, but visiting the Makah museum and reservation really brought it home to me.  The other thing I got from the trip was the importance of cultural ownership among the Makah, which is rather different from ours and which obviously predated the excavation of the Ozette site.  It's quite hard to grasp all the implications of a cultural difference like that quickly, but it has to have a bearing on the relationship between Makah and non-Makah researchers.  But it also means that not everything we learn from this particular relationship is necessarily transferable.  Hmmm....  I wonder what Antonia learned today?  She is studying Native American history at the moment.

It turned out that we showed up on the Makah reservation on the first of the Makah Days, which is a major festival celebrating Makah culture.  The festival was really just getting off to a start, but we hung out at the street market at Neah Bay for a bit, then on the beach.  Antonia found a small friend to play with, I watched the young people's canoe races, then she went for a go on the inflatable slide shaped like a cruise liner.  I was feeling quite in my element, because they closed the main street along the beach to traffic and I was able to walk happily down the middle of the road with people all around me instead of traffic, just like in Europe.  One interesting thing I noticed at the stand where I bought coffee is that they had posters up with photographs of a baby and a description of his parentage.  The idea was to get people to vote for him to become a tribal member, but I didn't get the chance to ask if this is the usual procedure for all babies.  It turned out to be quite a long day trip for us as we didn't get home till after 8.00pm, but we were all happy we made it.

After the unexpected earthquake, Mike gets to 'enjoy' the all too seasonal east coast hurricane season.  He is holed up in his hotel in Philadelphia watching old episodes of The Wire and eating lemon chilli coated pistachios.  I am not too worried about him. Philly somehow seems positioned so as to escape the brunt of these things.

Meanwhile, I am packing up, ready to head off on a four day drive across the country, from Port Angeles on the north-western peninsula, to Rapid City, somewhere in the middle.  At least I can expect tolerable weather.

Day 145: It it Halloween or what?

This is Antonia and Jane, and I think they're a bit confused about what day it is.  Are they sneaking out to Trick or Treat the neighbours?  Are they looking for Jedi warriors to convert to the Dark Force?  I don't know and I'm not going to find out, because I'm going to bed.  If the police station calls up to ask me to bail them out, I'll be available from about 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Day 143: Dungeness Spit hike

Today I walked ten miles to the end of Dungeness Spit, leaving Antonia and Jane to build shanties out of driftwood at the beach end of the spit.  It was the hottest day we've had here so far, so it was a bit like walking through a desert, but like a desert it was beautiful.  I hung out at the end of the spit for a while, taking photographs and scanning the sound for seals and seabirds.