Day 25

Westward through Washington The drive from Missoula to Mt Hood was quite diverse. I drove through several mountain ranges and then valleys, and eventually through city traffic in Spokane and then into the wide-open prarie spaces of eastern Washington. The sunlight began and ended there. It had been snowing and over cast through the mountains especially through the small historic mining town of Burke, Idaho. I stopped there for a roll of western history. Past the city when I reached the prarie, the sun broke through the clouds in the late afternoon. The weather was the warmest I had felt in a number of days. The sky was blue and orange and rays of violet were caught in the dramatic cloudscapes. When it got dark I drove through Pasco. When I got into Oregon, it began to rain again. I drove to Hood River, and called my host Paul Humphrey. Paul and I began the decade together back in Vermont at Green Mountain College. Freshman year at Green Mountain expanded my outlook on life into the 90's. It was a haze full of fun and excitement and the sounds of embryonic Phish & Blues Traveler. It was the beginning of it all; a passage into the craziest, fastest decade on earth. I only managed to frolic in the land of GMC for my freshmen year. While I was there I landed the lead role in the fall theatre production, a play called Dr. Hero. I was Dr. Hero. It was through the acting and rehearsing of this character that ultimately opened a whole new corridor full of brand new doorways for my overall character. The play is about a man's life from birth to death. He goes through life accomplishing higher levels of things like wealth and fame. In the final act of the play, he gets to end of his life, and he still has not answered the ultimate question. What is the equation of Life? Dr. Hero is a comedy full of satire. I was 18 years old, trying pull off the role of a man's entire life. It was difficult because my life at the time was still right in front of me waiting to happen. The director, and theatre professor was Bill Coons. It was his freshman year as well, only he was an instructor. We had this in common. He had just moved over to Green Mountain College, from a career at Goddard College. At any rate, through his direction, he pulled out the many faces in my personality, allowing me to pull it off. Rehearsals were long and to perfection. I discarded all my other courses and placed my academic energy into the theatre. My social life was still first of course, as a freshman especially, and I skied a lot and hung out with the laid back crunchies at this really small cool college in the middle of the Green Mountains of Vermont. My lifelong friend that I picked up there is known as Humpty. Humpty now lives in Mt.Hood. He's got a great house in Brightwood and an excavation business. He's doing just fine here ten years later. Humpty and I have met all over the US. We've been phishin' throughout the nineties in places like Seattle, MSG NY, & Vegas. Humpty had been out for the first time to see me on the Vineyard during MV99, for a quick island visit this summer. Sully was with me too, all summer in fact. We took 2 straight days to go the beach. It was nice. Sometimes you forget about the beach when you live on the island and you work all the time. Man am I going off on tangents today, back to Mt Hood· ·I arrived in Hood River and called Humpty. He informed me that I had to climb over Mt. Hood to get to his place. It was another very, very challenging drive. Hood was getting dumped on. The sides of the road were easily a six-foot base in places. The roads were fresh with six inches of powder. There were periods of white out and fishtail hints. I finally made it after an hour to meet Humpty at his friend's pizza joint. Then we went back to his joint. He's got a great joint.