Ahhhhh.... vacation!
I got back on Tuesday from a long-awaited (and much deserved) vacation. We took our bus on her maiden voyage and she ran wonderfully the entire time. We were heading to the Rainbow Family Gathering near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but we made sure to stop at lots of fun places along the way...Juneau, Seneca, the bus, and I embarked on our journey and first went to Jerry Johnson hot springs (in Idaho on the way to Montana). There we saw a mama & baby moose across the river, and several fellow Moscowvites in the hot springs. We hung out for a bit and then camped just after Lolo Pass in Montana. It's so nice that we can pull over and camp anywhere in the bus, all we do is pop the top, put our stuff on the top bunk, and sleep on the bottom (or the top). The fridge and stove work but we couldn't get the sink to work and probably need a new water pump.
We continued through Montana and into Yellowstone National Park's West entrance on day 2. Neither of us had been to Yellowstone since we were kids, so it was a great experience! We saw all sorts of geysers, elk, bison, hot springs, and of course the beautiful landscapes of Yellowstone, dotted with way too many tourists (remind me to steer clear of Yellowstone in early July next time!). Yellowstone is still recovering from a forest fire (I think it was in '88) so there are parts of the park full of skeletal trees and little baby trees below them. We saw Old Faithful erupt at sunset, what perfect timing! We walked around Geyser hill and camped in the park that night. We got up the next morning and headed to Grand Teton National Park, just below Yellowstone. I am in love with the Tetons, those mountains are beautiful! They rise out of nowhere and tower over everything around. After the tetons (and getting our National Parks pass so we could return), we drove through Wyoming and into Colorado. We got into the Gathering (with no cop intervention, despite lots of rumors about roadblocks and tickets) late at night.
When we awoke we were in Rainbow land (ok, well, the parking lot of it anyway), the area was absolutely beautiful! We hiked into the Gathering (a couple of miles from parking) and were greeted with calls of "Welcome Home!" and lots of good vibes and hug by the Rainbow Family. It did feel like home, a place where an alternative to society (and to capitalism) thrives and people genuinely care about one another. Seneca volunteered for a kitchen (grating ginger) and I walked around with Juneau. We ended up camping near Yoga Camp the first night.
The 4th of July is a big event at the Gathering. Everyone is silent in the morning, and gradually more and more people come to the main meadow and wait for noon. Around noon we all formed a giant circle around the meadow, joined hands, and prayed/wished/manifested world peace. Low, booming chants of "ooooooooohhhhhhhhmmmmmmm" were all we could hear. Then the children came in from Kiddie Village and paraded into the center of the circle. Once they reached the middle everyone went crazy, cheering and celebrating. A drum circle began in the center of the meadow and musicians and dancers filled the valley. It felt much more patriotic to gather with my brothers and sisters and focus on peace, celebrate our freedom and our rights to gather, and make music than lighting fireworks and wearing red, white, and blue ever did. :) We also met up with our friend Jake at the main circle, and hung out with him for the rest of the Gathering.
The Gathering is a very unique place. There is no money involved (except donated "green energy" to help pay for food, supplies, and probably a few Rainbows' citation fees) and everything is done on a volunteer, donation, and bartering basis. The trade circle was awesome, I brought my homemade soaps, oils, and jewelry and traded for all kinds of awesome stuff, including some sweet patchwork pants, a shirt, and some beads. There are numerous kitchens serving mostly vegetarian & vegan food, and boy is it delicious! Every evening people gather in the main meadow and kitchens serve huge meals out of coolers on carts, 5 gallon buckets, and huge pots. There are lots of things to do as well, yoga classes, volunteering at kitchens, hiking, trading, and at night there are community fires with drum circles and fire dancers, and there's one camp that built a pirate ship stage for talent & variety shows. Nearby our camp was "Popcorner," a kitchen that served popcorn and tea all night. They got really creative with their popcorn, too, and the chai there was delicious.
Unfortunately there is always drama at the Gathering, since it draws in a very diverse crowd and the Forest Service & cops don't seem to like hippies. This year the Forest Service (we decided to call them the Fascist Service since the Bush Administration sent them to try to stop the Gathering, wasting millions of dollars on spying on, arresting, and harassing the Rainbows) actually set up road blocks and ticketed many of the early arrivals. They then forced them to appear in a nearby town for a private group hearing (is this starting to sound fascist yet?) where no one was allowed access to a lawyer. The Rainbows have tried applying for permits the last few Gatherings, even though we shouldn't have to since we always gather on public land that our tax dollars pay for... but the FS always denies the permit applications so they can cite people, and cite people they did. We were lucky not to even get pulled over, probably because we travelled in & out with the bulk of the people. But they could not stop the Rainbow Gathering from happening, nor will they ever be able to, although they certainly like eroding our constitutional rights such as the right to freely assemble.
Anyway, after many days of delicious vegan food, volunteering, trading, and enjoying the beautiful forests and people, we headed out to Denver with Jake and a new friend we'd met. Jake's parents live in Denver (they were so nice to let us stay with them) and we got to shower at last! ;) We went to Boulder the next day, and hung out at the Co-op (they have a really nice little vegetarian Co-op there) and a beautiful teahouse. We filled up on a bio-diesel blend & headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. We dropped off Jake with his family since they were vacationing there, and took the bus up the highest paved highway in the country, through the Rocky Mountains. It had been raining the last couple days and was still wet and very foggy the whole way through the park. So we didn't see too much of the mountains. The park is so high that the top of the road is above the treeline, in tundra. We drove back to Steamboat Springs and then back up North.
On the way back we went a different way and came up to Grand Teton National Park through the East entrance. We also took a different route through Yellowstone so we could see Lower Falls, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and Mammoth Hot Springs. There were so many bison everywhere, and lots of elk by the road as well. You can tell they've gotten used to the tourists. The funniest bison we saw was crossing the river, so we pulled over to watch him. Once across the river he walked up to a Geyser. He immediately realized it was really hot and bolted it in the opposite direction. It was pretty funny to watch him learn a lesson. We hiked down to the bottom of the beautiful Lower Falls, took way too many pictures, and left the park through the North entrance after seeing Mammoth Hot Springs. Yellowstone is truly a magical place, I'm so glad we got to see it twice! :)
On the way home we stopped in Bozeman, Montana to see our friend Joe who is living there this summer. It was another beautiful mountain resort town, surrounded by mountains. The bus held up well the entire way back, but now she's a bit dirty and in need of another oil change & new tires. Seneca's brother ordered our greasecar kit so we'll be starting the grease conversion soon, but we're hoping to put in a higher powered engine first, too. Hopefully we'll be running on waste vegetable oil soon!
See Flickr photo page for all my vacation photos... I took about 900 shots on the trip, it was hard to narrow them down! ;) And now, it's back to the daily grind...
Labels: vacation/trips, volksvegan grease bus
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