Personal Adventure Blog and Professional Portfolio
Planning my Eco-Inspired Road Trip Blog Post
Waking up in my hammock from a freezing night with little sleep – I was up early and ready for my first ecovillage stop of the day at Maitreya Mountain Village (MMV), deep in the Siskiyou Mountains of California.
Planning my Eco-Inspired Road Trip Blog Post
After leaving Maitreya Mountain Village that afternoon, I headed toward the great Redwood forests of Northern California. I drove southwest on the highway till I got to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and where I saw my first Redwood trees!
A replicated Redwood carved canoe in front of a mural – ideal for tourists!
This tourist display at the information station featured informational boards as well as a marked cutting from a Redwood indicating historical weather events.
Planning my Eco-Inspired Road Trip Blog Post
I left Lost Valley Education & Event Center this morning – my home for the past 6-7 months – after saying my final goodbyes, hanging up a Texas flag in the community Lodge, and getting my car battery jumped (which was super stressful, but a huge relief once it started up!)
This post outlines my Eco-Inspired Road Trip route from Eugene, Oregon, back to Dallas, Texas, including the initial destinations and sights I planned to see along the way, but didn’t manage to see all of them.
I’ve also included the websites I used as resources for planning my stops.
*Note: I didn’t make all of the destinations listed, but I sure tried to!
Before I left Lost Valley at the end of the month, I planned a few excursions in the area and around Portland, Oregon.
There was a SquareOne Village tiny house community, Emerald Village Eugene, grand opening for the public in Eugene, and I was really looking forward to seeing it! Most of the houses onsite were finished in terms of their exteriors, and several already had residents living in them. It was great to see a city supported, experimental community for the chronically homeless. The model they operated on was that after a rigorous interview process for residency, community members were given a fully furnished space and were required to pay a percentage of their personal income to cover costs. Many of the current residents relied on bicycles and public transportation for travel to their jobs, and some of them were married and dual incomes that helped them financially afford to get back on their feet.
It was with much thought and deliberation, but I decided to leave Lost Valley and put in my notice after living onsite for about seven months. There were various reasons that influenced my decision, but what it essentially boiled down to was wanting to explore the world of sustainability and community outside of Lost Valley, and have more opportunities to learn and practice permaculture.
But before I left Oregon and returned to Texas to figure out my next moves, I packed this month with final adventures and finished some projects!
For Christmas, I gave Avery a coupon for ‘one project of her choice’ (which didn’t require money and was approved by the community). It took some time for her to think about what she wanted as her project, but she came up with a great idea – a living willow structure! We talked about what she wanted and where she wanted to put it, and decided to build her a small amphitheater by the offices/classrooms where her mom was working as the new site manager and it could also be used as an outdoor classroom space. Ashley came to visit one day this month from her work-trade at Dharmalaya, and volunteered to help me build the structure for Avery. We spent several hours planting and weaving willow into a large semi-circle dome, and used zip-ties for additional support, which would eventually breakoff once the willow structure grew bigger and matured.