The Alien Next Door

Known as “Big Sky Country” for obvious reasons, Montana offers 147,000 square miles of terrain and about 69,000 miles of public highways and roads to explore, including some of the most breathtaking scenery in North America (e.g., Beartooth Highway, Glacial National Park and Going to the Sun Road: West Glacier to Saint Mary’s Lake, West Yellowstone, Madison River Country, the Bitteroot Valley, just to name a few).

Well, my delay in Montana had less to do with the weather than with my own neglect (I let the oil dwindle to nothing); although the heat may have conspired in my longer than intended stay in Montana. After lingering longer than I should have in Bozeman, I stopped in Butte for the night.
Butte was once considered the “richest hill on Earth”; it came into existence because of gold and is still an active mining community of copper, manganese and zinc as well as gold and silver. “You can see it in the smooth, worn streets, and the billboard images ghosted on brick hotels,” says the town’s visitor’s guide. The people who live and work in this worn-down but friendly town are proud of their mining history and culture. As a result of its mining heritage, Butte has even developed its own unique vernacular: mine-speak, which Kevin Shannon and Jim Edwards have documented in their book, Memories of a Mining Camp. For instance, instead of saying, “Take it easy” they say “Tap ‘er light,”, an old expression that goes back to hand drilling the holes for the dynamite in the mines. One guy would hold the steel and turn it while the other would pound it to bore the hole. The guy holding the steel would constantly worry about getting his hand whacked. Ouch!

The following morning, Chelsea, my trusty 1988 Plymouth Acclaim—after serving me for close to 9,000 km (5,592 miles) across America—refused to start. I suppose I should have thanked God that she hadn’t died in the middle of the Idaho mountains. She had the mechanics puzzled and I ended up staying another night at a reduced rate courtesy of the Comfort Inn’s “stranded car” policy. The shuttle driver of the inn blithely informed me that he’d gotten stranded here five years ago and never left. That had me worried.

I guess I was feeling a little sorry for myself as I aimlessly walked out of the motel in search of food. There were only fast food places within walking distance and I no longer had a car at my disposal. I spotted a nearby mini-mart and wandered in. I bought some trail mix (the kind with chocolate) and a case of Salmon Fly Honey Rye brewed by the Madison River Brewing Company. At the last minute, I thought to purchase a bottle-opener key chain souvenir of Montana. Then I found a place to sit outside in the motel parking lot and proceeded to get pleasantly drunk.

That’s when I met John.

John is a Nebraskan biker, who was taking his lady up to Glacier National Park on his Triumph motorcycle. I’d noticed the gray-haired couple before as they came to the motel. I offered John one of my beers and we got to talking. John had biked pretty well all his life. He had his first motorbike—a Chief— at age ten and has since purchased dozens more. The lady he was with had never been out of state until John recently put her on his motorcycle—also a first for her—and took her through Yellowstone Park. Now hooked, she is his constant touring companion. They intend to loop back from Glacier National Park over to Sturgis, the international bikers rally near Rapid City in early August. I was moved by their story and particularly impressed with John’s spunky companion; at their advanced age they were realizing the American dream. And what a way to do it!

Follow your dream and take it easy…er, I mean, tap ‘er light!

Oh, I obviously made it home, after the mechanics sorted out the over $400 problem the next day and sent me on my way. I didn’t stop driving until I got home, some 1,300 km later!

During my stay in Louisville, I drove into the Highlands—an area near downtown Louisville marked by a ridge of land between the middle and south forks of Beargrass Creek—and found myself walking the eclectic commercial stretch of Bardstown Road from Market Street near what’s known as the Cherokee Triangle to Taylorsville Road.
Bardstown Road is one of the most unique shopping districts in Jefferson Country, and features some of Louisville’s finest dining establishments, along with the best antique shopping and people watching in the country. Known variously as “punk street” and “Restaurant Row” for its copious nightclubs, pubs and eateries, Bardstown Road is a mixture of artistic, organic, punk and yuppie influences. I saw nothing ordinary here. A local told me about the city’s motto: Keep Louisville Weird, a phrase that refers to the city’s mandate to encourage and support local talent to flourish and keep the local culture alive; this is no better represented than on Bardstown Road, which fully embraces that motto on a number of fronts. Among the eclectic shops that provided body piercing, tattooing, and acupuncture, I saw clothing stores called “Eccentric” or “Weeds of Eden” (they sell hemp clothing, by the way), beauty salons called “ScissorHands” and “Raindogs” (named after a Tom White tune), funky restaurants like “Za’s Pizza Pub”, “Karma Café” or “Ramsi’s Café On the World”, which is featured in the Best of Louisville CitySearch (2003). Late-night nibblers can stop at this funky eatery for international cuisine ranging from Morrocan to Italian. Of course, I had to go there!

Continuing on my walk I passed Doo-Wop, which sells musical equipment and Ear-X-tacy, a different kind of music store that sells CDs and DVDs. Among the many antique stores, a contemporary furniture store calls itself “Objects of Desire”. Practically every shop, bistro and bar is adorned with original hand-painted signs or old-style neon lights; like the eye-catching mural and avant-garde recursive-post modern design of the Metro Café. Upon entering, I felt a little like Alice as I left funky for high chic (must have been the blue pill I took earlier). Patrons are treated to the elegant ambience of a dining room lined with original German art-deco prints as they dine on anything from a starter of Vidalia Onion Tart with roasted tomato crème fraiche to a main course of Veal Scaloppini with Bing cherries and a Frangelico cream sauce with mashed potatoes and vegetable of the day. There’s a reason why the Metro Café was voted one of Louisville’s top five restaurants. And I didn’t even get dessert! Ah, those German pastries!

Stuffed with the diverse rich flavors of a good meal, I walked into the Old Town liquor/wine store, and was greeted by an imposing wooden Indian statue (affectionately named “Chief Wooden Head” by its staff). Jeremy, who stands in the picture next to the Chief with a bottle of one of Kentucky’s best bourbon, tells me that the Chief came with the establishment over twenty five years ago and survived the great tornado of 1974. The owners of Old Town Wine Store would prefer that the locals consider it as their neighborhood wine store, despite its more than ample selection of hard liquors and exotic soft liquors from all over the world, including champagnes that go for over $300. Toulouse had his heart set on the “Buffalo Trace” Bourbon Whiskey, but after Gordon showed me all the local bourbons, I decided on the “Old Weller Antique” Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey to take home as a souvenir. I guess I ticked off Toulouse because I was half-way home in the car when I noticed that he was missing. I had to go back and found him lingering in the “Old World” Pinot Noir section of the store—Bad Toulouse!…But he does have good taste.

While parts of Bardstown Road seemed old and almost run-down, even these displayed incredible character, particularly juxtaposed to the side streets, which showcased wealthy residential areas, shaded by impressive over 100-foot high mature oak, elm or maple trees. Streets east and west of Bardstown Road house mostly single-family residences, and range from working class neighborhoods to some of the most expensive streets in Louisville, such as Spring Drive, home of Louisville’s most famous Kentucky Derby parties.

In a park beside one of the side-street cafés, I met Nikki and Adam, a young couple with their two month old baby girl, who were travelling through Louisville in their converted school bus from New Orleans on their way west to Oregon. Nikki’s pen and ink sketches sprawled on the street ahead of her, for sale, as she played the musical saw to Adam’s lively accordion. Their lyrical bluegrass folk music transported me to an era of freedom, self-expression and spiritual-searching during university days and I saw myself reflected in their rasta hairdos, love beads, body piercings and tattoos. Once they’d finished their set, I asked Adam how long he’d played the accordion. Fixing on me striking blue eyes, rivaled only by a younger Mel Gibson’s dreamy gaze, Adam flashed a disarming smile. He’d only picked it up a few months ago. I was impressed.

Later, when I stopped to write, check my internet and drink at a Starbucks, I couldn’t help noticing three youths in lively conversation; one of them was sporting a bright pink Mohawk. I just had to ask him the question and barged in on them with my signature smile. After introducing myself, I asked, “Why did you do it and how do you sleep at night?” Ryan’s answer, after a good-natured chuckle, was “I don’t know” and “I sleep on my side.” Ryan is a stylist at “Raindogs” on Bardstown Road, along with his colleague, Tiffy. Both are locals from Louisville and area. They were joined by their friend, Eric, just moved from California. When I asked Eric what brought him here, he replied, “people care here…they genuinely care…” Tiffy added, “Louisville is where northern meets southern…and it works really well.” I understood exactly what she meant and realized that Louisville, and Bardstown Road particularly, had successfully married the northern qualities of progressive tolerance and avant garde-bohemian with a sensual southern charm and warmth. Ryan said, “there’s lots of diversity and people are open-minded in Louisville.” I certainly saw good evidence of that on Bardstown Road.

My impressions of America are as varied as its people and its land, a major factor in one’s culture. As an ecologist, I was fascinated with this aspect while I traveled across the United States through several very different environments, including the wet coastal forests of Washington, white pine forests and taiga of Idaho and the prairie deserts and chaparrals of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota then the farming country and prairie grasslands of Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana and Kansas on through to the temperate broadleaf deciduous forests of Kentucky. My fascination with road trips comes with my love of travelling (you can see all the places I’ve traveled to on my Facebook profile. Those of you who know me personally and/or have kept up with my blog posts, know that I recently went to Paris to research my current historical fantasy. Of course, I flew there.

Road trips, however, are a destination themselves. Each mode of travel has its particular magic and its own “crystal ball” or window for the curious traveler. I walked in Paris. Years before, I walked much of southern England, which was a great way to experience the details of its fractal terrain, foot by foot (pardon the pun; couldn’t help it), through all one’s senses.

Travelling by car offered me yet another perspective, that of “relationship” in a vast land of contrast and differences. By driving across several states in a fairly quick time—I count twelve states so far in a little over a week—I gave myself the opportunity to make a sweeping overview of each state and its people to compare in rapid succession.

I didn’t have the luxury of forming more than a first impression of each state because before I knew it, I’d entered another one. What I can tell you is that each state was beautiful, each in its own way.

Of course, I chose as my trusty and discreet companion, my old friend Toulouse, who had accompanied me to Paris a few months ago. We started our trip crossing the border into Washington State and drove south to Seattle, before striking east toward Spokane. Washington, Northern Idaho and north-west Montana reminded me of my home province, British Columbia, a land of hills and conifer forests. I found the drive very easy on the eye and the freeways clean and well-maintained. It got progressively hotter as I moved east and then south through the central states. Several of my friends in Kentucky and Ohio were surprised to find that I drove through the central states with only “Armstrong” air conditioning in the car (e.g., opening windows to catch the breeze!).

A highlight for me was descending into the Great Plains of south-east Montana and into Wyoming, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains. I had struck south on the Interstate 90 E where it met the Interstate 94 and proceeded to descend into a vast rolling sea of russet, yellow and green. The undulating expanse to the horizon in every direction caught my breath and I just had to stop the car for a while to take it all in. I felt both exalted and humbled; all I could think of was, this is truly God’s country. Buffaloes used to roam in the thousands here before we destroyed them all. The state of Wyoming adopted its name from the Delaware Indian word meaning “mountains and valleys alternating”, which aptly depicts the landscape of Wyoming.

Another highlight was traveling through the Black Hills of South Dakota, near Keystone, and seeing Mount Rushmore for the first time. This monumental granite sculpture by Gutzon Borglum involved the use of dynamite, followed by the process of “honeycombing”. About two million tons of rock were blasted off the mountainside to create the impressive sculpture of the four presidential faces: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

One of my overnight stays was Sheridan, Wyoming, after a very windy day of driving south from Montana. Once in the motel, the news warned of tornadoes. I had, after all, entered the infamous “Tornado Alley”, the plains between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians, where tornadoes lurked and I could expect an event during the majority of my continued drive to the east into Kentucky and Ohio. The following day, as storm clouds chased me on my drive, I couldn’t help periodically glancing over my shoulder and envisioning that terrifying image of a dark funnel descending from the boil of black cloud billowing behind me (I’d unknowingly experienced a night-time tornado in Louisville, Kentucky the previous winter). Thankfully, no state policeman caught me speeding faster than usual along the Wyoming interstate that day. As I drove, however, I realized that a part of me yearned to see a tornado and experience the thrill of its mercurial “personality”. Weather.com says it this way: “one of the most alarming aspects of [tornadoes] is their randomness, almost as if they had vindictive personalities.” Stu Ostro, The Weather Channel senior meteorologist adds, “Tornadoes [will] appear suddenly and take out one house here, but leave its neighbors and the houses across the street untouched.” My friend in Kentucky would testify to that; when she was standing on the school grounds as a child, she witnessed just such an occurrence—a capricious tornado dropped down from the sky and “took out” a house across the street then disappeared, leaving the rest of the street untouched.

Weather.com posts a “True or False” Twister IQ. I’ve included it for you to test yourself. I’ve posted the answers at the bottom of my post. Did you get seven out of seven? Find out below…

1. Tornadoes are always visible from a great distance.
2. Tornadoes cause houses to explode from changes in air pressure.
3. By opening the windows, you can balance the pressure inside and outside your home so a tornado will not do damage.
4. The best place to be during a tornado is generally in the southwest corner of the basement.
5. Tornadoes cannot cross water.
6. A tornado is always accompanied or preceded by a funnel cloud.
7. Downward-bulging clouds mean tornadoes are on the way.

Here are some of my personal experiences and impressions (in no particular order), that you won’t find in a tourist book:

• When I stopped in Gillette, Wyoming, to fix my computer, which was refusing to accept wireless internet, to my great fortune, I was directed to a very cute and helpful IT specialist at Gillette College and after almost an hour of his painstaking work, my computer was humming with the sounds of the web.
• I got lost looking for a gas station in the plains of Montana by foolishly veering off the interstate onto a gravel road (shades of “Rat Race”)… A man in a pick-up not only gave me directions on how to find a gas station, but drove ahead to show me.
• After mistakenly cutting me off in the pass-lane, a trucker in Montana profusely apologized (I’ll let you imagine how) then we proceeded to playfully shadow each other for the next fifty miles.
• And what’s with you Nebraskan drivers? You remind me of my Montreal days, weaving in and out of traffic as fast as you can. One Nebraskan driver, in an attempt to get ahead, practically barreled into the road blocks on one of the many parts of the interstate where roadwork was occurring.
• Drivers on the freeways of Louisville, Kentucky, remind me of drivers in my home province of British Columbia, merging without looking. Scary! But ya gotta love their sweet tea! And they do beat Paris drivers (who seem to prefer the sidewalk at times!).

Answers to the Twister IQ:

1. False. They can be hidden in heavy rainfall.
2. False. Homes are damaged by strong winds, not air pressure changes.
3. False. The force of a tornado can rip through a structure, whether the windows are open or not. One should not open the windows when a tornado threatens — this could actually make the situation worse.
4. False. This used to be a safety rule based on the idea that debris would usually not be deposited there, but this has now been rethought. The current best advice is to move to a protected interior room on the lowest floor of the building, as far as possible from exterior walls and windows.
5. False. A waterspout is a type of tornado that forms on water, and tornadoes that form on land can cross bodies of water such as rivers and lakes. Tornadoes, especially the more violent ones, can also travel up and down hillsides. Therefore, a belief that your location is protected by a river or ridge could prove to be a dangerously invalid one.
6. False. Especially in the early stages, a tornado can cause damage on the ground even though a visible funnel cloud is not present. Likewise, if you see a funnel cloud but it does not appear to be “touching down,” a tornadic circulation nonetheless may be in contact with the ground.
7. Not necessarily! This may be the case, especially with those that show evidence of a rotating motion, but many of these clouds are not associated with tornadoes and may be completely harmless.

So, how did you do?…

My husband passed this article on to me, among many other newspaper clippings—as he is wont to do—he likes to help keep me well stocked in interesting “stories” for my blog. Well, this one was so interesting and well written by the Vancouver Sun editorial staff (all nine of them, listed below) that I’m compelled to hijack it in its original form and post it here for your delicious and tantalizing pleasure:

~~~~~~~

In the world of Charles Darwin, males compete with other males to mate with females, which is why the male of the species is hard-wired to become aroused by females and developed flamboyant plumage, horns or exuberant songs and dances to court them. Females select those mates they think can best protect them from aggressors, hunt for food and pass on the best genes.

Follow the evolutionary bouncing ball and we learn that men are in competition with other men for the attention of, and opportunity to mate with, women; and that women are searching for muscular men with material resources, ones likely to produce strong, healthy, attractive offspring.

Well, forget all that. Research suggests women aren’t particularly aroused by the sculpted male body. In fact, they’d rather look at other women.

In her experiments, Meredith Chivers, a research fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at the University of Toronto, found heterosexual women were no more excited by videos of hunky, naked men doing yoga than they were by the control footage—slow camera pans of snow-capped Himalayan mountains. But when the same group viewed a naked woman exercising, their blood flow increased sharply.

Chivers hooked up her subjects to a device called a photoplethysmograph in a manner hard to describe in a family newspaper and found they were aroused by couples making love regardless of gender. This adds to a growing body of evidence that female sexuality is more multi-dimensional, and a lot more interesting, than men’s.

Nearly a decade ago, Rosemary Basson, a researcher at the University of British Columbia did detailed work on the non-linear nature of female sexual response, although it didn’t delve into bisexual chic, Chivers did. The apparent flexibility of women may be related to greater potential for bisexuality in women than in men, she wrote.

All of this raises some interesting questions. If most women are capable of arousal by both sexes, why do they choose one over the other? Perhaps the principal sex difference between men and women is in the brain, not where we thought it was.

But women’s apparent gender tolerance also presents an unexpected challenge to heterosexual men, who, research confirms, are predictably turned on exclusively by women. The competition for a woman’s love had doubled. It’s one thing to fight an army of male suitors, quite another to stand against all of humanity. What straight men have long considered an erotic fantasy has become a threat to their manhood. Women think other women are hot; men not so much.

It’s tough to be a guy.

~~~~~

I found this article both fascinating and relevant for a number of reasons, but particularly in relation to my own observations and feelings…and the current stage of life I’m entering. I’m not saying that I’m bisexual…or perhaps I am; perhaps ALL women are, or possess the potential for it, given our higher range of physiological and behavioral expression. What I am certainly saying is that I am a woman, a lover, a wife and a mother… and more. Like you all, I am on a personal journey and that journey has taken a turn.

In a post entitled, “The Three Stages of a Woman’s Life” (The Therapist Directory of San Diego) Linda E. Savage (Ph.D., and author of “Reclaiming Goddess Sexuality”) starts her first section, called “Gateways to Changes in Consciousness”, with a revealing statistic:

“… By the year 2008, postmenopausal women will comprise the largest demographic group in America. The ancient tripartite divisions of Maiden, Mother, and Crone can be even more meaningful in women’s lives as the Crone stage becomes one third of our lifespan. Each stage of a woman’s life is organized around what Goddess Cultures called the blood mysteries: menarche, (the first monthly flow of blood); childbirth, which is accompanied by blood from birthing; and menopause, when a woman’s “wise blood” remains inside her to give her wisdom. These are still powerful landmarks, which profoundly influence women’s lives. They function as psychological gateways to the change in consciousness required by each new stage.”

Savage calls the Crone the most powerful sexual stage of a woman (YES!). Here’s what she has to say:

“The developmental task of the Crone Stage is sharing wisdom. In Neolithic times, Crone women were the tribal matriarchs. Their heightened awareness of human nature yielded great insight and they were the source of wise counsel for important decisions. Spiritually, this is the Mastery phase. The Wise Woman teaches knowledge gained from her skills and life experience. It is a time of reaching into her spiritual depths, utilizing her powers of intuition, and finding meaning in her visions from the dream world. Some Crone women are masters of healing at the highest level.“The Crone Stage of life, more than any other, is a time of giving back to society the cumulative wisdom of the years. Many women have an urge to speak out (who…me?), to organize others, to take action (look out, Hillary!). They seem to have the energy to get more involved in the world-at-large. It is often Crone energy that leads to changes being made in society. As the Crone woman moves further into her life path she feels the urge to teach others and to cultivate her passions. It can be the most productive time in women’s lives.”

So, this “crone” (that’s me, silly!) will soon be embarking on a walkabout (actually a road trip), in search of the feminine…

Oh, and doing a book tour too!… And what better place than the heart of America, the land of freedom, opportunity and democracy, to find and express my new stage of life.

Nina’s American Tour

In the next few weeks, as I cross the United States of America, you might see my smiling face in your part of the country, at your local Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore. I’d be glad to see you and sign your copy of Darwin’s Paradox. Cities and Barnes & Noble bookstores my manager and I have targeted include (but are not limited to):

• Spokane, Washington—15310 E Indiana Ave, Spokane (509) 922-4104
• Bozeman, Montana—2825 W Main St, Bozeman, MT 59718 (406) 586-5360
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota—3700 West 41st Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57106 (605) 362-1500

  Omaha, Nebraska—Oakview Mall, 3333 Oakview Dr, Omaha (402) 691-4557

• Kansas City, Kansas—400 W 47th St, Kansas City (816) 753-1313
• Columbia, Missouri—2208 Bernadette Dr, Columbia, MO 65203 (573) 445-4080
• Saint Louis, Missouri—9618 Watson Rd., Crestwood (314) 843-9480
• Louisville, Kentucky—801 South Hurstbourne Pkwy, Louisville, KY 40222 (502) 426-0255 and
• Chicago, Illinois—1441 W Webster Ave, Chicago (773) 871-3610

If you live nearby, you may wish to call the bookstore to find out when I’ll be there. I look forward to seeing you.

I will likely not post here as often for the next month. But when I do, I promise you a vivid travelogue. And I look forward to your comments as always. You may wish to visit Karen Mason’s site, Darwin’s Paradox, for current news of my whereabouts.

I leave you with some wonderful travel music… And when I next see you it will be from that great country to the south of us, the United States of America.

Bibliography:

Savage, Linda. 1999. Reclaiming Goddess Sexuality: The Power of the Feminine Way. Hay House. 293p.

Vancouver Sun Editorial Board: Fazil Mihlar, Harvey Enchin, Craig McInnes, Peter McKnight, Patricia Graham, Kevin Bent, Stephen Hume, Jonathan Manthorpe, Barbara Yaffe.