218b: CF

Shusli and I went to the Oregon Country Fair this weekend. We left Coos Bay on Friday.

Our first stop was in Mapleton at the Alpha-Bit Cafe, ran by the Alpha Farm, which is an organic hippie farming community started back in the '70's. We were the only 2 customers there that were having a sit down meal, Shusli a salad, me a vegie burger. With 5 employees that we saw running around there, it took them half an hour to get us served. I recall that one woman told the young woman who was serving us, "I know you are under a lot of stress..." A lot of stress? It took her about 15 minutes just to get around to getting started on our meals. WTF?

That was frustrating enough for me, so we headed to "Carefree Camp Grounds," just across the street from the fair, where the young woman at the gate had no idea what we were supposed to do. Again, adding to my frustration. We finally got an idea of what to do, went to find a camping spot and did so. Upon returning, they had one helluva time finding Shusli's name in their records. Turned out that they put her name along with her daughters when Rachel and her boyfriend arrived the evening before. Then they had a hard time figuring out why I had an extra ticket on order and what to do about that. Finally, we were all cleared to go, Shusli and I parked the car and walked into the Fair.

The fair was nice. It was really great to see all the folks dressed in all sorts of things, and in some cases, barely dressed at all. One thing was really clear at such a hippie fest, women are very beautiful, and we men...well...we men are pretty much NOT! Most men were wearing pretty much the same ensemble I was...long shorts and t-shirts. Wow...we men are pretty much not that creative when it comes to dressing. "What a lovely shade of beige." We listened to some music, I decompressed from the stress, we ate some food, and had ourselves a good ole time seeing all the folks expressing themselves in so many various ways.

Back at camp, we set up and went to a "Bonfire" where a whole mess of mostly young hippie types were playing drums and other instruments and having a good ole time. That was fun. Although it was a "quiet camp," there was noise all night long from the other camp that "quiet" is not really the word for it. One noise sounded like an amplified didjeriedoo being played Metallica style. Shusli and I slept well despite the noise.

Saturday morning we woke up and I found myself arguing with a Mr. Stone, Mr. Kid Knee Stone, so we sent Shusli on her way to have some fun while we argued at camp where I finally fell asleep and woke up later not long before Shusli got back, and we headed to Portland to pick up Felicia.

We had dinner at Burgerville in Portland, went to a Sumptown, and told Felicia that it our plan to move back to PDX next spring because we miss her and miss the town. Felicia seems a little more mature everytime we see her. I Love that little girl.

We got back to camp and went to the "bonfire" again where we heard lots of drumming and saw lots of young hippie types having a good time. We also had a good time. Felicia, unfamiliar with dancing, actually started dancing on her own to the music. There were bagpipes and such, and Rachel and her boyfriend Adam even brought drums and joined in the merry making. The camp police came out and ended our foray saying that time was up and this was a "quiet camp." Don't make us bring out the water cannons and pepper spray (just kidding on that last part).

On the way back, Shusli helped a young man with a disability carry his chair back to his camp. I helped out as well. And about the time we got him back to his camp, the camp police started checking bracelets and noticed Felicia didn't have one. I was told I would have to get her checked in right now. What the consequences would have been I'm sure would have included constant harassment and possibly eviction from the camp police, so I rather angrily got the ticket and got her checked in. I was not in the mood for such regulation and bullshit when we were there to have a good time.

Sunday AM, Shusli cooked up some potatoes and Rachel and Adam joined us from breakfast. We packed up the car and headed for the fair. We heard some good music. We watched an old Spanish woman dance Flemenco. That was amazing. Shusli informed me the woman was almost 70 years old. She was quite the dancer.

Shusli dressed up and looked very nice. Oh-boy! I wore the usual guy ensemble. We saw one fella whose body was painted and he had a bag over his package. We saw a parade, and we had ourselves a good ole time eating fruit salad, listening to good music, seeing all sorts of weirdos, and we walked back to the car to head back to Coos Bay.

Before we left, however, the littlest camp police person, a girl of about 9-years-old almost threw herself in front of the car to make sure we stopped so an adult camp policeman could come up and cut the wrist bands from our hands so we couldn't pass them on to someone else and these capitalist types would not be able to screw somebody out of a few bucks. And off to home we went. We skipped Alpha-Bit on the way home, as well, and got back to the cool air where we all, Shusli, Felicia, and I, sat down and watched Bubba Ho-Tep.