{"id":145824,"date":"2017-01-02T14:11:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T14:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=145824"},"modified":"2017-01-02T14:11:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T14:11:31","slug":"travelling-world-hera-van-willick-dripping-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2017\/01\/02\/travelling-world-hera-van-willick-dripping-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Travelling the World with Hera van Willick: Dripping South"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to admit that over the last few months \u2018crossing the United States\u2018 started to seem more like a necessity then a pleasure to me. The forecast of traveling through a country where \u2018consuming\u2019 seems to be the foundation of the Maslow pyramid didn\u2019t seem very enticing to me.\u00a0But was that assumption even right?<\/strong>
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After all my travels I guess I should know better than to just take an assumption like that for truth. Still it\u2019s inevitable that the image you grow up with to believe nests itself within you. It\u2019s up to me to explore and create my own picture of the true nature of a place. And I love doing that.\u00a0The United States surprised me, in a positive way.<\/p>\n

Ever since I left Portland, two weeks ago, I haven\u2019t been to another city. The west coast mainly exists of villages and State Parks. Now and then the route leads me through a bigger town where the blatant facades and billboards of shops and fastfood chains flank the road.<\/p>\n

A few times I crossed through villages that dripped with sadness like melted fake cheese from a BigMac.
\n\u2018Sadness\u2018, that is my subjective assumption of what I see. It makes me sad to see the colorless villages, front yards filled with junk, obese and emaciated people with grey unhealthy looking skin and aimless wandering homeless people.<\/p>\n

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Frequent streetscape in the city<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is one side of the USA.\u00a0Part of it to blame to the fact that unhealthy food is more easy accessible and cheaper then healthy food. Healthcare is unaffordable for many people. The infrastructure is designed for cars and physical exercise isn\u2019t part of daily life.\u00a0Three facts of which the negative results are highly visible in society.\u00a0On the other hand the Americans form an important factor of the pleasant surprise. I\u2019ve met a lot of people with interest in a healthy lifestyle, good food and sports and an open mind. Where the name \u2018Trump\u2019 is a forbidden word in the house or where he is worriedly discussed. People, generous, hospitable and helpful.<\/p>\n

Shaun and I left Portland on the \u2018MAX\u2019. A tram that saved us a tedious ride out of the busy city. At the final station we got of the tram in a sad suburb where several drug addicted wandering men asked us for money. Despite the grey pimply faces that scare me a little, I was surprised how friendly these men addressed me. A blind-drunk drug addict who vainly tried to hide a bottle of liquor under his jacket told me \u2018Ask me a question.\u2019. The first question that popped up in my mind: \u2018What is the greatest thing in life?\u2018. His answer: \u2018God\u2019s gift\u2018.<\/p>\n

How I\u2019d love to sit down and really talk with him. But sadly his mind was so fogged by the alcohol that this was the most sensible thing he had to say. All the rest came down to inappropriate jokes and drunken talk.\u00a0At a grocery store a unhealthy looking man, who despite the cold was wearing just a t-shirt, told us over and over, nearly in tears, how he hoped to be a \u2018honorable man\u2019 again sometime. The realization that it is highly unlikely that he\u2019ll ever achieve that goal and leave the downward spiral of the drug abuse (probably \u2018crystal meth\u2019) breaks my heart.<\/p>\n

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Several hours later I cycled through the green. As little live and energy as is left in these roaming men, as much there is in the lush, juicy coastal rainforest.\u00a0It drips of it, not like the fake McDonalds-cheese but like clear cool springwater.\u00a0The trees, the ground, the rocks and I are saturated, but the water keeps falling and streaming and finds its way over my waterproofs to the asphalt, into the gutter, down the mountain, into the river onwards to the ocean.<\/p>\n

When dusk sets in around 4 p.m. we roll down a dirt road to a closed campground. There is no shelter and the evergreens hardly protect us from the rain. I start tying up my tarp to create some shelter while Shaun takes off to find and split some wood for the fire. Miraculously we managed to get a fire started and we warm up a little. I cook a meal, dry under our tarp, and just as I want to start putting up my tent two bright searchlights appear at the campground entrance. We shut down our headlights and try to screen off the fire with our bodies. But when the searchlights get closer and we hear: \u2018This is the sheriff of Washington county\u2018 we decide to flick our lights back on. The sheriff and his companion near us. The first one with a funny comboylike rain hat and a German accent, the second one, younger, decorated with all that came in his sheriff-package; pistol, cudgel, munition, handcuffs, badges, torch, notebook, walkie talkie etc..<\/p>\n

As soon as they realise that we are harmless soaked cyclists, their professional stern attitude alters to interest and understanding. It\u2019s no problem if we want to pitch our tents there for the night! They wish us a good night and a safe trip and then rush back to the warm dry car that they left at the closed gate at the entrance of the campground. The full night and the morning the rain persists till it suddenly stops as the ocean comes in sight for the first time.<\/p>\n

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The Pacific Ocean. The west coast was recommended to me over and over because of its incredible beauty. I had my doubts; how long can one enjoy a view of a big pool of water after all? Let alone in the rain! I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. From the first day we arrived at the coast I\u2019m hooked. And overtime the highway 101 deviates from the coast it\u2019s me who grumbles that I\u2019ve seen enough trees by now and that I want the road to hit the coast again.<\/p>\n