Seattle to Portland to San Francisco and Beyond (days 35 through 54)

Following Seattle, we moved on to Portland where we stayed with some wonderful people, Jasmine of the Columbia Riverkeepers and her partner Jared, a 3rd generation longshoreman. We were in town for the anniversary of the Longshoreman Strike of 1934 and we were able to give presentations in Longview, WA (potential site for the Millennium Coal Export Terminal) and Hood River, OR. We also made time to tour the Columbia Ecovillage and see what people can do with existing apartment complexes and copious amounts of permaculture.

Following our week spent in Portland, we made our way down the southern coast of Oregon and into Northern California where we saw the splendors of the Pacific crashing against rocky shores and the majesty of the coastal redwood forests. We then spent a day in San Francisco showing the new documentary Blood on the Mountain to friends at the Sierra Club and Earth Justice.

Over the past week we have slowly trekked back east, taking time to enjoy the beauty of nature within the Yosemite and Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks, hoping to re-center ourselves following a month of recalling the destruction of our own home in the Appalachian Mountains. Today, we find ourselves in Frisco, Colorado, continuing our trip back east, looking forward to giving our last two presentations off the tour in both of Columbia and St. Louis, Missouri before finally going home after 61 days on the road. 

It would be misleading to say that this tour hasn't weighed on us. We have gone between hope and despair. We have met truly wonderful people who give so much, and we have seen the larger crowds of consumers streaming through the cities. We've found ourselves in awe of nature and in the jaws of industry. What we have seen and continue to see over the course of this tour will take a great deal of time process.