The morning after the Olympia Mayday ‘riot’ and my meeting there I was dropped back into the centre of Olympia where I was to meet Rogue and the others who were driving down from Seattle to take me to the Portland meeting. With some time to kill I popped into a diner and got the largest breakfast plate of hash, gravy and mash that I’d ever seen. Enough to make me a little late for the pick up point back on the main square. The main thing I remember from the initial part of the drive down was the volume of military traffic on the road, I’d also noticed this on arrival in Olympia, whatever base is in the area is obviously huge.
The morning after the Olympia Mayday ‘riot’ and my meeting there I was dropped back into the centre of Olympia where I was to meet Rogue and the others who were driving down from Seattle to take me to the Portland meeting. With some time to kill I popped into a diner and got the largest breakfast plate of hash, gravy and mash that I’d ever seen. Enough to make me a little late for the pick up point back on the main square. The main thing I remember from the initial part of the drive down was the volume of military traffic on the road, I’d also noticed this on arrival in Olympia, whatever base is in the area is obviously huge.
Soon through the scenery started changing to one more familiar with Ireland. The mountains were higher and snow capped but not only did it otherwise look a bit like Wicklow it was also pouring rain in a way that reminded me of home. Portland is at the meeting point of two large rivers and nearly two million people live in the area but I didn’t have any chance to look around the city itself. The meeting was in Portland State University and 24 people turned up for it including an ex WSM member who had migrated there nearly a decade before and had become something on an insurrectionist and FNRBrill one of the regular posters off LibCom.
Afterwards a few of us headed off to a middle eastern style restaurant before I was handed over to the people I was staying with for the night. We headed across the wide river to where they lived and where I had a room in the attic of the house. That night we went to a bar where a couple of Skiffle bands were playing, I shot some video of this on my camera which I’ll upload when I get the chance and add here. As usual I tried out a range of local brews but I can’t remember what any of them are called now!
I was now at the point where the end of the tour is in sight, the last meeting was to be in LA in some 13 days time. At the time I recorded that "At one level I’m relieved at another I wish I’d another month so I could head south and then East across the continent and form a big square on my ‘places you have been map’."
More entries at Extending the accounts of my North American speaking tour
WORDS: Andrew Flood (Follow Andrew on Twitter )