California coastline - like a painting
Jackie and I decided to spend her last two days with me going on an actual vacation. After spending a summer apart (she in Kenya, me in other parts of Kenya, Tanzania, London, Chicago, Denver, etc.), it seemed natural to want to relax. We cruised up to Sonoma for their Vintage Festival, tasted some wines, visited the vineyards, and stayed in a beautiful little place along the Russian River.
The next morning, we drove through something like a redwood forest along the river’s edge listening to Fleet Foxes. The plan was to head out to the mouth of the Russian and then drive down the coastline along Highway 1. There’s more over at my Flickr page if you’re interested. We spent some time on Goat Rock Beach and then hopped in the car to head back to the highway. This is when my car decided to stop functioning correctly.
It sputtered and choked itself silly. We scooted back to the highway and managed to more or less coast down to Bodega Bay (where they filmed The Birds) and into a gas station. I tried a few tricks with the air filter, but to no avail. The car was broken. I tweeted my sadness, asking followers for pity. I got this little beauty from @NJav over in London:
The tow truck arrived and its operator, Dan, strapped my Neon down on the bed. Jackie and I hopped in the cab and we took off for the mechanic, 26 miles away. We explained how we were on a little vacation before she headed back to Denver. Dan asked me if, since I live in San Jose, I was somehow involved with the tech industry. I told him that I was concentrating on malaria. This got him talking.
His first question was whether malaria had made an appearance in California. He pegged it to a report he had read about global warming and the spread of the disease into places it had previously had not been. We spent the next 45 minutes engaged in a supremely interesting conversation with a supremely interesting man. Dan had lived in the area for many years. He was driving the tow truck as part of his retirement. He liked doing it and helping people out.
We talked about his time in the Vietnam War (he didn’t look a day over 50), about the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Jackie’s work in Kenya, my work in Tanzania, venous stints and angioplasty, vegetarianism (Dan hasn’t eaten meat since he was 20), water issues, and the fact that Hitchcock had filmed The Birds right there in Bodega Bay where my Neon came to rest. Dan had spent most of his adult life as a medical engineer. It’s rare for me to meet someone who really understands malaria, and he knew his stuff. At one point, Dan even gave us a wide-ranging history of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease). It was a fun drive through the beautiful countryside. In some way, I felt ultra-connected to the land with him by our side, even in the cab of that big truck. Once we started talking, all my worries about the car melted away.
As we parted ways, Dan expressed his gratitude that there are young people like us trying to make a positive difference in the world. Coming from someone with the kinds of experiences that he had was profoundly meaningful for us. And then he was gone, off to scoop up the next stranded motorist, and to regale them with fantastic stories and penetrating questions.
As I stood in the mechanic’s parking lot awaiting the hideously-expensive estimate, I thought back to the tweets that I had received after I broke down. @NJav’s tongue-in-cheek DM was forgotten, and I recalled this little gem from @Jean Russell/Nurturegirl:
We found Dan.
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