"flydoll's USA Diatribe " a United States of America Travel Page by flydoll

Send Photo to a Friend

Living in the USA

America is a great blend of old cultures – the Original Natives, Europeans, Africans, Asians, and many other immigrants. It is still evolving and emerging as new immigrants continue to come here and add their touches. It is why American States can feel like different countries depending on their heritages…like Florida having a Cuban feel, California a Spanish feel, Washington – Norwegian, Texas like Mexico, and etc.
It is not easy to box America and it has a push and pull that works amongst its people. I am sure you have heard things like little Italy in NY, Chinatown in San Francisco...each nationality recreating part of their homelands here.

It is beginning to develop its own culture and flavour that is full of juxtapositions. As I write this page - it will be as an observer and a participant in this country. I was not born in America and have lived here long enough and traveled around the world enough to make some quasi-objective subjective observations and recommendations.

I have to say that when one travels in this country - there are times when words cannot describe some beauty that you see...Montana - truly "God's country" as the expression you hear - the mountains and lakes. I drove 9 hours from Seattle to a little town of Noxon on the northern edge of MT. The Pend Oreille Lake stretched with snow-covered mountains for over 2 hours. It was absolutely stupendous..the untouched natural beauty and also the size. And yet Noxon is a KKK town. At times it made me nervous and nothing happened but enough a reminder. This is not far away from where Robert Redford made the fly fishing movie. Again the contrasts are here and we choose what we do.

Or the time I stayed on a small island off Alaska. At night the quiet was unbelievable with a midnight blue sky I have never seen anywhere else. The lighting at 3am in the morning was enough to make me re-think life in its deepest sense. Looking out I saw the ocean and other islands cast in a light that you can only see in such a place. Then one afternoon I saw an eagle sweep down from its perch high above and grab the fish from a badger's mouth that had stolen it off our little landing dock. The scene was priceless. The badger went right back to our bait bucket and stole another fish and went off into his world. I got to boat alongside with a pod of whales - just me and the driver, and on another and get caught in a hailstorm on the sea and the boat's top blew up and we had to huddle to avoid hypothermia. On the rest of the island there was nothing. The whole island had only one building - the one I stayed at. It held 8 people at a time only. Imagine so far away from busy city and even village life. Isolation and peace.

Another great example is driving on Highway 101 along the West coast of USA. A highway made for the movies ( and actually used in movies). You drive through "spit towns" and natural reserves that make you wonder! "Spit towns" meaning by the time you are ready to spit - the town is behind you.... literally. The drive along Pacific Ocean for 12-15 hours lets one know how big the earth and oceans are and how small we are in the big scheme of life on this planet. To me this drive is a must if I can once year. If you travel here and can afford the luxury of time - drive from Vancouver BC to California on this route. America becomes alive! You go through so many types of lifestyles...farmlands, fishing towns, and etc...it is quite interesting.

America is about being big, fast, and commercialisation at its maximum, but is also about untouched beauty and stillness.

This page will be written for a while to come...

In the meantime: very important comment about the picture - myself did not take the photo.

But it represents the feeling I have about this country - a little wild, always on the run, and has an energy that can explode when it wants to. And I love horses, have seen some beautiful specimens, and maybe the cowboy movies have made a footprint in my head. As a salute to the Native Americans and their philosophies I have been privileged to discover here are 2 quotes:

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one threat within it.
Whatever we do to the web,
We do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
---Chief Seattle

When the earth is sick and dying,
There will come a tribe of people
From all races....
Who will put their faith in Deeds,
Not words, and make the planet
green again...
---Cree prophec