bought diesel from the world's creepiest handsome young man in eureka. on the way out of town spotted a defunct drive-in theater, now being used as an rv dealership. all misty and gray, kind of lonely and romantic.

hugged the coast again; at crescent city, though the road across to the interstate is by all accounts very fun and very beautiful, i couldn't bear to leave the coast yet, so continued on up into oregon to coos bay and a little beyond, then switched over to I-5 and headed swiftly northward.

entering salem to stop for the night, the first thing i see is a huge pro-life billboard which frightened me. i almost left then and there, considering just driving up to seattle the rest of the way. but instead i found a motel, some chinese food which leaked all over my car seat (but tasted pretty good), and settled in for the night.

Sunday, June 24: Salem, Or to Seattle, Wa

in the morning as i was packing up the SP, the alarm of a car behind me went off for just long enough to catch my attention. i turned around and saw a man opening the car door. the alarm stopped, and though for a brief moment i thought, "car jacking?" i decided it wasn't.

shortly thereafter i looked up again as i heard a man shouting, "shut it down, cowboy!!" there was a cop car with lights flashing, the car whose alarm had gone off was at the parking lot entrance, stopped, and there was a cop, who was the one doing the shouting, pointing his gun at the driver's side window of the car.

a little in shock, i watched as he arrested the man, another cop arrived, the gun was put away, and i was all to happy to leave salem very quickly then.

the drive to seattle was uneventful, and soon i was driving through jonathan's neighborhood looking for a place to park. there seemed to be an awful lot of freaky people and drag queens in cute summer dresses (despite rain and 55 degree temps). jonathan later explained that today had been the gay pride parade.

i soon presented myself at the door to jonathan's delightful 60's apartment building; we spent the afternoon catching up, then he took me by the local indymedia.org office, which was a big, inviting space full of public access computers, artwork, a media lab, and sofas. i took lots of pictures; it's a very photogenic place.

jonathan demonstrated a rather stealthy stencil someone had made. it closes up neatly into a very innocent looking fedex box, so should the cops appear whilst you are defacing public property with an admonition to "smash the state!", you can quickly fold it up and look like an important someone striding along with an important package.

we went for yummy thai food, then back home; tomorrow morning we're going to watch our old friend brad do performance art on the space needle.