Since I had time on my hands and money in my pocket... it was a perfect opportunity to go camping with 10,000 hippies in the woods.
I drove my Ford Windstar Van with the bed in the back to Chico and picked up my friend "Rainbow" Mike Jensen. We drove for two days to thru Nevada and Utah to Salt Lake City where we went shopping for groceries. The clerks were very helpful and in General the Mormon People were kind to us. I drove past Park City and turned off the main road just before Heber City. I had gotten the driving directions from the WelcomeHome.org website and we traveled a long way on dirt roads into the Utah wilderness. I parked in a field and we relaxed for a day in order to get acclimated to the high elevation. A camper who parked next to me was complaining that he had forgotten to pack Bungee Cords and he was upset as that was an essential part of his backpack. I had a few extra that I gave him and in his gratitude he gave me some Marijuana. I was at the gathering for 5 minutes and already stoned.
Mike was excited about going to the main part of the gathering and he packed up his backpack and hiked down the trail. I wouldn't see him for 3 days. I spent the night sleeping in my van on the mattress. The next day I simply relaxed in the parking lot and enjoyed the sunshine. Then I packed my own backpack and walked on down the trail. I did not take my camera as it was low on batteries and Mike had my batteries in HIS backpack. It was exhausting to hike due to the 9,000 foot elevation. I only made it half way to the Welcome Home Tent on the first day. I did take a blissful ride in the back of a pickup truck with a pile of other campers thru the sunny forest... Then I camped out in a location that had many mosquitoes... not a lot of fun... I put my sleeping bag over my head to prevent getting bitten and endured the night.
The next day I walked on down the trail resting often... Including next to the campsite of the Lady Nicknamed "Hitler" who was drinking a lot of booze and loudly arguing with everyone... Eventually she would be arrested by the police for stabbing another camper with a knife... I walked on by without talking to her and arrived at the "Welcome Home Kitchen". I would stay there for two days and nights... smoking weed, singing songs and Tending the Campfire...
I was given the opportunity to focus my attention. Here is what happened...
While at the Welcome Home Kitchen, the Fire Tender wanted to go to another kitchen and trade a cooler filled with coffee for pizza. He asked if someone would watch the fire while he was gone. SOMEONE had to be there... I volunteered. I Said "I'll be here. I'll be the responsable adult. I can do that, I have done that."
he said "Great" and Left with the cooler filled with coffee.
So I took over and made sure we didn't burn down the forest. I also collected wood, placed it carefully on the fire arranging the logs so that they would burn without causing a lot of smoke AND I invited arriving people to help themselves to a cup of coffe or clean drinking water... and to take a break and relax around the fire.
This is a classic way to focus attention as the placement of logs on the fire is very similar to Zen Gardening with sand...
So, during this time... I asked for a Really Big Idea... I had attended Rainbow Gatherings before and I wanted each visit to be different. It's pointless and boring to keep on repeating experiences... so, this time I wanted to get a really big Idea...
and here it is: A SolarFire powered Desalinization Machine. Use a driftwood fire to power a steam engine. Use the force from the steam engine to drive a water pump. Pump seawater thru a pipe in the fire and into a long black pipe with a reflector that focuses sunlight on the pipe. When the water boils, it expands in volume... at the end of the pipe, steam will be billowing out with a great deal of force. Use that force to drive an electricity generating turbine. Collect the steam and let it turn back into a liquid... The result is Pure H20, NaCl and Electricity... all valuable and sellable.
Clean safe drinking water is a big problem. We could use the collected steam for drinking, bathing, livestock, gardens... AND making Ice for a really great Scotch on the Rocks.
To make this pracital, the location of the machine would need to be near a big pile of driftwood. On Agate Beach in California, I have seen a pile of driftwood that covers the entire beach for about a half a mile... In other locations, use watever resource is available. For Example: In Saudi Arabia it would make more sense to burn oil or gas...
So, during my meditation I Got my really big idea...
Later, the fire tender returned and his mission to get pizza was successful.
Much later I was sitting by the fire and another Rainbow Gatherer approached... He said mockingly: "Have you been sitting in that same spot for
two days?" Which was true, I did spend a couple of days at the Welcome Home Tent.
I replied: "No, I also worked as the fire tender... That gave me an opportunity to Focus My Attention... [said slowly] Focus... My... Attention... "
The fire tender was listening and he nodded with understanding... Later we ended up hanging out together and he was a fine fellow... He was also very interested in being in the Cleanup Crew... I assume he got paid a lot in valuable stuff left behind.
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Long ago I was playing the drums with some Buddhists at an anti-war protest march... I asked them why we were playing such an odd rhythm... They said that it requires that you Focus Your Attention... It's true... That experience was quite different than bang out a 4/4 on the big bass drum... I also did that at the same protest, our goal was to get George Bush the Father to remember that we didn't LIKE his war... and there were people playing the drums 24 hours a day in Lafayette Park to remind him... His only choices were to listen or flee...
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We walked from the Welcome Home Kitchen to camp at The Big Shady Spot at Main Meadow. At high elevation, sunburn is a major problem so our campsite was the very best!
A group of musicians were relaxing in the shade and I played my harmonica. I actually lead the group doing the song "You Are My Sunshine". A six year old girl was demanding the attention of the adults and I played that song for her, everyone else sang along... Big Fun...
I saw a group of people congregating in the Smaller Shady Spot at Main Meadow and I wondered... "What are those people doing?" Then they all came over to our campsite... A Lady asked me if she could teach a healing seminar at our location... I said "SURE, have fun. I was wondering what the crowd of people was for, and was considering walking over there but you came over here..." and she said: "Sometimes Mohammad goes to the Mountain and sometimes the Mountain Comes to Mohammad." Her name is Sonya Sophia and she taught a seminar of Self Help - Accupressure. We put pressure on locations of out body by tapping lightly with our fingers while she told us reassuring statements and we would all repeat what she said... Like: "I Love and Respect Myself." It was a good seminar and I enjoyed it so much that I took her business card and attended once a week internet sessions. Here is a link to a youtube video of her teaching at a Rainbow Gathering...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2r0I8VoxJY&t=19s
That night I attended the GIANT BONFIRE and danced. Some campers brought a laser lightshow.
I tried to get the people to play along with the Drumming Beat [Boom, Boom, Chick] from Queen's "We Will Rock You" but no one wanted to play that beat... Everyone liked "Jingo" by Carlos Santana...
When it was time to leave I found that Mike had mover the Van to a much closer location. Thank You Mike! I never got acclimated to the high elevation and hiking was exhausting.
He also volunteered me as an ambulance driver to take two teenagers to the hospital at Heber City. When we arrived, we took the girl to the nurse and then delivered the couple to the Salt Lake City Airport where her uncle had a ticket home waiting for them... They basically had taken too many psychedelic drugs and were tired, lost, broke and needed some help.
Mike spent some time reading out loud from the book "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand at the gathering and in our motel rooms.
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