The Way West

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The Last Laugh

Thoughts on getting lost and giving directions...

By Jeff Taylor

Soon as the rosy-fingered dawn appears, joy and I grab long handed tools to toil in the soil and comb the loam. A hummingbird twinkles down a curving flight path to the end of my shovel, looks me in the eye and whirs away like a tiny electric motor. All is peaceful for an hour or so. But then our dogs bark madly in the dooryard when a white dinosaur lumbers up the driveway, its well-muffled engine rising up like a submarine breaching water, and then it slams down, engine idling.

We get a few lost tourists every spring. Considering how many vehicles are represented, this one counts for a whole season: one motor home, with two motorcycles mounted on the rear bumper, towing a powerboat. From behind a windshield the size of a picture window, two harried faces stare down. As campers go, these two do not look happy; something has disgruntled them. It's a good bet they are having a marital fight, postponed while they stop for directions. She points at me and her mouth moves: "Ask him, Walter."

Country people take their entertainment where they can get it. Even so, rural Oregonians try to be helpful. Strangers and outlanders, know this: It is a myth that Oregonian country people are not friendly to tourists, especially those from the neighboring state to the south. Anyone who leaves tectonically unstable regions to seek high ground and bedrock is using pure intellect. But privacy is the sweetest and rarest commodity in the country, and houses aren't built near roads solely for motorists who cannot read maps.

The man leans out his window while his wife continues to micromanage him. "I'm lost," he admits, flapping a shut-up gesture over his shoulder at her. "Which way is the ocean?"

I pitch my lower lip between thumb and forefinger. It's a mo mentous question. Even the dogs look at me expectantly. In 11 years at this location giving directions to lost tourists, that's the dumbest thing I've ever been asked. We ought to have some kind of commemorative celebration for it, perhaps a little award ceremony. But when differing lifestyles intersect, we should all exercise patience and charity.