People I Met


(This blog is part travelogue, part advice on traveling with a dog, part discovery of what’s on the minds of Americans, Canadians and other nationalities, part commentary, and other musings.)

My one regret is that I didn’t interview more people I met on my travels with Luca (other than people I knew who were originally from L.A. or, in one case, from a Canadian I met in Spain in 2016). But here are some memories:

• The manager of the charming, beach-themed Deane’s Oceanfront Lodge in Yachats, Oregon (pronounced Ya-HOTS), who told me he didn’t hire anyone who didn’t have a dog.
(The beach in front of Deane's Oceanfront Lodge in Yachats, Oregon)

• The man who engaged me in conversation at a Shell gas station not far from Victoria, B.C., Canada who told me about the difficult time he was going through because his wife was dying from cancer.

• The artistic director and a director at Theatre Inconnu, who told me about the thriving theater scene in Victoria, B.C., Canada – to my heart’s delight.

• The friendliest people I met were from California and Canada. The Northwesterners seemed to be a little more reserved – which my friend JoAnn McLinn Ortiz, who relocated from Malibu to Fox Island, WA, confirmed for me.

• The Ashland, Oregon couple who were about to move to Fort Collins, Colorado partly because they wanted to live in a flat community for easier bicycle rides. I could relate because as much as I love my mountain community, I miss riding my bicycle on relatively flat surfaces in L.A.

• The man in Ashland, Oregon, who lamented the bad news of the world and wondered why so many modern playwrights have a social or political agenda in their writings.

• The retired military couple at a McCloud River campground (CA) I met from Klamath Falls, Oregon, who told me they lamented the political division in America and the horrible treatment that Indians met in this country, particularly the Modoc Indians from Southern Oregon-Northern California.

• The man I met in a gay bar in Sacramento who told me about his PR practice he has in Washington, D.C., and how it’s difficult to get his clients on national TV.









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