Scotty Odyssey—Russian River

The Cassini Ranch Family Campground lives up to its name: boisterous groups of kids, parents and yapping dogs surround us. As soon as we park in our designated spot, a large, bus-like motor home pulls up beside us. The occupants promptly hook up to electrical power, turn on the TV and watch game shows. Since we too are connected to electricity—and internet—for the first time in six days, we take the opportunity to answer a few emails and learn what’s going on in the larger world.

“Mom, where are the pop tarts?” This query, overheard the next morning, makes me smile. I carry my mug of tea outside in search of a flat spot to do yoga, and immediately notice the ground is not merely dew-soaked but sodden. A thick layer of fog obscures the hills, and a fine spray of mist—or is it rain?—floats through the air. The idea of spreading out my yoga mat is less than appealing. “Just a few asanas,” I tell myself. “If it’s really awful, you can stop.” And so I surrender to the damp. Curling forward into child’s pose, my shirt rides up and moisture coats the small of my back. But I persevere, and before long, the rain just becomes part of the practice.

The definition of Yoga I like best is “the discipline of conscious living.” When I started going to yoga classes, it seemed like a complicated system of  stretches, a somewhat boring but effective way to mitigate muscle tension and stress. Eventually, I learned that yoga is much more than that. It’s the best way I’ve found to take the energy I normally expend on the world and turn it inward to nurture body, mind and soul.

Mid-morning, after a business call to a client for Dave and some time at the laundromat for me (our bag of dirty clothes, left outside overnight in a misguided attempt to make more room in the trailer, turned into a soggy mass by morning), we pack up camp and head north, hoping (in vain, it turns out) to see the sun.

At Fort Ross, we stop for a picnic in the trailer and a walk in the fog. The mist is so thick, I continuously wipe moisture from my glasses in order to see.

What might life have been like for the native people and settlers who used to live here? Less comfortable than camping in our little trailer, I think.