Week 25 - Dirty Jobs

Throughout our time in California, I can't escape the feeling that we are living in history as it unfolds. They are saying this could be the wettest year in California's history - or at least since we have been measuring things like yearly rainfall (1877).

If you have not been keeping up with the news recently, allow me to catch you up with some first-hand - boots on the ground reporting. There is an “atmospheric river” (a narrow corridor of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere) that has been acting more like an atmospheric four-lane highway funneling moisture across the Pacific from Hawaii to California. When the moisture hits California, that four-lane highway abruptly hits a dead end - the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With no way to move forward, the moisture quickly condenses and pours down all over the Golden State - which is looking uncharacteristically green at the moment. The grass is growing tall and straight, leaves are turning dark green instead of brown, and wildflowers are on full display (look up California super bloom 2023). We have loved getting to see California in a new hue and must thank all the rain for that. Californians are also grateful to have their reservoirs filled up again after years of drought and worry.

The rain also brings its host of issues. Because of all the plant growth, we should expect to see the largest wildfires of our generation in the upcoming dry seasons. As for immediate consequences, major flooding, landslides, and the mental wellbeing of residents that are unsure how to operate without beautiful sunny skies are all bidding for prompt attention. We have been putting our efforts towards flood recovery, which is a major undertaking, and is why, for the first time on the bus so far, we stuck around with the same organization two weeks in a row.

Last week Davis wrote about the amazing people at “All In Monterey County” and the incredible work they are doing to aid the people of Pajaro in the wake of a levee breaking and their town flooding. We continued assisting “All In” this week in any way we could - the free clothing pop-up shop (at this point, people knew to “look for the big blue bus” if they wanted clothes), helping set up and run a weekly food drive, and at the end of the week assisting in the “muck-out” effort in the flooded homes. Our extended presence in the same area brought a new flavor to the week as we had a streak of random run-ins with a host of different connections we made from last week.

Our last night sharing a meal with some of the amazing gals at All In

The first random run-in came on Wednesday. We were grabbing lunch before going to help set up and operate a food drive. Where was this epic lunch? Only the number one rated deli in all of Monterey, Compagno’s Market & Deli (check out Josh's Yelp review to get ALL the details of this awesome meal). While eating our giant and amazing sandwiches on a picnic table outside the deli, Davis yelled over my shoulder out to the street, “Hey! Look who it is!”. At the intersection in his car is our good friend Dayton who then pulled off and joined us for the rest of the meal. Dayton was one of the first people we met when we arrived in town a week and a half earlier volunteering at a different food drive. He also hosted us one night over the weekend in Carmel Valley - which was a welcome invitation, especially because this was one of the nights that our bus was loaded down with donated clothing for the “pop-up shop,” and we couldn't get to our beds to sleep. Along with fantastic sleeping arrangements, Dayton provided pizza, a campfire, a phenomenal venue for stargazing, and best of all, wonderful conversation.

Giving Dayton a hand with some work down by the river

The very next day, we were in Pajaro, eager to join the effort in mucking out the flooded homes. The term “Muck Out” technically means to “remove manure and other dirt from a stable or other building where animals are kept”. That definition is not too far off from what we were up to. Although there were never any animals staying in the homes, the floods did break the septic lines all across town, and the resulting “muck” is a potent mud poop concoction that smells just as you would imagine. Up until this point, there was no organization of volunteers to assist in the muck-out effort, and we had been patiently waiting for the green light to help residents clean out their homes. We arrived at the volunteer coordination parking lot to pick up our PPE and get an address - we found Rocky doing the very same thing. Rocky is another fella we met last week when making a delivery of donated clothes to a shelter in Watsonville. It was a brief interaction, but we hit it off with Rocky instantly. He loved touring our bus and was a big fan of what we were doing. Rocky even shared with us all his favorite surf spots around town, which we gladly sampled later in the week. I knew right away that if I lived in Santa Cruz, Rocky was the type of guy I would like to be friends with, and he confirmed my instinct when he eagerly jumped in alongside us mucking out the homes and even took us out to eat afterwards.

Our final run-in was on Friday. We were working on muck-outs again, this time in a trailer park where the floods luckily did not rise up to the interior of the trailers, but they did leave a good three-inch layer of muck under each home that had to go. The best way to clean out a crawl space unfortunately involves a lot of crawling and eventually, after your body aches from holding a tabletop yoga pose for far too long, involves a lot of worming around through the muck too. After taking another wheelbarrow full of soupy mud to the street, I was walking back to my crawl space when I saw yet another friend from last week - Giovanni. Giovanni is a senior in high school who we first met last week when we set up our first clothing pop-up shop at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds. He has been staying in the shelter at the fairgrounds, and when he found out what we were doing with all the clothes, he jumped in helping us sort clothing, translating when necessary, and also just hanging out. Giovanni would give me the inside scoop on the scene in Pajaro when things first started to open back up for residents. I was one of the first people he saw after he went to his home for the first time a week after the floods, and he happily reported that the water never made it inside - only the yard was a mess. Later in the week, Giovanni caught me walking across the fairgrounds in heavy rain and offered to give me a ride in his car. By the time muck-out day came around, Giovanni and I were on a hugging, or at least dap-up, basis with each other (I'm sure he is grateful I chose to wave instead, considering the Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs level of muck on me). As it turned out, Giovanni actually lived in the trailer park, and Davis was working at his home crawling under and helping to clear out the muck.

Throughout this week, the fun run-ins and seeing familiar faces energized me and made me want to work harder because we were no longer helping flood victims alongside local volunteers. Instead, we were helping friends like Giovanni alongside more friends like Rocky.

One friend who has remained consistent with us from last week to this week is our favorite German hitchhiker, Ludwig. He has been working and living with us for two weeks, and in my mind, Ludwig is a full-fledged bus boy. If it were not for his nearly expired travel visa, I am sure we would have more weeks with Ludwig on the road. Sadly, we went our separate ways today. Before dropping him off on Highway One Northbound I asked Ludwig if he had any parting words for his fans, he said, “I don’t know," but then thought about it and added, “I think it's just a very nice thing.”