Eco-pod Housing

   Albert woke at the crack of dawn with the intent of joining up with Julian and the rest of the AIDS/LifeCycle riders. The previous evening before they’d separated, with Julian entering the fairgrounds and Albert heading off in the direction of The Tannery, they had arranged to meet up and ride out together. The AIDS/LifeCycle riders were scheduled to depart at 6:30 a.m. and Julian had told Albert that he’d bring him some camp breakfast – corn bread, bananas, and juice. Albert would have liked to have found out what the Tannery Arts Center was all about, but being so early in the morning, there was nobody around to ask. He figured he'd save his intrigue for a later J-Bird conversation.

   Albert, quickly got himself over to downtown Santa Cruz and whilst waiting for the AIDS riders to pass by, noticed a poster for sanjosebikeparty.org – San Jose being a town just north of Santa Cruz. The poster announced an upcoming third-Friday ride with the theme of ‘Light It Up.’ Albert had read about ‘Critical Mass’ and other bicycle gatherings in some of the larger towns and cities around the world. These were well organized, large group rides, that brought cycling awareness to the general public. The poster mentioned that the once monthly San Jose rides, were apparently attracting up to a thousand riders per event, and that for a few hours in the early evening, cyclists of all types on fixies, cruisers, lowriders, etc., would cycle through San Jose and the neighboring towns of Los Gatos, Campbell, and Willow Glen.

   At about 6:35, Albert caught sight of the first AIDS/LifeCycle riders and shortly after, as Julian past by, slotted himself into the departing procession. Under a blanket of morning fog, the pre-arranged route took the riders through the seaside towns of Capitola and Aptos, then inland through Freedom and Watsonville. The Watsonville landscape offered a bountiful array of fruit and vegetable fields that were being worked by migrant farm workers and produce pickers. Albert noted what strenuous conditions it appeared to be for the workers, and hoped that they were all well compensated. Continuing south on Highway-1, the cyclists rode past Moss Landing and Elkhorn Slough – with its abundance of wild-life, a popular spot for kayakers. At the town of Seaside, Albert once again said his farewells to Julian and some of the other AIDS riders that he’d gotten to know. Their route took them inland and Albert, who earlier had noticed signs for Monterrey and Carmel, chose to take the coast road. They figured their paths would again cross, some place farther down the road.

    One of Albert’s favorite books was Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, and with that in mind he chose to eat lunch down by Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf. Although commercialized and touristy, Albert, perhaps partly due to fond memories of passages and characters from the book, could not help but like the feel of this old canning town. Now refurbished with few remaining old and weathered canneries, Albert sat on the wharf looking out on the calm waters of Monterey Bay, and whilst attempting to converse with the barking seal community, imagined how it must of been back in Steinbeck’s day. Along Cannery Row, contemplating some local neo-retro architecture, Albert’s thoughts returned to the concept of ‘Eco-pod Housing’, and looking around for J-Bird, Albert felt it time for a little lesson. A large amount of the population of Santa Cruz, like in Arcata, and Mendocino, had an earthy feel about them and Albert assumed that these were locations that the earth-friendly, ‘Eco-pod Housing’ concept would take root. Out of sight, but always close by, J-Bird felt Albert’s calling, and from her wealth of earthly knowledge, formulated an answer to his question.

   “The ‘Eco-pod Housing’ concept, is part of a response to combat America’s love affair with ‘bigger is better’, a defensive attack on it’s out-of-control ‘urban sprawl’, and a means to stem the flow of damage that modern ‘super-sized’ housing has caused the environment,” stated J-Bird. “The ‘Eco-pod’ is earth-friendly, reduces the size of the human population’s ‘carbon footprint’, and incorporates, low-emissions recycled building materials, gray-water harvesting systems, irrigated rooftop gardens that double as insulation, solar panel powering, natural light, and odorless dry toilet composting,” she continued. “Key to it’s success,” she noted, “is the use of locally produced and/or recycled products.” Albert listened intently and excited by his new-found knowledge, imagined the amazing potential for a future boom in ‘Eco-pod Housing’ development.

   After his new lesson, Albert and J-Bird followed the coastline through Cannery Row to the attractive town of Pacific Grove, past Point Lobos Light Station, the wintering spot for Monarch butterflies, and via 17-Mile Drive, into the pretty, but somewhat snooty, ‘artsy’ community of Carmel. South of Carmel Valley, the coastline became rugged and wild, with it’s hidden coves and dangerous cliffs. This was the impressive Big Sur coastline, home to artists and environmentalists, and the stunning vistas lived up to every word he’d ever read, that championed it’s beauty.

   At Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park, Albert pulled in and made camp. It had been a seventy-mile ride, and with night soon to fall, he wanted to hike up to a point where he could catch a view of the day's setting sun.