The Return of Jupiter's Travels

JOURNAL

September 18th : Covelo

The Garden Party

At last, the great day has come . . . and gone, and with it the final symbolic act which concludes Jupiter's second ride around the world. Eighteen of the 350 members of the Order of PSJs were able to attend in person. That may not sound like a heavy response, but since most of them live almost a million miles away I was well pleased. They brought with them many of their dependents and care-givers, so we were about forty people in all.
The Wagon Wheel, the only motel in town, was booked out. There were tents and vehicles all over my place. Too many cars, but some very nice bikes as well, including a gorgeous Ducati that came up from the Bay with one of three hard-riding ladies aboard.
The menu was rich and varied, consisting of cold smoked trout, stuffed peppers, baked spare ribs in BBQ sauce, grilled chicken, steaks, bratwurst and baked potatoes.
On the groaning board were also various salads, dips, and crackers, a Brie and an enormous lump of Parmesan brought by Bob Sinclair,PSJ who will henceforth be known as the Big Cheese. At the barbecue I was asisted by Eric Auckerman, PSJ, also now known as The Grilliman.

In front of the camera is Bob Sinclair, the Big Cheese himself. Holding up the umbrella is Chris Slydel,PSJ who flew in from North Carolina. We first met when he was living in Jupiter, Florida, so we have a special connection.

After the party was over we took 136 pounds of empty glass bottles to the recycling dump, so you can tell that too much of a good time was had by almost everyone.
From his Olympian throne, Jupiter bestowed honours on the members of his order (a ceremony that demanded a great deal of imagination from the onlookers) and after that we were spectacularly entertained by Michelle Lambert who sang and fiddled for us.
This small valley (pop 1000+) has an incredible musical tradition. We have at least five bands that play regularly, and a number of individual musicians of great talent. One family alone, the Lamberts, has produced three of them, Kenny, Heidi and Michelle, and they have all played across the country and abroad. Michelle is the youngest. She writes and performs her own material. Innocently unassuming in appearance, the quality of her voice and her violin astonished everyone.
Much later, when people were too tired or drunk to notice how inept I was, I threw out a short rambling slide show (courtesy of Rene Agredano,PSJ and her projection equipment)and that was the end of it.
The vicious heat of recent weeks had died away, and we were blessed with beautiful weather throughout the day. It's true that during the night there was a small amount of unusually heavy and aggressive dew, which some people were unkind enough to describe as rain, but the sun came up in the morning as usual.
I hope those of you who couldn't come will take some vicarious pleasure in these pictures. You will always have my gratitude for sticking with me.
I still have a book to write. For various reasons it has been very difficult to get it done here. So I have decided to go back to France for the winter and do it there, in the same place where I wrote large parts of my other books. I know many of you are waiting for it, and I will do my best to have it finished next year.
Please check in from time to time for more news. Meanwhile, thanks again to everyone.