Is coastal Oregon the third world?

It's interesting, there were things about traveling up the lovely, rocky coast of Oregon today that reminded us a bit of travel in Central America last summer. A bit. The cultural and political differences are vast, of course, But there we were in a funky shuttle full of people who knew each other well and who talked in detail about the region. The most boisterous was a guy named Mike, who seemed like he was in his early 30s. He, his fiancee, and their two kids had come to Oregon because a friend could get them Section 8 housing. "It's the most beautiful place I've ever lived in, but the most depressed", he said. He loved the beaches and whales, but they wereleaving next week on a Greyhound for Arkansas. He expected to get a job working in a chicken packaging place (I think). He hoped to livecheaply there, and get an inexpensive house with an acre of land.

He talked about how people in one town we passed through were all crazy and/or drunk (the driver agreed), and how meth labs were common in some areas. He was a funny, gregarious guy, really, but someone who had lead a life of not so quiet desperation, and who had moved about from necessity, not choice, Ok, this isn's Central America... but there are paralells.

We're in Eugene, Oregon for the evening, trying to figure out what to do for New Years... maybe a movie on TV, the events we saw on the Internet seem to not be happening. Tomorrow we will be in Corvalis, Oregon visiting an ecovillage. More to come.