The Last Free Place

This video made it's way to me through that silly grid of (generally) related videos YouTube promotes at the end of each video. Completely unrelated to the big cats and catnip I'd been watching, the internet knows me, and must have thought it time for a little rubber tramp longing.

For anyone unfamiliar with Slab City (or who doesn't feel like watching the video), it was formerly a military base in the southern Californian desert, it's "uncontrolled, and there is no charge for parking. The camp has no electricity, no running water or other services." But still, a handful of people sustain lives, create art, and work as a community.. together, with limited funds & limitless freedom.

I've been dreaming of an SoCal trip to Slab City and Salvation Mountain since my introduction to Alexander Supertramp many years ago. My daydreams of a life like Kerouac, flying by the seat of my pants over every twist and turn of the country, open to every experience the road throws my way only intensifies my desire to get out there.

I long for a simpler place, where the people who surround me are less encumbered by the need for more and prefer to really live. Where a good life is judged on happiness and enjoying the outdoors rather than material possessions, conventionality and cubicle hours.. Where free-thinkers reign, reduce, and reuse. It might be grungy, but it's oh so very real.

>>>>>>>>>> "Ain't no nation like donation, ain't no city like generosity." <<<<<<<<<<
Krystal Baber