MSNBC published an interesting article about the passing of Tom Robbins, titled "America's most misunderstood region has lost its bard".
I particularly liked the poetic part of the article which described the Skagit Valley, a location where I spent all my formative years...
He once said he didn't know the plot of his books before he started writing; you'd be forgiven if you weren't sure of them when you were done reading either.
But then you'd come across a description of the Skagit Valley, where he made his home, and plot seemed secondary.
"It is a landscape in a minor key," he writes in "Another Roadside Attraction." "A sketchy panorama where objects, both organic and inorganic, lack well-defined edges and tend to melt together in a silver-green blur. Great islands of craggy rock arch abruptly out of the flats, and at sunrise and moonrise, these outcroppings are frequently tangled in mist. Eagles nest on the island crowns and blue herons flap through the veils from slough to slough. It is a poetic setting, one which suggests inner meanings and invisible connections."
For decades Tom Robbins lived in the Skagit Valley town of La Conner, which is sort of the Skagit Valley's #1 tourist town. Due to La Conner's waterfront attractions along the Swinomish Channel, with the Rainbow Bridge acting as a scenic backdrop.
Before I moved to Texas I lived in the Skagit Valley town of Mount Vernon, on the east side of that town, a couple miles from Big Rock, it being one of those 'great islands of craggy rock arch abruptly out of the flats", alluded to by Tom Robbins in Another Roadside Attraction.
Hiking to the top of Big Rock was a frequent happening, for me...
