The Ira Experience

As some of you may know, we have made a pledge to see every dinosaur park in the United States and plan to make good on that. On the way down the Oregon Coast we spotted our first park. The park was $7.00 to tour but free to take pictures by the T-Rex out front. We decided to take the more road trip budget friendly option. Although the tour was grossly over priced, Corey found the kaleidoscopes to be priced just right.



Driving through southern Oregon in the rain with no known destination and just a one man tent to call home, our zest for the road was at an all-time low (out of the 5 days since we had left). Luckily, a beacon of hope was sent our direction in the form of a man in his late 60’s. His name was Ira, and he transformed our way of looking at the world we live in. When we first came across Ira he was on the side of Highway 101, waving at cars and giving them the double thumbs up. Looking like a man with trippin experience, we naturally decided to stop and ask him for some advice. After convincing him that we were legit, Ira invited us to experience what it feels like to “just walk and give people love.” We accepted enthusiastically and we would not regret it.



Ira was born in the Bay Area and spent a good amount of time in Haight-Ashbury during the 60’s and 70’s. He remembered these times fondly, telling us, “you could spot a flower child from 2 blocks away because you could just feel their energy and you would just have to go up and hug them.” To make a living Ira became a “Techie Nerd” for IBM, where he fixed computer systems for large businesses up until 1979. His story becomes a little hazy from that point but picks up again 3 years ago when he was diagnosed with cancer. The doctor types gave him very little chance to live and suggested chemotherapy. Not being one to follow orders, Ira chose to simply walk the cancer out of him. Three years later, guess who’s cancer free? Probably not Ira, he hasn’t been back to get a check up yet. So now he walks up and down the highway waving and pointing to people, adding a little brightness to their days. Ira doesn’t worry about money anymore; he relies on the fact that a sufficient amount will show up when he needs it. He also doesn’t worry much about other futile matters such as time or dates. This is a lot like a road tripper’s mindset in which you simply live for the moment. One thing Ira is worried about, however, is the plight of the “unhoused.” He complained to us on more than one occasion about how unfair it was that staters wouldn’t let homeless people sleep on the beach in peace. While I am in agreement with Ira, I believe his highly pro-hobo stance could have had something to do with how close he is to joining their ranks in the near future.


The sun was beginning to set and Ira explained to us that it was time for his daily ritual of taking a serious walk down to the beach to stare at the sun. We tried to keep up as he jumped nimbly from log to log; this was obviously not his first trip to the beach. When we reached the shore Ira instructed us to throw on some tunes and stare directly into the setting sun. His selection for the day was The Moody Blues. As we stared at the dimming yet still painfully bright sun Ira explained that all we needed to do was relax and focus our entire minds on the sun. He warned us not to worship the sun but rather to just think of it as a cable through which you receive the information and energy that it’s sending. Through this ritual, as Ira explained, he was able to receive energy and love directly from the sun.





Although our decision to spend time with Ira was based on the fact that he appeared to be a crazy old kook, our opinion changed over the course of our time spent with him. Yes, he had some ridiculous ideas but it was refreshing to talk to someone so happy and so disinterested in standard success. We found his unconventional happiness somewhat inspiring. Though I sense our draw to him might be slightly due to our ever-quickening downward spiral into insanity.

Here are some bits of knowledge (some crazy, some not so crazy) that Ira kindly bestowed upon us:

-Governments and corporations are shaped like pyramids: there are only a few at the top who reap all the benefits, while the vast majority is stuck at the bottom with nothing. The universe, however, is shaped like a sphere. What’s at the center of that sphere? You’ll have to develop your own answer because he wasn’t willing to tell us.

-Always keep an open mind and an open heart. Always keep it positive.

-Never stop learning and don’t discriminate against the information you take in. Take in all the information you can and then you decide, not your parents or the media, what you believe and make your decision from your heart.

-In order to stop the wars (you want to stop the war don’t you?) all you have to do is make a flag look all worn out on your computer. Then, simply add the words “bring her home,” or if you want to make it more personal, “bring them home.” Once you’ve got your flag made all you have to do is wave it in someone’s face once in a while. Not as difficult as you imagined, is it?

With our hearts and minds refreshed we continued south to California. We were unable to find any decent campsites and Corey needed to get to San Francisco to see his girlfriend that weekend so he drove like a madman for the next 8 hours. We ended up getting to her house outside of San Francisco around 3 in the morning.

In other news, we recently realized how little planning we put into this trip and that we have no idea what we’re doing. If you have any suggestions of where to go and what to see, let us know.

-Spencer