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Just over a year ago I decided to leave Palo Alto and move to Humboldt County's north coast. Endless masses of people, uncountable cars, air pollution and road rage were San Francisco Bay Area disincentives enough to make me want to leave the surroundings where I grew up, had roots and many fond memories. But on top of that, I had developed severe allergy problems and was sick with one respiratory infection after another for two full years prior to moving.

Desperately looking for answers, I visited friends in Arcata who live on the edge of the Arcata Forest, hoping that a cleaner atmosphere would improve my health. My friends were helpful and compassionate. They introduced me to the natural beauty and many splendors of the Northcoast. We toured from Patrick's Point to Shelter Cove. We walked on small town sidewalks, empty beaches, forest trails and trackless woods. I was more than impressed. My breathing improved greatly and so did my spirit.

Very soon thereafter I moved north and settled eventually in the town of Rio Dell, a quiet friendly community of 2,900 situated on a scenic bend of the Eel River. Rich in pioneer history, Rio Dell is surrounded by forested bluffs to the north and east and by extensive redwood forests to the south. For me, it is a life-saving improvement to the frenzy of automobile-exhaust living in the Bay Area.

Across the river from Rio Dell are the Scotia Bluffs, which are tall sandstone formations rich in marine fossils deposited in an ancient bay 15 million years ago. Those ancient bluffs, the everlasting forest, and this old town of Rio Dell have returned to me a sense of stability and quiet like that of my youth when neighborhoods and institutions always remained the same.

I go to the country store in the nearby lumber-producing town of Scotia where parking is never a problem and smiles are genuine. There is no noise. There is no road rage. A few silent sheep are grazing in the field next to my apartment.

One-time article Copyright 1998 by Humboldt Senior Resource Center.