CALIFORNIA
Orcas are in the news these days, with some attacking yachts off the coast of Spain. But Western orcas have also been busy, with one pod bringing bucket-list-brand delight to whale-watchers in the Pacific. The lucky folks aboard a Monterey Bay Whale Watch tour encountered 30 orcas who were apparently working off the calories following a lavish sea lion buffet. “It was pure energy and celebration,” Morgan Quimby of Monterey Bay Whale Watch told KTVU. Drone footage showed whales leaping into the air, spraying water from their blowholes and playfully high-fiving the sea with their tails. And SFGate reported another large gathering — 24 orcas, spotted by the Oceanic Society near the Farallon Islands. So far, anyhow, California’s orcas, unlike their Atlantic cousins, don’t appear to be organizing any boat-bashing badassery. Responses to the Atlantic orcas’ shenanigans are circulating on social media, with many observers cheering them on. As @DrBlackDeer posted: “The excitement y’all feel about the whales here lately is the same excitement we feel as Natives when buffalo start tossing tourists, like welcome to the Land Back movement.”
WYOMING
Large groups of whales are wonderfully photogenic; gigantic hordes of crickets, now, are something else entirely. Cowboy State Daily reports that the “creepy” critters are giving folks the “heebie-jeebies” in Edgerton, Wyoming, which has been invaded by them. The crickety confab is being compared to “something out of a horror movie — or the Bible.” The crickets (Anabrus simplex; also called Mormon crickets, though as far as we know, they’re lapsed) are swarming Edgerton’s streets, highway and homes by the thousands — no, by the millions — and creating some serious problems: Driving gets dodgy because the squishy bug guts make roads super-slick. “It’s like driving on ice,” said Travis Anderson, who works for the town of Edgerton. The crickets have also invaded Elko, Nevada, KUTV reported. Elko resident Colette Reynolds summed it up: “It’s bugging me, it’s really bugging me.” The crickets are cannibalistic and greedily gobble each other, dead or alive. But other than that — and the traffic hazards, and the smelly decaying carcasses everywhere — they’re basically harmless.
CALIFORNIA
Fox5SanDiego.com reported that a popular San Diego DJ, Randy “R Dub!” Williams, has founded his own micronation, the “Republic of Slowjamastan,” on 11.07 acres of desert in Imperial County about 100 miles from San Diego. As “Sultan” and “Supreme Leader,” Williams runs everything: Crocs (the footwear, not the reptiles) are prohibited; and biting into string cheese, “mumble rap” music, and driving in the left passing lane, unless you’re actually passing, are all forbidden. Williams has big plans for Slowjamastan, including an armadillo farm and an all-you-can-eat Mongolian BBQ restaurant. But no crickets — yet.
WYOMING
Here’s another story from the Cowboy State Daily. Roadside attractions make road trips memorable, adding a dash of whimsy to the vacay photos, whether it’s Boise’s Big Idaho Potato Hotel or the World’s Largest Pistachio® in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Such attractions are as iconic as the Grand Tetons or Devils Tower, although some critics consider them aesthetically offensive. Take the Big Boy hamburger statue outside of Wapiti, near Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance. The Wapiti Big Boy appears out of his element, albeit cheerfully so. But what on Earth is he doing here? The statue’s owner, James Geier, said: “I heard people say it just showed up, like Easter Island, and nobody knows how it got there.” But Geier knows Big Boy’s true origin because he’s the one who installed it, in 2013, and now maintains it for all to see. The cute little guy — rescued from an authentic California Big Boy restaurant — seems harmless enough; he lacks that Ronald McDonald “scary clown” vibe.
WASHINGTON
If 24-hour polka music and all-you-can-eat Wiener schnitzel isn’t enough to thrill you, hold on to your lederhosen, because Leavenworth, a quaint Bavarian-themed town in the North Cascades, has added a roller coaster. The Leavenworth Adventure Park’s new Tumwater Twister Alpine Coaster boasts a 2,700-foot track and a vertical drop of 234 feet, and cruises up to 27 mph, The Wenatchee World reported. Diana Thronsen, 75, was one of the first to try it: “It’s really fun and really scary with terrific views of Wenatchee River and the whole valley. When I wasn’t screaming, it was beautiful.” Which sounds to us like the perfect motto for this column.
Tiffany Midge is a citizen of the Standing Rock Nation and was raised by wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Her book, Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s (Bison Books, 2019), was a Washington State Book Award nominee. She resides in north-central Idaho near the Columbia River Plateau, homeland of the Nimiipuu.
Tips of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write heard@hcn.org, or submit a letter to the editor.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Heard Around the West.
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