On the Road: Coffee with Tom and Discovering Bombay Beach

Last year we did a lot of good stuff and we met so many people. I had many conversations that stuck with me. As for this year, we're doing something that feels just as important.

We're following up. We’re staying connected. To us, these aren't just interviews, they're relationships.

So, I headed north to Eureka for coffee with an old friend. Then, south to the Salton Sea to discover a community I'd been curious about for a while.

Coffee in Eureka with Tom Cone

If you listened to our Roadcast with Tom Cone, you know his story: a Vietnam veteran who has dedicated his life to helping other vets. I met Tom at a gas station two years ago, just one of those random encounters that turned into something real. We talked. We did a podcast. And we stayed in touch.

Tom also helped us launch On The Mend, a program for taking people who are struggling with mental health issues fly fishing. On The Mend provides connection to nature and time in the water. It facilitates the kind of healing that happens when you're focused on a river instead of the noise in your head.

Tom's dealing with health issues stemming from Agent Orange and now his wife was recovering from hip surgery too. Life doesn't get easier, but Tom keeps showing up. That's the kind of person he is, and the reason why he means so much to Big Neighborhood.

So I drove up to Eureka and we grabbed coffee. I got to meet Iliana, Tom's caregiver. We talked about how things are going and the work Tom's still doing with vets, about On The Mend and what it's becoming, and about life when things get hard, but you just keep going anyway.

It wasn't about content or episodes or anything like that. It was just showing up. Being present. Checking in on someone who matters. Meeting the people in his life who are holding him up.

That's what year two is teaching me. The Roadcast isn't just about meeting people and moving on. It's about actually building something: a neighborhood. The kind where you come back for coffee, where you meet the caregivers and the family and the people who make the daily work possible.

Bombay Beach and the Art of Surviving

Then I headed south. Wayyyyyyy south. To a place I'd been wanting to see for a while: Bombay Beach on the Salton Sea.

If you don't know the story, here's the quick version: The Salton Sea was formed by accident in 1905 when the Colorado River flooded. By the 1950s, places like Bombay Beach were thriving resort towns full of the Hollywood crowd. Then the "sea" started dying because of agricultural runoff. The water became toxic. Fish died by the millions. The smell, when the wind's right, can reach Los Angeles (120 miles away). Obviously, people left and the town became desolate.

That changed in the 2010s when artists started showing up and doing what they do best: create art out of ruins. Retirees ventured out looking for cheap land and the freedom to create. The blank slate of Bombay Beach left them thinking: "What if we make something here?"

Now Bombay Beach is this strange, beautiful collision of apocalyptic wasteland and art haven. There's the Bombay Beach Drive-In – wrecked cars facing a blank truck trailer instead of a movie screen. There's art installations made from driftwood and scrap. The Ski Inn, "The Lowest Bar in the Western Hemisphere" sits at 223 feet below sea level and is covered in dollar bills. My wife and I had Valentine's dinner at the Ski Inn. Can't think of a better way to spend it than in a place like that; full of character, full of stories, full of people who chose to be there. And there are people, about 230 of them. Artists, retirees, people who've found community in a place most people wrote off.

Meeting BigFoot Judy

I went there to meet the community; to understand how people function in a place like that. To see the public art displays scattered across the beach and through the streets.

I stopped at the Bombay Beach Arts and Culture Cafe and met Zoey, a barista and local resident who was very friendly. That was the thing that struck me about everyone there; how welcoming they were. All the residents of Bombay Beach just... opened up. They made you feel like you belonged, even when you just drove in from somewhere else.

And I met BigFoot Judy.

They’re a local resident and an artist. Someone who's part of the fabric of this weird, wonderful place. We're talking about doing a Roadcast together. What I learned about Bombay Beach is it's not just about the art installations you can photograph, it's about the people who choose to stay. They choose to create, and they see possibilities where others see nothing. Most of all, they welcome strangers with open arms in a place most people don't know exist.

The Salton Sea is still dying, and the environmental crisis is real. But these artists and residents? They're not waiting for someone to fix everything before they build something meaningful. They're doing it now, in the middle of the mess. They’re making beauty out of what everyone else abandoned, and doing it together, as a community. That feels like something worth talking about.

Lessons From the Road

Here's what I'm figuring out in year two: Big Neighborhood isn't just about the first conversation. It's about the second one. And the third. It's about coffee in Eureka with Tom because he's a friend who's going through something hard. It's about driving to the edge of a dying body of water to meet people who refuse to let their community die with it.

Last year was about casting a wide net, meeting as many people as possible and hearing their stories. This year feels different. Now, it's about going deeper. Following up. Understanding that community isn't built in one conversation, it's built on showing up over and over again.

Tom's still helping vets, still working with On The Mend, still fighting his own battles with Agent Orange, still showing up. The artists at Bombay Beach are still creating, still building community on the shores of an ecological disaster, still finding beauty in places most people gave up on. And I'm still learning what it means to pull up a chair and stay a while.

Let's Talk

Whether you're running a recovery center, leading a community organization, working at a school, or just part of a neighborhood that wants to do something meaningful - We want to hear from you.

Here's how we can connect:

Got a project you're thinking about? Head over to bigneighborhood.com shoot us a message and let's start a conversation about how we can support what you're trying to do.

Want to hear more stories like this one? Subscribe to the Big Neighborhood Roadcast. We dig into projects that build community health through community building.

Big Neighborhood | Creating spaces where communities grow. Ways to support this work:

• Listen to the Big Neighborhood Roadcast
• Visit our apparel store where 50% of the profit helps fund projects like this
  
  

This is Joe Barrios, reminding you that every great community starts with good neighbors. Let's be good neighbors and build something together. Welcome to the Neighborhood!!