Oct 7 : Oregon Coast
Senior year of high school Thanksgiving dad and I left Oakland to drive to Corvallis, Oregon for Thanksgiving dinner at the house of friend of his. We didn’t have much in the way of breakfast, figuring we could get an early lunch or brunch on our way up North. What we didn’t count on was the fact that it was Thanksgiving Day and absolutely nothing was open. Normally, both of us would get low blood sugar and get cranky and grumpy, but it was so ridiculous when stop after stop produced nothing open it quickly became humorous in its futility. We turned on his favorite musics of the Beach Boys and Everly Brothers and the Beatles, and in our usual off-key fashion, caterwauled our way up the 101
I suddenly feel very far from “home”. And that’s why having a home base isn’t good. Because it leaves you tethered.
You can’t feel untethered if you have nothing to which you are tied. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose….”
Last night as I lay in the dark listening for ‘things that go bump in the night,’ I really wished I had a built out van so I could just take off. No pop-up to pop-down, no night darkness to have to step into, just climb up front and go. But them some neighbors arrived with children. I couldn’t seem them, except for their headlights cutting through the darkness, and after they parked, their voices. They built a fire, celebrated that accomplishment, and settled in.
Then I was glad that I hadn’t been able to flee when The Fear took hold because then I could have fled night-driving from imaginary scared onto the exhausting road. I would have missed the happy exclamations of children over a campfire.
A view of Mt. Shasta heading north
At my campsite on the Oregon Coast at the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, I played with my new little camera. I found that the zoom works pretty darn good!
The fleecy stuff growing on the trees (more texture) fascinates me. Living in the desert, I’ve forgotten what ‘lushness’ looks and feels like.