“You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places.”
Numbers 33:52
Our Oregon adventure had many lows and highs. We started our journey into Oregon by rushing to get to the town of Port Orford. This town had the only sports bar on that section of coast and Michael had to watch the big Penn State – Oregon Game. We saw the dive bar and said, no thank you. What snobs we are. There was a cute little restaurant that allowed us to stream the game using their wifi and Michael’s laptop. We were at the restaurant for four hours only to see a disappointing loss to Oregon. Now, I am not a Penn State fan per se, but I always want Oregon to lose, as I am a Beaver (Oregon State!) Unfortunately, Penn State went on to lose a second game to unranked UCLA which will make my friend Lisa and her daughter Lily very happy.
That night we stayed at Cape Blanco State Park. This park is on the beach and Sebastian, Michael and I had a fun time getting very sandy! In the morning, Sebastian and I took a walk along the coast. We saw a lot of deer just hanging out and the vistas were magnificent. This part of the Oregon coast has always been my favorite continental US western coastline. I think it might be my happy place! Until I returned to our camp site and found no car, no camping stuff, no Michael. I now know how Sebastian must feel whenever we tell him we will be right back. I was getting pretty nervous as I had no phone, no wallet, nothing. Then I saw Michael drive up. He wanted to get to the 8:30 Mass, which is why he packed up everything and was searching for us. So, Sebastian and I hopped into the car and we were off. That Mass, so far, has been my favorite. The priest gave a wonderful homily and everyone was super friendly
After Cape Blanco, we headed inland to Eugene where we stayed in a hotel. The first in about three nights. We have discovered that three nights camping is about our maximum before we are craving an indoor shower. This, to me, started to feel like the beginning of the end of my time with Sebastian. I had under a week left with him. Every day I cried at some point. Michael, Sebastian and I checked into the River Inn in Eugene, right next to the Willamette River. We took showers and then headed to the park across the river to meet Deborah, Johnner, and Capi, Sebastian’s new pack. The initial meeting went well, and I was feeling good. That evening we ate pizza and went to sleep. The next morning, I tried the Spanish Consulate site and we got an appointment … Hooray! The next three nights we would be at the Comfort Suites in Salem. Instead of camping outside of Deborah’s house, we opted for the hotel because, well, it pretty much rained nonstop and we didn’t want to be stuck in the rain all day and night. For the next three days I said my goodbyes to Sebastian, and we slowly introduced the two dogs
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On Thursday, Michael’s birthday, we brought Sebastian to his new home and dumped all our stuff in my sister’s garage. We headed to the town of Dundee and our last US wine tasting trip. We stayed at a cute Bed and Breakfast called La Bastide for two nights. Michael’s birthday dinner was at a placed called Jory. We ordered the tasting menus with wine pairings, as we do, but were a little disappointed because it was no Dry Creek Kitchen! We tasted wines at Drouhin, Furioso, and Nicolas-Jay. All were lovely wines, but as I said in my previous post California, the “Wine Tasting Experience” is way too expensive and I feel not worth the money. On Friday evening we went to dinner with Michael’s friend from graduate school at the University of Utah and his lovely fiancé, Jamie, at a place called the New Bergundian. It was casual and the food was good. It was nice to see the happy couple!
After leaving Dundee with a car we had cleaned and interior detailed, we headed back to Salem to load up the car, minus Sebastian. I played frisbee and catch with him and Deborah played with her lunging rope with him. He was plenty tired when we said goodbye. And although I think he misses us something fierce, I am sure he is happy not to be getting into the car again and going to a strange new place. He is in good hands with Deborah, Johnner and Capi. I can’t wait to see him in December or January to say hello.
We headed out east to Bend for the evening. I had been to Bend several times during my life in Oregon and a few times since, but this was Michael’s first time. He said it reminded him of Colorado. We were there during their fall festival. That was fun because we got to walk by some live music and the town seemed electric. We ate dinner at Zydeco Kitchen and Cocktails. This was a nice, casual dining place with great service. After dinner we walked around the town a bit and then opted for a motel instead of primitive camping. It was supposed to be in the low thirties and we didn’t want to be cold. Michael and I decided to just get something cheap since we had been splurging for the past week … but, oh heavens, no! The motel, The Holiday Inn, was disgusting. The room had stains on the floor, hairs in the sheets and smelled like cat urine. I went to the front desk to ask if we could exchange rooms and the attendant, who was completely stoned, said, “No, I”m full up.” And he was wasted and the office smelled like bad weed. I said, can we at least have clean sheets. He went to a dirty storage closet and handed me sheets. When Michael and I stripped the bed to change the sheets, there were stains and crumbs on the bed. I couldn’t do it. We drove away and found a higher rated hotel room. It was no Ritz, but it was clean and quiet and warm. Lesson Learned.
…
Did I say we smelled weed? Our next stop was Ashland, Oregon. We had tickets to a Shakespeare Festival play, Into The Woods, a Stephen Sondheim musical. Before we headed into cute Ashland we headed out to our campsite. We have also learned that having a flat campsite is more important than having a pretty campsite. And, since we are in the off season, there usually aren’t that many people. We changed our campsite for something easier to pop the tent on and headed into Ashland. We walked around Ashland’s Lithia Park. This was a lovely green space in the middle of the town, but oye, so much pot smoke. I was getting nauseous from the smell. We went to a pub before dinner to play cards and have a beer and… again, the smell. Oregon is obsessed. Even at the open-air venue where the play was held, someone was smoking pot, and I was smelling it. Now, I get it, it is legal. But I don’t like smelling cigarette smoke … and now I don’t like smelling marijuana smoke. Yuck. That night we stayed at Emigrant Campground near the very low Emigrant Lake. The wind gusted all night. Oregon, you have my sister and my dog, so I will be back.
My Contact High
Why do the trees of Oregon long to reach the roadways?
Is it the rare sunlight,
or open space,
or just the challenge,
knowing it will most certainly lead to death?
Driving, you can’t miss their kamikaze desire.
But they are being stopped.
The mighty oak, that lingers
and grows slowly,
a hard wood,
reaches out its branches in search of the space and sunlight-
at near-glacier speeds-
only to be stopped moments before victory.
Their cut limbs are left short of the shoulder,
unformed coffins waiting petrification,
caught mid-reach for eternity,
or a street cleaner.
The quick-growing pine,
a soft wood,
is determined to reach the sun by trapeze act,
only to be stopped between others,
up and away,
hanging until knocked to the ground
by a gusting blow.
Let us not forget the understory plants, unnamed,
but still earnestly drawn to that same open space,
sculpted, snipped, shaved, or sprayed,
burned-out leaves reminding the surrounding bushes their fate
should they attempt to reach the Oregon roadways.
How do I know this?
Maybe it’s time with the redwoods,
maybe it’s anthropomorphism,
or maybe it’s just my contact high.
