Oregon / Washington, Part 1

(I'm sending this BCC to a lot of people, whether you want it or not, so I apologize if you hear me talking about you in the third person.)

I'm in Eureka for the second night, and I just got back to the motel after a lovely dinner with Suzanne.  I saw her new place and it's really nice, very roomy.  She still has the most comfortable furniture in the world (and I still think you should offer to buy back the matching chair, Sooz!).  I reacquainted myself with Yma the dog, who loved me at once, and Fearless the cat, who thought about it for a while and then decided I would be allowed to scratch his ears and pet him.  We went for Chinese and were entertained by all the Halloween costumes in the restaurant.  And I nearly drove off without presenting her with the "witches' broom" I'd been hauling around for I think nearly ten years.  I bought it on one of my German Christmas market trips and somehow it never got mailed or brought home until it came back in my packed goods.  It's a twig broom with decorations.  I finally remembered to put it with the "things to go north" and had it in the car, and forgot about it entirely until she was walking away tonight.  I yelled "I almost forgot!!" and stopped her, and reached in the back seat and pulled on it and of course the darned thing was stuck and separated into two parts, the handle and the wrapped twigs.  If I'd known it could do that, I would have mailed it AGES ago!  Anyway, she finally has it, minus a few baubles that fell off during the move but which I wrapped in the bag that "protected" the twigs.  Housewarming present.  Enjoy.

So far the trip has been a success.  Before I saw Suzanne, my friend Dave and I had breakfast and drove around a bit.  Dave is a newly-retired cop who seems to know everyone.  If he hadn't had to go home and get a rest before work, we'd probably still be talking. He's still a reserve officer and tonight is going to be when the students at Humboldt State U. all come into Arcata and tear up the town center, so it's all hands on deck.  (He said "You know what happened at Keene a few weeks ago and was all over the news?  That happened last year in Arcata, and it's going to happen again tonight.")  When was it that destroying things became a fun thing to do?  He also gave me "the other side" of legalizing marijuana, which is that the stuff available nowadays is infinitely stronger than what our generation is familiar with. I said I remembered a former police chief saying he was in favor of it because "I was never called out to break up a pot-fueled brawl," and Dave replied, "I have been."  Plus, pot is never the only drug; it's pot and LSD, pot and cocaine, pot and...  So there really is another side to it. I always have something on the Oh $@#$!, I Completely Forgot list for every trip I take, and this conversation made me realize that this time it was that I forgot to fill out and mail my absentee ballot.  So I lose for this year.

Dave gave me a life lesson.  A guy in the restaurant came up behind him and wrapped him in an enormous hug.  I thought that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do to a guy who was a police officer for so many years, but Dave had evidently seen me react to the guy's approach and knew something was coming up before it happened.  After a brief chat and a couple of "nice to meet yous" he went back to his table.  Dave and I went on talking about houses and downsizing and retirement and how one's life can be entirely what one does for a living.  I mentioned my fabric stash, which will either go to a friend or to the local junior college's fashion design department.  I'm never going to sew my own clothes again, and certainly nothing with brocade or silk or velvet or even fine wool, so it's silly to have all of this lying around.  He's started doing it too, with some of his collections.  He said, "I finally realized that I don't need 'things'; I have people who walk up to me in restaurants and hug me."  My first thought was:  I don't.  And that's been on my mind all day, the differences between his life and mine.  Much thought will go into this.

Marie, that reminds me: why don't we aim for 18 November, which will avoid Monday traffic, but still allow us to slip it a day or two if something comes up?  And don't forget to clean out your car beforehand!

Tomorrow I think I'll be leaving to go farther north, to my friend Jim in Waldport, OR, and the only thing that will stop that is if I hear from my cousins who live north of here in McKinleyville.  Suzanne suggested I stop by the mobile home park office (she nearly bought a home in the same park, so she knows where it is) and ask if the Lewises still live there.  Good idea.  If I get up and moving at a reasonable hour, I may do that.  I know I want to stop for breakfast at the Samoa Cookhouse, and being as it's a Saturday I'll try to get there early.  Yikes, I just looked it up and they open at 7:00 AM.  Well, not THAT early.  It's not that the food is great (although it used to be), it's kind of a tradition.  I ate here occasionally when I was in college, and always when the parents came to visit, because dads love unlimited food.  I don't know if the practice is still the same but you could get seconds (and thirds and fourths and...) on anything except the pie, and even then certain dads (I'm not pointing fingers) could always schmooze an extra half pie out of the waitress.  Their breakfasts and dinners are what most people go for, so they're kind of expensive, and lunch tends to be the most affordable meal.

The Best Western Bayshore Inn here in Eureka is definitely feeling the pinch -- I'd say they were more a three-star place now than a four-star.  The rooms have been remodeled and I smiled when I saw them, as they're in the same shades of aqua and brown that they were when I first started staying here years ago.  The aqua is a bit more intense but basically it's the same scheme.  (I love the colors.)  There are a few things they could have thought through a bit better for a supposedly "accessible" room.  They told me it was a "wheel-in" shower, and it's not -- it's a small step up, but it's enough to block a wheelchair.  The shower floor is slick plastic and I kept finding myself standing in the drain, as I would slide slowly down the floor toward it.  The washcloths are completely across the bathroom from the shower, but there's a towel rail right outside it -- you'd think they could put the washcloths on those towels rather than on the disgusting towel shelf that is directly over the toilet!  There's no seating at the bathroom counter, so the hair dryer is useless for me, since I can't stand for long enough to dry my hair. (That's probably for wheelchair access, but hey, a bench stuck under the counter could be moved out of the way if they didn't need it.)  The chairs in the main room all have arms, which inconveniences me because I'm enormous in the beam, but makes them completely unusable for a wheelchair-bound person because they can't just slide into them sideways.  And the real killer is that a lot of hotels now have these enormously thick mattresses, and friends, I'm 5'7" (down from 5'9") and I have to practically take a running leap to get into bed.  Anyone in a wheelchair would need to ratchet it up about six inches to be able to slide across.

The PT Cruiser has been better on this trip than I have (I had to make three potty stops yesterday, whereas only one of those was to put gas in the car), so I'm beginning to relax and enjoy the scenery.  And I had to laugh today.  I got a wire sculpture repaired that I bought here in Eureka years ago but was flattened in the move back to the USA.  The artist is still in business and happily stood by my car and reshaped it back into its former beauty (for free!) while chatting with Dave and me.  I was wondering how I was going to get it home without it crushing again and then realized that I didn't have to mail it or pack it -- I could put it on the back shelf of the Cruiser and LEAVE IT THERE.  What a concept -- a vacation where I can fill my car with stuff and not have to worry about taking half a day to pack it all and find a post office!  The last time I had that realization was when I was visiting Lisa Swenson in Ireland -- because I was taking the ferry, I could pack my car with all sorts of things and not worry about mailing it back.  How wonderful.  How deadly to my wallet.  (Jim, I was going to return your cookie mailing box to you, but it's the perfect size to hold the wire sculpture, so if I can't find a cardboard box of that size, you may end up not getting it this time.)

Still no plans beyond a couple nights in Waldport and then making my way to Astoria.  If I have enough time, I'll hit Portland; if not, I'll save that for another trip.  I was hoping to make it into Washington State, but I don't think I'd be able to get back in time. 


I will report more anon. Let me know if you don't want to be on the list for the rest of it.