Author Archives: kariann1237

About kariann1237

Fun-loving, free-spirited, responsible professional. I guess I'm many things! I work remotely as a clinical trials project manager for a medical device company. I love traveling & festivals, gardening, cooking, hiking, backpacking & my two adorable cats. I love life!

What the Festival, Friends & Family

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My favorite thing about What the Festival was hanging out with my friends & getting to know some of the Utah tribe better. There were quite a few there from the Utah: Alisa, Kim, Marwan, Melissa, Wendy, Sugarboy, Bo, Lauren, SteveO & Craig.  I had the pleasure of camping & sharing Sofia with one of my best friends, Alisa. As mentioned in my last post, this festival was pretty low-key for me. I was in bed by 10pm on Friday and 11pm on Saturday. Never done that before at a festival! LOL! The day times were fun, though, hanging out with friends, swimming in the shark-infested river (the festival map showed sharks in the river & it was off limits – we went swimming anyway!), and browsing through vendor wares.

My friend, Dirk, came & found me on Friday night. Then we kept running into each other all over the festival, which is always fun. I also managed to find my friend, Evan, whom I had met a few weeks earlier at Sonic Bloom; he’s from LA & had ridden his motorcycle up to the festival. It was so fun to catch up & chat with him; we always have the best conversations. And finally, my dear almost-sister, Simone, was at the festival! Our families grew up together back in Tillamook County. I was the oldest & she was the youngest of all eight of the Larson/Kujak kids. We hadn’t seen each other in years & managed to find each other briefly. She invited me to spend the night at her place when I pass through Bend, OR in a few weeks heading home so that we can actually have some time to sit down & catch up. I’m definitely looking forward to that.

Of all the festivals to be sick during, I’m glad it happened to be this one. The ONLY reason is that the music line-up really wasn’t my cup of tea. I did find someone serving tea, by the way & enjoyed a few cups chatting with them. This girl had a much different style than Kevin from Photosynthesis, but I still enjoyed it & got even more inspired to figure out a way to bring a teahouse to Utah festivals.

Back to the music, so anyway, the only set I really wanted to hear out of the entire musical line-up was Phutureprimative. I’ve already seen him play several times over the past year, but I love his music! So I was bound & determined to make it to his set that started at 8:30pm on Saturday night. The problem was that someone had somehow stabbed themselves in the throat around 7pm that night. I had become friends with the security guard & heard the whole story from him on Sunday. Anyway, they shut down the festival gates. Our RV camping area was outside of the main festival entrance, which worked for the most part. It was about 1/3 of a mile walk into the festival from the camping area, but it wasn’t too bad as it was along the beautiful White River. However, since they shut down the gate, camping outside the festival boundary all of a sudden became a problem!

The White River

I guess I don’t do very well when people tell me “no” I can’t do something. LOL! Whenever that happens, I immediately start trying to figure out a way around it. Usually it works. 🙂 I knew that Dirk was over visiting some of his friends at the Seattle crew camp a short distance from Sofia. So I wandered over there. “The gate is shut down & I really want to get in to see Phutureprimative’s set”, I say, “Do you know any other way in?” Of course he does! LOL! He tells me that since he does security, he always tries to find the holes in security of other events. He found that there is no security on the back (hill) side of the festival. So he agrees to take me & a few others renegading over the back hillside into the festival. It’s a good thing I was at least feeling mostly better. It was a lot of up! We also had to climb over something like 6 barbwire fences, but we ended up stepping into the field just as Phutureprimative took the stage! Dirk totally made my festival by getting me there for that set! I enjoyed dancing every minute of it & it was fun sneaking into the festival as well!

Its kind of crazy how things change in life & how that affects your outlook on things. Phutureprimative has a song where the words go something like this… “It doesn’t feel the same without you…” Last year at Lighting in a Bottle, I heard that song for the first time & started crying. Aaron & I were separated at that time & I was missing him terribly. The festival I was at then really didn’t feel the same without him. And yet, here I was, a year and two months later, hearing the same song again. It did make me thing about Aaron. It still doesn’t feel the same without him, but damn it; it feels a hell of a lot better than being with him! I’m so happy to have FINALLY gotten to the point of really being done with that relationship. Why it took us a year & a half to break-up I haven’t quite figured out yet. I am glad, though, that despite everything we went through, we are still friends. That feels nice. But what I’m loving now is how good it feels to be free & to just be me! I really feel like I am embracing my true self & really coming into being the person I am to be.

Sunrises are almost always my favorite part of a festival or party. I love the sunrise sets that are played & really connect with that style of music. I decided since I was going to bed early both nights to get up early on Sunday morning & enjoy the sunrise. It was beautiful! Not too many people were out & about. I went to the Hookah Lounge area on top of the bluff & watched a devil creating bubble art. I chatted with him as well. He’s a fire performer who also makes bubbles when fire isn’t allowed at an event. It was so beautiful to watch these huge bubbles glisten & sparkle for a moment in the pre-sunrise glow. Its therapeutic to just sit back, relax & enjoy something so temporary as a bubble & be captivated in its simplistic beauty.

A devil & his bubbles

After bubbles, I went over & found Alisa. I was super happy to find her as she is the champagne queen. Festival sunrise just isn’t complete without champagne, a different kind of bubble! I had brought a treat to share with her, some preserved wild hibiscus flowers that my friend, Merb, had given me. The flowers were a fantastic treat in the champagne! We toasted our friendship as we celebrated the beginning of a beautiful new day.

Champagne Sunrise!

Its always a little hard to return to work after a festival. Especially since it was my 3rd weekend in a row of festivals! I did get a glimpse of a dream of living the life of the true festival circuit… just going from festival to festival, seemingly without a care in the world. However I do realize that that is truly a romantic notion. There are cares in the world. Rent to pay, food to buy, technology to pay for, gas to put in Sofia, etc. And, so, back to work I went on Monday. It really wasn’t bad, its just changing your mindset from fun festival life to default world life. I am, however, so grateful that I have a wonderful career that allows me to embark on such an adventure such as this. I always keep that in mind if I’m ever tempted; I must stay responsible so I can continue living the life I live & enjoying this adventure that I’m on. It’s a pretty good motivation strategy!

Monday evening I spent in Camas, WA with one of my best friends from high school, Tiffanie & her family. She has two teenage daughters; one will be a senior next year & the other a junior. My goodness how time flies! I remember when those two girls were born. I remember when Tiffanie & David got married in my apartment for that matter! J It was fun to catch up with them & also chat with the girls. Ginny was so excited about what I was doing – working remotely & traveling on my adventure. I hope I inspired her to continue to reach for her dreams, no matter what they are or how crazy they might seem.

During my lunch break on Tuesday I drove from Camas to Wilsonville, OR to take Sofia in to get her air conditioner replaced. In & out, new air conditioner, check! Just in time for burning man. J While I was there I saw an advertisement that they also do generator tune-ups. I realized that I better get that done before burning man as well. So I scheduled an appointment back in Utah during the week I’m at home before I leave for burning man to have that done. Aaron & I don’t have good luck with generators at festivals. We killed one after our 1st Element 11. So we took it back & got a new one for burning man that 1st year. We killed it too out there. So we took it back & got another one that we took to burning man last year. Again, killed it. Damn that desert is hard on generators! Our friends had rented an RV during our 1st year & their generator went out mid-way through the burn. I do not want Sofia’s generator to go out at the burn this year! And, so, preemptive move – going to get the generator tuned. *fingers crossed* that it works the whole week!

Tuesday & Wednesday nights I spend at my Dad & Dona’s. I loved every minute of visiting with them! We went to dinner with Dona’s parents on Tuesday night & my Grandpa Larson on Wednesday. Dad came home for a long lunch on Wednesday as well as came home early on Thursday so we could have a glass of wine together & visit more before I left. I even got to sing the “Daddy’s home, daddy’s home, YAY, daddy’s home” song to him when he got home from work. He said he hadn’t heard that song in years! We used to sing it each night when he got home as we would race downstairs to the garage & give him a big welcome home hug.

As I get older or maybe its because I live so far away from my family, but I really am appreciating seeing them & spending time with them whenever I can. Our visits are fun as well as real and heart-to-heart. I feel so blessed with the family I have, they’re so supportive & love me even though I haven’t lived my life according to any set of “typical” rules. All in all, I think they really enjoyed having me & my kitties parked right outside their townhome. We even took Geb for a walk around the neighborhood together. It was so adorable!! And it was funny, I felt like a college kid coming home with bags of laundry to do at the parent’s house. They were so sweet & had anticipated that I would need to do laundry. 🙂 I feel very blessed to have the family that I do.

Thursday evening I spent with Beckie. It was so fun, as we were out and about in Beaverton, we’d tell people, “we went to kindergarten & high school together.” Beckie is the only one I still am in contact with from kindergarten and she was one of my best friends in high school as well. Grade school & junior high I went to Tillamook Christian School and had not remained in contact with her, but we found each other & became fast friends again my sophomore year once I finally returned to the public school. I’m so happy that we’ve remained close friends all these years. We went to a fantastic restaurant in downtown Beaverton (Beaverton has come a long way from when I lived there while attending Portland State right out of high school). She had actually just gone to our 20th high school reunion the weekend before when I was at What the Festival. I felt a little bad abandoning her by not going to the reunion & going to the festival instead, but what is one to do? I opted for the festival & am glad I did. Although, it would have been nice to see people from my class, at least there is FB & therefore I am able to still be somewhat connected with my classmates. After dinner we enjoyed a good local Oregon micro-brew on her lovely deck. She & her husband purchased a home a few years ago & have been remolding it & updating the yard since. It really looks amazing all the work they have put into it.

Lunchtime on Friday consisted of grocery shopping & driving out to the east side of the coastal range. I was getting VERY excited to drive over the mountains & get to the beach! I didn’t want to get hung up in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic trying to get out of the city. Friday afternoon I spent working outside an abandoned building in a rundown town off the highway. Not the most scenic spots, but workable. Finally, 4pm rolled around & I was on my way! Butterflies of excitement were in my tummy as I drove over the all too familiar highway. This was my old stomping grounds; I was heading back to the coast, where I grew up!

I had plans to meet Mr. Mulcahy, my English teacher & Journalism advisor, in Cannon Beach for dinner that night. We connected a few months ago via FB & enjoyed corresponding together & catching up on what’s been happening in each other’s lives for the past 20 years. I’ve always respected & admired Mr. Mulcahy so much. I feel that he was my very first mentor in my life, really encouraging me & believing in me. I’ve been blessed with several mentors; each of them important in shaping me into the person I am today. I am so grateful for each one.

Since I had started the drive to the coast on my lunch break, I actually arrived with about 1 ½ hours before I was to meet him. So I decided to visit Ecola State Park, just north of Cannon Beach. I never really spent much time there as a kid for some reason, but it was fun to go now. The evening was absolutely perfect.

Cannon Beach from Ecola State Park

The weather on the coast is never really warm, but this evening, it was. I was in just a sundress wandering around the bluff, climbing through the beach grass & taking pictures of the spectacular view. What a beautiful “welcome home to the coast” it was.

Happy to be back at the beach!

Dinner with Mr. Mulcahy went way too quickly as time always does when you’re thoroughly enjoying yourself. He’s a collector, as am I. Actually, maybe more so. Since he’s retired, he’s likes to spend some time each day on the beach. He uses a metal detector & scavenges all sorts of treasures from the beach. He also reminded me about clamming, as he was telling me about razor clamming right there on the beach in Cannon Beach. For some reason, one must only clam during months that end with “r”. March/April/May/June/July/August are not right. I am determined to make it back to the coast one of these days in the proper month so that I can go clamming! I remember going clamming with my dad & sisters when I was a kid. We would go down to the end of Toll Road in Bayside Gardens & proceed to get entirely covered in bay mud & soaking wet. We’d be so cold, but would be so proud of our buckets of clams we’d bring home to mom. Clam fritters, clam chowder…mmmmm…

Leaving dinner, I stopped quickly by the beach & took some pictures of Haystack Rock. How can one go to Cannon Beach & not take pictures of Haystack Rock?

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach

It felt so good to be back on the coast… but I was set on making it to Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain for sunset!

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Photosynthesis, Sol Duc, & being sick

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Hard to believe two weeks have gone by since I’ve written… I left off arriving at Photosynthesis. Wow! What an incredible festival. Of all the festivals I’ve been to, its been my favorite thus far. Its located on land owned by the Makah Tribe. Perhaps its the mists, perhaps its the ocean, perhaps its the land itself… I don’t know, but I loved it there. I felt a deep connection with that magical place. And then to put an amazing festival on top of it?! 🙂 I was in heaven.

At so many festivals there is so much music that I don’t really love. Sometimes I find myself wandering around just waiting for sunrise when my favorite style of music most often is played. Not here… There were two “main” stages and a chill dome. I have to say that even the two main stages had pretty great music throughout the whole festival. And then there was the H’art Center. What a beautiful place it was; a smaller dome where you had to take your shoes off. It had carpeting throughout and art on the walls. Attached to it was an elegant teahouse where Kevin served tea throughout the night.

Kevin serving tea

I asked him a lot of questions & learned about tea service from him. It was so fascinating… and then I realized that Salt Lake doesn’t have a tea house at its festivals. And so, my thought is that I should create a teahouse to bring to our festivals… I think it would be a wonderful addition!

The music at the H’art Center was fantastic all night long, each night of the festival! Sometimes it was pretty upbeat & people were dancing. Other times it was super mellow & people were simply sitting & meditating. It was such a lovely space… and the people I met there were all so amazing! I went to the festival knowing just a few people (Dirk who had told me about the festival when I met him last year at Esthetic Evolution, Morgan & Lacey – longtime friends from Spokane, & Amanda from Salt Lake). By the end of the festival, I knew so many people & I felt completely at home with the Northwest crew!

Another highlight from the festival was the sunset on Sunday night… I ran into my friend, Dirk, as he was heading out to a rock perch to watch the sunset. We rounded up quite a few friends along the way as we passed by the beach party where people were still happily dancing to techno right on the beach. The weather had been quite misty & overcast most of the festival… Friday night particularly it misted quite heavily. But, true to the PNW, it didn’t really seem to rain, it just misted a lot. Sunday afternoon however, the clouds broke & the sun came out. There were still just enough clouds to make a spectacular sunset. The perfect ending to an idyllic weekend…

Picture perfect

Monday morning came, I watched out my window as I worked as the festival being dismantled. It truly amazed me how quickly things came down! The domes were down, vendors & campers packed, & pretty much everyone was out of there by Monday evening. My plan had been to leave Monday after work & drive to a state park a few hours away. However, after running into my friend Dirk at the festival, he said he & a bunch of the crew that helped put on the festival were interested in going camping with me & they thought we should find some hot springs to camp at. I thought, camping with a bunch of new friends at a hot springs… yes, please! They weren’t quite ready to leave Monday evening, so we planned to camp out on Tuesday.

I decided to move my RV closer to where everyone else was staying in some cabins. So, I got in & started backing out exactly in the same pattern as I got into my spot. Wouldn’t you know, the ground now was softer! All of a sudden, I was seriously stuck in the sand!!

Definitely stuck!

It was mostly a grassy field, but in this section, there were some grass/sand spots. I don’t know how I managed to pass over it to begin with, but I certainly couldn’t pass over it on the way out. So I went & found Dirk who found a guy with a backhoe who tried unsuccessfully to pull me out. I really do have a very big & heavy rig! After that failed, I decided to call roadside assistance. That’s what I have that service for, right?! Well, Neah Bay is awfully far away from anywhere… it took my insurance a good 45 minutes to locate a tow truck driver willing to come rescue me. He drove 4.5 hours each way – all the way from Olympia! While we were waiting for the tow truck, a local guy & his friend were bound & determined to get me out. I tried to tell them they didn’t have to, but I think they were just up for the challenge. They dug out the tires & tried with a Nissan Pathfinder (really?!) to pull me out. With that little rig, of course, they didn’t get me out! Anyway, the tow truck driver finally arrived around 11:30pm & just like that, pulled me out! The best thing about roadside assistance is that it didn’t even cost me anything! Of course, I gave him a big hug & thanked him for driving all that way to rescue me.

There were two sweet girls who had gotten abandoned there who were trying to make their way back home to the Portland area. Since Dirk was head of security there, they ended up talking to him. He said he might be able to help them out & came & asked me if I would give them a ride back to Portland since he knew I was heading there after our camping trip. Not a problem, I replied. It’ll be nice to have some company on the drive. And so, Mandy & Jess joined our crew. I worked on Tuesday at the festival site while everyone finished up with breakdown. Once we were ready to go, we all went to the beach for a photo-op. What a fun group of people!

Photosynthesis friends!

We decided to go to Sol Duc Hot Springs in the Olympic National Park. I absolutely love the lushness & grandeur of the trees in the forests there. Soaking in the hot springs after a long festival weekend was a perfect next step! Nice way to just relax & enjoy the evening. After our soak we went back to camp & had a big barbeque – corn & steaks – pretty hard to go wrong with that!

Wednesday morning I woke up & did NOT feel good. I was so confused! Had the hot springs brought out toxins but I hadn’t drunk enough water the day before to flush them out? Was I hung over? I only had two glasses of wine the night before; I didn’t feel hung over. But I was definitely sick! Every time I tried lifting my head I had a splitting headache. I was chilled, but my friends kept telling me I was burning up. I emailed into work that I was sick. I felt terrible! How can I be on this adventure where I was supposed to be responsible by working & then write in sick? But I was really sick… I took some Ibuprofen & went back to sleep for several hours. Finally it was past time to leave our camp site. Everyone wanted to go back to the hot springs for another soak.

I knew I needed to drive to Portland that evening, but was kind of procrastinating on the drive & thought maybe another soak might help me feel better. But, it really didn’t. After about 45 minutes, I knew I had had enough. I got out & my skin was uber sensitive. So, I rounded up Mandy, Jess, & Tommy (who decided to tag along for the ride) & we headed south. None of them had ever driven an RV before, so I ended up driving from 5:30 – 11:30pm. What a horribly long drive when I was feeling down right sick! I was very grateful for Mandy staying awake & keeping me company along that long drive home. We finally got to Jess’s house & I just crashed in bed. Totally exhausted!

Waking up on Thursday, I felt way sicker than I had the day before! I couldn’t believe it. I had to email in again to work that I was out sick again & was planning to go to urgent care. My VP, thankfully, was completely understanding & told me just to take care of myself & not worry about work. I was so sick, though, I couldn’t quite rally to make it to urgent care yet. As I lay there in agony, I thought back to see if I had ever felt this bad before. All of a sudden I remembered having a kidney infection about 10 years ago. I remembered thinking at that time that I never wanted one again. All of a sudden I knew that’s what I had & I really did need to go to urgent care. So I managed to get myself out of bed & drove myself to urgent care. It was quite bad I realized when I couldn’t really see too well. At least urgent care was only ½ mile away!

A fever of 102.9 & a kidney infection. Nope, that was not on my trip plan! Oh well, what does one do? Deal with it, I guess. I got some antibiotics from Walgreens & took Tylenol & Advil on the advice of the urgent care doctor in Newburg, OR. I knew I just needed to sleep so my body could start to heal itself. I tried going to a local state park, but they were full. So then I decided to drive closer to the airport because I had to pick-up my friend, Alisa, from the airport the next day. I made it to one RV park by Janzen Beach only to find out it was full, too! Really?! Of all the days to be driving aimlessly around, this was not a good one. My RV Park Finder app on my phone saved the day & I found a park about 5 miles away. As I backed into my spot (like a pro!), I was so happy to just be done doing stuff for the day so I could go back to bed. I slept most of the afternoon & evening.

Finally around 8pm I felt a little better. I knew that I needed to do laundry as I was headed to What the Festival the next day & all of my stuff was completely sandy from Neah Bay & spruce needly from the Olympics. I had never really been in an RV park before. They’re quite the places! This one had swimming pools, hot tubs, a pond & gazebo, laundry facility, & an activities director with activities going on all the time, goodness, I had no idea RV parks were like that! The problem with all of that is that I was on one end of the park & the laundry was clear on the other. I knew I didn’t have enough energy to walk & carry my 3 laundry bags (they’re small, but somewhat heavy nonetheless). So I decided to strap them with my bike tie-downs to my bike rack & ride my bike down. Seemed like a great idea. Although, they did NOT want to stay on the bike rack! I went over a speed bump causing my headache to split and my laundry to fall all over the road. 😦 I struggled to get it all back together & took off again for the laundry room. Only to get there to realize that I had forgotten my laundry detergent and the facility did not have a quarter machine!

So I left my laundry, mustered up some energy & rode my bike all the way back across the park to the office. Bought some quarters & then went to get my detergent. The detergent & dryer sheets wouldn’t fit in my purse, so I moved all my stuff (water, phone, detergent, sheets) to my shoulder bag & took off on my bike again back to the laundry room. Only to get there to realize that I had forgotten my roll of quarters in my purse! Oh my gosh, that about did me in. (Did I mention I was still really sick & obviously not thinking clearly at all?) I was already exhausted again & I hadn’t even gotten started with my laundry! So as I got on my bike to head back to Sofia for the 3rd time, I realized that there was a laundry RV parking spot. Score! I rode up & drove Sofia down to the laundry, did my laundry & drove back up to my spot. It was dark by that time, obviously, but I backed right into my spot feeling very proud of myself not only for getting my laundry done, but for backing in the dark just about perfectly! 🙂

Friday I woke up still horribly sick! Still with the same splitting headache each time I attempted to lift my head from the pillow. I was so sad. I thought the antibiotics would magically work super quick & heal me in time to go to the festival later that day! LOL! I tried getting up & working, but it was really making me nauseous & my head hurt even worse, so I emailed in sick again. I had emailed my VP after I was at Urgent Care the day before to let her know that I wasn’t imagining I was sick; I really was. She then & also Friday morning still was so supportive, telling me to just take my time & get well. I’m so grateful for her understanding. During what should have been my lunch break, I managed to rally & drove to the airport to pick up Alisa. I was still so sick; she immediately was an angel & offered to drive. Thank goodness! I went back to bed & slept for the next 2 ½ hours as she drove to the festival. And so, arriving at What the Festival, I knew that it would no doubt be a very low-key festival for me. For me, it was still about healing time.

Learning Sofia…

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Wow! I just got back from a lovely night stroll on the beach! I arrived this evening at Neah Bay & decided to come out to the festival location just to ensure I got cell & internet service. My plan was to then return to Neah Bay & come back out tomorrow on my lunch break & then work the remainder of the day. The nice people at the gate simply welcomed me in! So, I set up camp & took a little walk. Just beyond the stage where they were doing sound checks I heard what I thought could be the ocean! So I kept walking & within about 50 yards, there it was! So beautiful, even by the light of just my flashlight. The sound was higher pitched than I remember. I guess maybe because the waves right now are so small? It almost sounded like wind rustling through the trees. Obviously its been a while since I’ve been at the beach!

So I’ve had fun learning about Sofia over the last few days. Most of you know that Sofia is the name I have given to my recently purchased RV. I think its like any relationship. It starts off with bliss and goes downhill from there. LOL! No, it really hasn’t been so bad. Just I realize she’s not quite as perfect as I thought she was. Isn’t that how it always goes?

One cute thing I’ve learned is that Geb is not only a lap cat co-pilot, but he’s also a dashboard co-pilot. So adorable! And, he even knows he can’t come over to the dash on my side. He’s such a good kitty!

Dashboard co-pilot

Over E11 last weekend, we noticed that the A/C wasn’t working as well as it should be. On my drive from Mountain Home to Yakima as I worked throughout the day at various rest stops, I noticed it really wasn’t working. So I called & made an appointment for early Wednesday morning. When I took her in bright & early on my birthday, I learned that she needs a new A/C unit. Ah well… Trouble is no one in Yakima or Seattle seemed to have one. And so, I have an appointment scheduled at the end of the month when I’m in the Portland area. The good news is that I’m now over on the coast where its cool & I definitely don’t need the A/C! I actually even turned on my heater this morning. It works great!

Some of our encounters have been positive however. For example, I’m getting really good at driving her! Even though my heel won’t touch the ground (even with the seat scooted all the way forward!). I never really realized that my legs were quite that short. Oh well. I asked about it when I was at the RV shop to see if there was some way to fix either my seat, the peddles, or maybe get some blocks or something. They said to try an auto parts store. So this evening as I wandered briefly through the cute little town of Sequim, I went into the auto parts store & inquired. Nope, no such thing is made because of the liability factor. He told me to “keep on driving like a ballerina on her toes”.

I’m even getting pretty good at backing her up! The last two nights at the state park campgrounds I had to back her into her spot. AND I DID IT!! Without even hitting anything. LOL! And I had to turn around in a parking lot today after pulling in to take a picture. Managed that as well.

Looking pretty good backed into that spot!

So Tuesday night, I had just backed her into her spot at the nice state park in Yakima & gotten settled in. I remembered that during E11 I couldn’t get the oven to light. So I googled it (I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have google!) & read that you can’t use the striker knob (that’s only for the burners), you have to light it with a match or long lighter. So I got my long lighter out & proceeded to try to light it. It just wasn’t working again & again. I was beginning to get a little worried that I might just eventually set off the whole place with a fire bomb if it ever did light. So I started looking around the oven a bit more just trying to figure out if I saw anything loose, etc. That’s when I realized… I had been attempting to light the temperature gauge rather than the actual pilot light. LOL! Once I figured that out, she lit up right away! Ah well… now I know!

I’ve been to Neah Bay one time before… it was right before Michael (my 2nd husband) & I moved to Utah from Bellevue, WA. People always think Seattle is close to the coast, but in reality, its really a long way from the coast! Growing up on the Oregon coast, I had always wanted to go to the furthest most northwest corner of the continental United States. So before we moved out of the general vicinity, we did. I was pretty happy to have accomplished that goal. I remembered the road (Hwy 112) from Port Angles to Neah Bay as being a relatively long, narrow, winding road, but not terrible. Of course, that was in my mini! Driving that same road in Sofia, oh my! I really don’t remember the road to be THAT bad! Its super windy, super narrow, and has so many sink holes from slides that we were rocking, jiggling, & banging our way slowly down the road. There were lots of pullouts along the way, but the majority of the pullouts weren’t even big enough for Sofia! So slowly we carried on… And, in a way, it was like a pilgrimage coming back to this magical place.

Straight of Juan de Fuca Sunset

One good thing we’ve learned together is that traveling in the evenings as we do the traffic is much less than if we would travel during the day. It makes the traveling kind of nice to have pretty much open roads. Especially on roads like Hwy 112; I only had to pull over 2x in 60 miles to let anyone go around me. That’s pretty good! And, its good that no one was on the road with me tonight. I totally did the tourist thing! Yup, I stopped Sofia in the middle of the highway (there was no turnout spot around) and took this picture of the elk. LOL!

Roosevelt Elk!

Anyway, I’m happy to have finally arrived, to be in one spot for multiple days, and to enjoy the festival that starts tomorrow. I’m planning to get up early to take a walk on the beach before work.

All Accross the PNW

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It surprised me, really, as I drove along… memories kept cropping up all across the PNW. Upon reflection, I guess it makes sense; I’ve lived in an awful lot of places throughout that whole area & have traveled quite a bit throughout it, too. My 2nd day on the road started at the truck stop in Mountain Home, ID. I woke up early on Tuesday because I wanted to make it all the way to Yakima & felt like it was too far to drive just in the evening. After staying up working to get this blog set up until 2:30am that morning, I proceeded to then wake up at 5:30am & start driving. Just a little bit excited, obviously!

As I drove by the National Guard base in Mountain Home, I suddenly remembered a time I had visited there with Rich, the worst boyfriend of my life! Yuck, thinking of him was not the best way to start a morning with my eyes still blurred from lack of sleep. Although then I also remembered that if I hadn’t of dated him, I never would have moved to Idaho in the first place. And, after him, Idaho was actually a pretty good time in my life. And so, I thought instead about the last time he went to that base for his 2 week duty. I pack all his stuff into boxes & told him as soon as he got home that he had to move out. Maybe it wasn’t the most eloquent way to handle the situation, but I was young & at least I got myself out.

The Center for Birds of Prey in Boise caught my eye. I remember visiting there with my dear mentor, Kay. She was the interim hospital administrator during my last year in Council. She was the first person in my professional life that really believed in me & saw me for my potential. She was also super supportive in helping me through leaving Jason, my 1st husband. She lived in Boise, but during her year as the administrator, she had an apartment in Council as well. About 6 months after I had met her she invited me down one weekend to her home in to Boise. Looking back, she was probably trying to help me remember life outside of Council. I’m sure she saw at that time that I needed to move on with my life. We had such a fun weekend together. We went to the Center for Birds of Prey, out to a really nice restaurant for dinner, & then to the alternative movie theater. Such a nice change from small town living. Mostly what I remember about that weekend is her just sharing… about her life, all the struggles she had been through and different paths she had taken. She hadn’t had an easy time of it, yet she did it. She was so successful and so smart. She was a huge inspiration to me that I didn’t just have to stay stuck in a bad marriage in a small cow town. I could go do whatever I set my mind to. We discussed it and she advised me that in order to really be able to get to where I wanted to be I was going to have to return to college & finish my degree. Looking back now, I’m eternally grateful for her advice.

Further down I-80 are signs to Hwy 95 – lots of memories up that highway. Council is up there, about half way between Weiser & McCall. I lived there for 5 years. One of it with Rich and the other four were spent dating & married to Jason, a cattle rancher. Bits & pieces of my time with Jason flashed through my mind. There were lots of good fun times with him – riding for cows, calving season, brandings, BBQ’s, and crazy times at Wilson’s Lounge. He really was a good guy overall, its just a shame what alcohol can do. It was an interesting learning experience for me as I had never really been around alcoholism before & didn’t know anything about it. Needless to say, I learned that I don’t want alcoholism in my relationship.

I was excited to see the Snake River at Farewell Bend. My mom, dad & I stopped there on our way home from visiting Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, OR. I contemplated attending there to get my 2-year degree in Horse Training. Now that would have resulted in a quite different life, wouldn’t it?! Anyway, we stopped there. It was a huge thriving truck stop & several motels. The diner we ate in had bison burgers; it was the first time I had ever eaten bison. And so now, I’m driving along, craving a bison burger. Not really thinking about the fact that the last time I had eaten there was a little over 20 years ago! I come around the corner & see… boarded up emptiness! I couldn’t believe it. Gone were my dreams of having a bison burger that day, as well as the dreams of all those people who owned those small businesses or worked there. Wow. Even when I lived in Council the truck stop was alive & well. Then I realized how the last downturn in the economy really had hit small businesses in the small towns. Tragic.

Each spring when I lived in Council, Jason & I with a bunch of friends would get in our pickups & head down the grade from Bear, ID to the Snake River in search of the 1st buttercups of the spring. It was always such a fun trip! That grade road was exceptionally scary – one lane with few turn outs. It worked pretty well except when another rig was coming up the grade! Some springs you could find buttercups higher up on the hillside, others, we’d find the 1st all the way down in the canyon depending on what kind of spring it was. Its kind of funny; a lot of people don’t know about Hells Canyon. It is the deepest river gorge in North America & is about 10 miles across. Its pretty spectacular in its own way, of course not nearly dramatic as the cliffs of the Grand Canyon, but impressive none the less. One time my sister Beth went on a rafting trip down through Hells Canyon. We went over & visited her on the night she was camped by Oxbow Dam. It was such a fun evening seeing her in “my neck of the woods!”

I finally stopped driving that morning around 8am at a rest stop by Huntington, OR. I stepped out of Sofia & smelled the air – it was permeated by sage brush! Oh, I love the smell of wild sage brush; smelling it was always one of my favorite parts about riding for cows. I savored the moment for a bit, then climbed in & sat down ready to start my work day. I turned on my wifi without a problem, started working, & left the memories behind… just like that! (For then!) At lunch time I decided to continue on my journey rather than hanging out at the rest stop & drove to a rest stop just east of La Grande, OR. I was so happy to be driving through that area. The area between Baker City & Pendleton I think is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I love Blue Mountains & the Wallowa’s, all the trees & the lush meadows. I’ve always somewhere up there would be the most perfect spot for a cabin.

After work I got out of Sofia to do my walk around to make sure everything is secure before getting back on the road. There was an elderly gentleman on a motorcycle parked right next to me. “Where ya headed?” he asks. “I’m going to Yakima tonight”. The sky is has some pretty crazy thunderclouds around & the wind has picked up significantly. “Do you think its raining up there?” he asks. “I think its fairly likely”. And so, I hit the road & head up the Blues.

The Blues Thunderstorm

Sure enough… not only was it raining up there, but my goodness! A crazy thunderstorm, complete with lightening, high winds & buckets of rain! It is an interesting predicament to be in driving up a windy canyon in a big RV in those conditions! I was happy once I passed the summit that I left that storm behind. Whew! I had weathered my first storm! Felt great – I am gaining confidence!

Ready… Set… GO!

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I have to admit, I’m pretty excited about life right now. I’m in a parking lot at the Pilot truck stop in Mountain View, ID and its my first night out on the road in Sofia.

Last weekend, I did a trial run to Element 11 (our UT regional burning man event) in Grantsville, UT. Things went pretty smoothly all things considered minus a few minor mishaps (some decorative molding flew off on the freeway, ran over a lane marker at entry – I swear those lanes were designed for mini coopers, not RVs!, and I almost backed over a 5” rebar sticking out of the ground while trying to get settled into just the right camping spot). After settling in, the festival was incredible! I did complete my 1st day of work in my “mobile office” on Friday & everything worked seamlessly! What an awesome weekend! I’m also particularly glad that I had my dear friend, Merb, along with me for that adventure.

And so, after a quick clean-up last night and working today, we hit the road exactly at 4:36pm. Me, Sofia, Geb, Nyssa, & Athena (my goddess card – will write more about her later). The trip went by so quickly! Probably mostly due to sweet texts I got from friends wishing me well on my journey, as well as phone calls with my two sisters & my mom. I recently switched phones from AT&T to Verizon, specifically for traveling because Verizon has such better coverage. And, I was not disappointed! I never lost a signal all the way from Salt Lake City to Mountain View.

Geb & Nyssa did great! They were a little nervous on their 1st trip in Sofia out to Element 11, but this time, they just took it in stride. Geb sat on my lap a lot of the way. Nyssa has claimed the top bunk above the drivers’ seat as her own. When we finally did arrive in Mountain Home I took them out on their leashes for the 1st time. They were so cute! Nyssa doesn’t really know what to think about the whole harness & leash thing, but Geb did pretty good. He just didn’t like being constricted to a small space – I think he wanted to go run up a tree & really explore!

The sunset tonight was so pretty… I stopped outside of Bliss, ID to take a picture. I realized that I’m going to be able to see almost every (if not all) the sunsets for the next 4 ½ weeks! So often I get busy with things inside & I’m not outside to enjoy the sunset. I realized that driving in the evenings (as I am doing because I’m working during the regular work day) I will get to see & appreciate the sunset each day. Perhaps when I finally get back home I’ll be able to fit in a few more sunsets, taking time out of my busy scheduled to just slow down & enjoy the beauty nature shares each day.