On the Road, Part I

I have no idea how many parts this little saga will contain. At least two based on the title.

Last year we started what was supposed to be a three week road trip, or maybe a two week road trip, through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, before returning to California. However, post-vaccination Covid caught up with us, and we were grounded until declared “safe.” I felt like a naughty child!

Somewhere on Hwy 395

So, we are back on the road, and it is an odd experience. Travel actually requires a certain mindset, a patience with developing new routines while daily ones at home vanish. A road trip means sitting in a car for hours at a time. Josh the Esposo loves to drive, so I sit casually by, and observe the world flying by me. My camera is at hand, set to a fast exposure to catch things as they fly by on the roadside. Sometimes I get good ones. Sometimes I don’t get good ones. In between I am knitting mindlessly on a circular sweater that will be steeked upon my return.

What I do get are memories of places that are beautiful or unreal in my current reality. The big one is water on the ground! As our water vanishes in the Southwest, it just hangs out in places like Oregon and Wisconsin and Montana. Rivers, creeks, lakes, ponds. The luxury of a 10 minute shower as opposed to the Navy shower.

The Goodman House B&B in Chico, CA

This trip is one to Wisconsin to visit my younger brother, Kevin, and his wife Suzi. We have driven about 2500 miles (4025 km) to go half way across the country along a northern route. We started in the Los Angeles area, where we live, and drove 8.5 hours to Chico in Northern California. Perhaps a last stay in our beloved Goodman House B&B as the owners plan to sell – time to retire from the business. Dinner at the Sierra Nevada Brewery.

Local Beer is Good!

You can look up all these places if you want, but suffice it to say that Chico is a beautiful town, with new sections and old, trees and such that make it a charming place to visit and a pleasant place to walk around.

Street Scene in Chico – Trees and Shade

I did walk around the morning we were to leave for Bend, Oregon, where one of my oldest friends lives.

Morning Flowers

On the Forest Floor

One of the things about following a track in the woods regularly, you see things that you don’t see another time. Where we were staying near Spokane, our daily walks took us out along the same track, under the pines, alongside the river. While the season didn’t change much in the few days we were there, what I saw became more specific, like this flower against the fallen tree. Different times of day, too, presented the light in different ways as it shone through the trees. This familiarity is one of the delights to be had with the familiar.

Pine Trees

We are staying at the edge of the Riverside National Forest, just outside of Spokane, WA. The Spokane River runs through it. Tall pine trees and other plants – flowers, bushes – line the banks of the river. Some people have houses along the shoreline. In high summer, the dusty, dry smell of pine needles fills the air. So do a few bugs – I got a nasty bite from some kind of fly and it hurt! Despite the bugs, it is always a pleasure to walk through a forest and be in the countryside.