Ride Along

Hey There Friend,

Man oh man, what a fun ride!

We’re in Tucumcari, after exploring Santa Fe for a few hours.

We’re nearing the end, and beginning to feel the wear and tear of it, having to pack and reload every morning, and the hours of driving.

But so so much we’ve seen along the way, and so many nice connections.

Greenlake and the rain forest, Ruby Beach

Astoria and Tongue Point, and Seaside, where I lived in ‘80

Powell’s bookstore in Portland, which incredibly not only endures, but now takes up an entire city block around its original, modest footprint.

We got down and into the Redwoods, then the amazing sweep and swerve through the Coast Range.

In Chico, we overheard a conversation between our hostess, who’d involved herself in relief support to evacuees of Paradise, and a young friend who’d live there. He reported that his entire family was burned out – 10 homes – and that he’d come close to being among the dead: residents who woke to smoke and ran to their cars, only to be trapped by the elevation and inaccessibility of the place. He became blocked in, and heard explosions of propane cylinders and possibly cars going off. A bulldozer came along and drove aside the dead vehicles. He and his ninety-year old mother replaced Marzena and I in the guest room.

We hit San Francisco, drove about, walked some, she took lots of photos.

The next day we got onto highway 1, and it took us four hours to cover forty miles, the views stopped us so often.

The worst thing about this trip’s timing is the early dying light, so we sped though the dark to make it to LA to meet an old friend. He directed us to the Santa Monica Pier for our morning exploration and we didn’t even know until we were there that we’d pop up on Venice Beach.

We got to slow down in San Diego, where we had a good visit, followed by another in Mesa. We left there last night to bend our path north to Santa Fe, and do you know there was snow on the ground and ice in cracks in the sidewalks? We were totally unprepared for that, but given the elevation at 7,200 ft , we should have been.

We’re on our way to Houston, and we’ll be at least a day late for Thanksgiving in Atlanta.

Next Monday, I’m at work at 9am.

What a Blast!

It was GREAT to hang out with you!

I look forward to the next time!

Kirby