The following morning, as I was driving home from my trip to Eureka, a bizarre and eerie lightning storm engulfed the State of California and set what felt like the entire state ablaze.  Immediately, life was changed again, as it had been changed so many times over the past year, and the valley where I lived filled (I mean absolutely freaking filled) with smoke.  Suddenly life grew even more isolated, as I could no longer go outside for morning runs, quick weekend hikes or getaways in the state as I had been doing to keep my sanity for the previous month.  Feeling boxed in and alone between an office and an empty house, and struggling with asthma, I secured some time off for the start of September to get away from what had been a dreary summer and search for clean air, and I began scoping out travel spots in the Pacific Northwest.  Ultimately I settled on a route: up to Silverton and Mt. Angel, Oregon; followed by Tacoma, Washington; and finally up to Port Angeles before making my way back home to get back to work and back to teaching (I am evening lecturing in vector calculus at Simpson University this fall, alongside my law career).  Anyways, this entry marks day one of my epic, and spiritually needed trip.

The days leading up to this trip have been eventful.  Jen and I are talking again, and our friendship at least seems to be slowly coming back.  Slowly…   “Jennifer, come on this trip with me!” I begged on Monday.  “Rob, I can’t.  It’s way too soon,” she replied.  We nevertheless shared a lazy dinner and movie on my couch.  We watched Safety Not Guaranteed, and both of us could feel a nostalgia and longing for our own past relationship throughout the film.  One thing that bothered me when Jen left me was that she went through this entire hair, fake eyelashes, fake nails, etc. transformation that made her look like an entirely different person from the woman I knew.  Yet as we sat on the couch she did this simultaneously gross and adorable thing where she slowly picked off the fake nails.  Whether she intended it or not, I saw a nice metaphor in the act: the claws were coming off.  Things were more down-to-earth again, and the girl I remembered was at least sitting by my side.

Work too has had some interesting developments, as I learned that I was the top billing attorney at my firm over the summer and that the firm intends to hire new support staff and re-vamp the practice to better help me and the new work that I’m doing.  I have also been winning and obtaining positive developments in a lot of cases lately, and it feels good to see my hard work paying off.  Sometimes I forget that I’m a good lawyer…

I left Red Bluff at 10 a.m. and headed north to Silverton.  By the time I reached Mt. Shasta the air started to clear of smoke, although I wouldn’t say that the air was completely smoke and haze free until I reached Eugene.  It feels so nice to be out of California, though.  The air is clean and the restrictions on life are much more reasonable than the hardcore COVID lockdown that California is under.

I am staying at the Oregon Garden Resort, which has a breathtaking botanical garden and stunning views of the surrounding Willamette Valley. I haven’t had too much time to explore today given that it was about a 7 hour drive to get up here, but I was able to walk the grounds, and they look like this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And there was this weird, Bigfoot thing that looked like this:

I’ll be honest, this is a pretty romantic place (this whole trip is going to be that way), which unfortunately makes the being here alone that much more difficult.  Nevertheless, there is a lot of spirit and energy here that I am trying to tap into, and I’m using the week to detach and destress from life.  After I ate dinner, I drove around as the sun set, and I explored the valley a bit and nearby Mt. Angel, which is where I plan to spend my day tomorrow before heading up to Tacoma.  So, just to give you a sense of coming attractions, here is a sneak preview of the seminary and abbey at Mt. Angel and the surrounding area:

And this:

And this:

Get ready to spend a day with priests, monks, and a place that truly looks and feels close to God.

To be continued…