Monday and Tuesday were spent with cleaning, shopping, packing, neighborhood walks, and coffee breaks.
Wednesday morning I woke up with an unfortunate case of pink eye. With emotions of denial I went on with my early departure from Washington. In approx 2 hrs I arrived in Portland, OR for my scheduled breakfast and site-seeing.
After increasing eye discomfort and consulting my favorite RN (my mommy) I took her advice to nix the rest of my Portland adventures, and find a walk-in clinic. Instead of interesting old buildings and exploring another city, I spent my morning in a doctor's office and Target pharmacy.
Good news is, it didn't delay my trip at all. And in the grand scheme of things, it really wasn't a big problem. Just a simple hiccup.
Most of the drive through Oregon was overcast, rainy, and boring. But always beautiful.
By the early evening I found my way to Cave Junction, OR, a town about two blocks in length. It was the last stop light before Out n About Treehouse Treesort, where I would be staying for the night.
I can't even tell you how cool this place is.
The rooms are individual tree houses and cabins. Access to the rooms is by stairs and tree bridges. The place I stayed in was called the "Peacock Perch" and was in the tree about two flights up.
I spent the evening walking on the bridges, swinging on a tree swing, then reading inside by the fire.
Later I was walking to my tree house when one of the workers scared me half to death when he appeared suddenly out of the woods. He said hello and explained that he was on his way to light a bonfire.
While he got that going, I went to my room to change and get my Steelers flashlight. It started to rain, so I sat at the bonfire under my little pink umbrella.
In the morning, I woke up to the same sound of rain on the tree house roof that I had fallen asleep to.
After breakfast I left early, driving the scenic route toward California.
The drive through Oregon's forest was windy but beautiful. However, once I reached the border between California and Oregon I came to an abrupt stop, as there was about 2 feet of snow burying the road. Apparently California does not bother maintaining state routes during the winter months..
Because I left the Treesort early, this minor hiccup en route did not disrupt my trip as a whole.
Despite the unrelenting rain, I made it to California. I stopped for lunch in Mt Shasta where I had intended to explore and wonder at the mountain. But the rain and clouds blocked my view so I cut those plans and left after lunch. Hiccup.
These minor wrenches in my plan dropped me in San Francisco at the height of rush hour. Flustered and bladder full, I decided to get off of the freeway early and check in to my hotel. You see, my plan was to drive the whole way to Pacifica, which is where my things are in storage. I was going to load my car, drive back North to San Rafael, where I will be moving in to my apartment tomorrow, and check into a hotel for the night. So instead of sitting in traffic for an hour, I figured I'd stop at the hotel and kill some time with dinner or something.
When I arrived at the hotel, they had mistakenly assigned me to a smoking room. There weren't any non-smoking rooms available in that hotel, or any nearby hotel I would come to find. Hiccup.
Bladder full to the point of spasm, I sat in my car in a parking lot, frantically searching for a reasonably priced hotel or bed and breakfast, or anything that I could stay in for the night.
After checking in, I debated driving to Pacifica to get my things. What should only take 40 minutes was projected to take over an hour because of traffic. The last thing I wanted to do was load all of my belongings into my car in the corner of some storage place at night. So instead I relaxed on the little porch outside of my room, then went to the restaurant to enjoy dinner, a beer, and some live jazz.
In retrospect, these minor hiccups of the day weren't really that bad. Much like my trip up North a few weeks ago, there was potential for disaster or bigger problems, but these were manageable. I am grateful. But tired. It's not easy to deal with issues when you've been driving for two days straight. I'm ready to be settled again for a little.
It's been 5 days since I've seen someone I know. That's too long for me. I miss familiarity and the comfort of seeing people you know and care about. I told Ashley to be prepared for me to be way more excited to see her tomorrow than she will be to see me.
So it's rest for now, and up and at 'em tomorrow :)
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