Turning back for Oregon



Me on the Road :)



Ok……………. So first let me say that I never made it to Colorado. I got halfway to my destination, and then got a call from an employment agency offering me a job I pretty much could not turn down. So I turned around and went back to my parents place. The job starts on July 11^th, and because I do not need to get a job right away now, there really is no reason for me to hurry up to Colorado. Of course I am going to be up there for when my husband gets home, but come July 11^th I will be back in Portland, Oregon.

I don’t consider myself a religious person, but the truth is that I feel some sort of gravity pulling me towards Portland. All around me people are saying “if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be”. The truth is that I have been doing odd jobs in Portland, from working as a personal assistant, to temping at a rehab facility, but all the while looking for fulltime work…..It is just so incredibly bizarre that in the 11^th hour in an attempt to leave Portland, I get a call that drags me back. I guess only time will tell what the future holds.  

So Back to the running:

I broke my running shoes. I literally wore the padding in the back of the shoes out. I mean these shoes are done. Kaputz!!!!! (Is that how you spell that)….But I am camping with a friend of mine where there is no cell service, no running shoe stores, no internet connection…I mean I am camped in the boonies of Oregon. So I improvise and take out the duct tape and try to smooth out the spiny edge sticking out of the back of my shoe. …and truthfully it works….

Where I am camping the running is amazing. Actually, getting away from all of the trappings of social media, TV, cell phones, and internet is pretty damn cool. Sometimes I like to just disappear so I can focus on my writing, and I guess that is what I am doing right now.  But I digress.. Currently,  I am camped 30 miles west of Baker, Oregon down Whitney Road, in the Whitman National Forest.  It’s really too cold to sleep in a tent, so I have laid the seats down in my Jeep and made the back into a little makeshift bed. It actually is kind of comfortable. During the day I read and write, at night I sit by the fire and have long conversations with my camping buddy Nancy, who last year installed a bed into the back of her truck and now travels around the country living each day for what is worth

Yesterday I strapped on my running shoes and went for a run down an old logging road that runs past our camp. I don’t know how to tell you how beautiful it was without sounding trite. The forests smelled like rain, and fir trees. In the distance white capped mountains lined the horizon. A small little creek kept the logging road company, and I was satisfied with the deep pounding in my chest, and the quiet cold air around me.  It was beautiful, but the running was hard.  It just didn’t come easy to me. Maybe it was the increase of elevation, my shoes, or the steady diet of peanut butter sandwiches which have sustained me for the last four days, but it didn’t come easy.  Whatever…..it doesn’t always come easy does it, but at least it comes.