Snapshots

OREGON:

Thing 1: Windmills! I want one for pet!
Thing 2: Farms of harnessed natural POWER!

WASHINGTON:
Thing 1: Red, red sunset a near disastrous brush with an empty gas tank.
Thing 2: The first night is upon us; red sky at night sailors delight. We are going to die in LIND!

IDAHO:
Thing 1: I slept through most of Idaho (thank God) but woke up just in time to see the most adorable, picturesque town. Too bad it was dark. No adventuring for us.
Thing 2: Not much to tell. It’s Idaho…

MONTANA:


1: Montana was friendly, Missoula was cute, and it ain’t called big sky country for nothin’.
2: The most amazing air I have ever had the privilege of filling my lungs with. My soon to be home. The calling only got stronger.

WYOMING:

1: For some reason, the pink, dry, rolling hills of Wyoming were so indescribably beautiful for me. Bring on the cowboys, home on the range!
2: Rolling landscape with four legged friends to keep me awake.

SOUTH DAKOTA:


1: Sunrise, the exact place where General Custer effin’ DIED, the Black Hills, the Badlands in the distance, gave way to so much flatness.
WALDRUG
2: Soiled history; Little Bighorn Battlefield. A place where people live to merely exist and survive.

IOWA/NEBRASKA:

1: “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you CORN!” The first skyscrapers I saw since Portland.
2: Oh my God Corn. And all sorts of smells. Omaha, the first real life city.

MISSOURI:


1: Gentle and green, only deciduous trees. St. Louis was big and beautiful. Missouri, I think you can count on me for another visit.
2: It’s really hot, and what is this? Humidity? Master St. Louis freeway system? Check.

ILLINOIS:

1: Weird in Cahokia, old and ancient with housing developments next door. I will go to Chicago next time, and try to avoid the rest.
2: Cahokia; uhhhh ok…(more on that later). Sleeping in “the ghetto” really? Twice over the Mississippi.

KENTUCKY:
1: After Illinois, before Tennessee.
2: I don’t remember Kentucky.

TENNESSEE:






1: Destination! Excitement! And then Dollywood and “Vegas for tots”, the smoky mountains and a HOUSE with SHOWERS. And then the Sweet Boys in Sweetwaer, where it was magical and there were lightning bugs and lightning storms.
2: Hot. Blissful. Everything I wanted. 14 golden lab PUPPIES. (more on TN later)

ARKANSAS:
1: Arkan-Wha? I remember Memphis, which isn’t even in the state.
2: Little Rock Nine
1: Oh yeah. Little Rock. I DO remember Arkansas!

OKLAHOMA:

1: I want you to take me out in the surrey with the friiiiinge on top!
2: Stormy. Blanket blinding rain.

TEXAS:

1: Flat, “biggest” cross in North America, cloud shadows all across the land. Yee-haw.
2: Oh god, the cross. Seriously swanky rest stops.

NEW MEXICO:


1: EPIC is the only word to fully describe the flat, juniper strewn land, red cliff faces jutting out of the land into the stormy sheets of rain and electricity.
2: I saw it all in photographs. Astonishing. Red. Epic. Thunder and lightning storms were leading, following, and consuming us.

ARIZONA:



1: Red. Canyon-y. Warm. Hot. Almost to The Biggest Hole You’ve Ever Seen, but 3 dollars a day and an addiction to coffee prevented it. It was pretty.
2: Not seeing the Grand Canyon. I don’t even want to talk about how fucking inconceivable it is that it costs $25 to look at a hole.

UTAH:
1: Saw TWO dummy cops behind the wheel of two separate cop cars, just chillin’, controlling traffic and the unruly public with their stiff, plastic, dummy selves. V strange.
2: Those dummy cops were so weird and creepy. A new tape adapter, bag full of bird feathers, and a dollar bill found nearby.

NEVADA:
1: Sweltering hot, not quite too hot, 108 degrees and dry. VEGAS BABY. Overstimulation that I would like to experience when I am of age for a week, never to return.
2: Oh please no, don’t remind me.

CALIFORNIA:



1: I left my heart and half of my money in San Francisco, spent wonderful time with my wonderful family who I adore more than ever. It will not be so long before I go back.
2: San Francisco; you were lovely as always. Shelley’s it was great to meet to rest of you at long last, and to see GREG again. Bolinas and they Lag house, you were too good to me.

ORagain:

1: I have driven the drive from Eugene to Portland countless times, and it really doesn’t take very long. This time? It took what seemed to be 6 hours. There’s no place like home, but there’s also no place like the continent we live on.
2: Agreed. That drive turned me crazy for what felt like hours. Oregon is beautiful. I really do love it here.