Seattle-Portland-Redding

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I am in Redding, California. I was awakened this morning at 4:30 by a horrible screeching noise. Startled awake and heart pounding, there was no going back to sleep. I am couch surfing, heading down to San Francisco to visit a friend from high school before I begin heading east and homeward. I don’t know what the noise was, but my host thinks it was perhaps a cell phone alarm belonging to one of the other couch surfers. It sounded like someone wrestling with a cat to me! There are four other women staying here. They are from southern California, all in their twenties, and all of them sleeping soundly in the living room. I had my own space, an air mattress on the floor of a bedroom. Steve, our wonderful host took us to a lake yesterday evening for a swim, treated us to Mexican food at a local restaurant, and then took us to see an amazing glass bridge (http://www.turtlebay.org/sundialbridge). Some of us got in his hot tub when we returned, and so it was 12:30 before I got to bed. We’re all going hiking today. I’m not sure what I can do on four hours of sleep, but we’ll see.

My last post was from Seattle, so I have much to catch up on…

After two nights at the hostel I found a couch (futon really) to “surf” on. If you don’t know what I mean by couch surfing, check out: http://www.couchsurfing.org/. I stayed with a wonderful lesbian couple for two nights in Seattle. Lynne and Gina. Gina was at work and then meetings most of the time so I hung out with Lynne who took me to her local hangouts. Wednesday night we had a couple beers with her “boyfriends” (as Gina likes to call them). What a fun evening! There’s nothing like seeing a town by meeting and hanging out with the locals. Thursday I took the ferry over to Bainbridge Island where I wandered around. A strange and beautiful place, it doesn’t seem quite real. It’s all too perfect, too pristine. No dirty parts, no slums, no homeless, no trash. Why does that have to seem strange?

Thursday night I had a glass of wine with Lynne at another bar, then I left her and went back to the condo to get to sleep early. After a good workout at the gym in the building, and then walking about six miles on my adventure, I wasn’t up for a long night out. I needed to be well rested for my trek to Portland the next morning. Jimmy (whom I met in Ketchikan and asked for a ride when I found out he’d be driving home to Portland) picked me up a little after 10:00. What a wonderful person! His summer had not worked out as planned either, but he was in good spirits driving home to be with his wife and spend his summer on a golf course. Great company, great conversation, I really enjoyed the ride in his ’88 Chevy pick up truck!

Jimmy dropped me off at a coffee shop a few blocks from Uncle Donnie’s house. Uncle Donnie is my mother’s younger brother. I reconnected with him and his family four years ago when I was traveling across the country. At that point I had not seen him in 27 years, and I had never met his seven children. It was fun to meet my cousins and to be a part of his family back 2008, and really special to spend time with them again. I had a fun visit with Donnie and Rita. Donnie had a meeting in Seattle on Saturday, so Rita took me to downtown Portland and showed me around. We went to Powell’s Bookstore, which is absolutely amazing! Then we had lunch at a local sports bar. Rita wanted to get her hair done, so she dropped me off on Hawthorn to wander around in the little shops. It was a beautiful day with bright blue skies, warm and not humid, unlike the east coast. Upon leaving one shop, a parade of naked bicyclists rode by. No kidding! Naked people on bicycles! That seems terribly uncomfortable to me, but they all looked so happy.

Sunday, Donnie and I got up early and went for a walk in his neighborhood and beyond. We walked up Mt. Tabor where we could look out over the city of Portland. Later, Rita drove us around through wine country. Oregon is a beautiful state, and it was another gorgeous day with blue skies and no humidity. We had dinner at a local pub, then dessert at the fancy restaurant where my cousin Annie got married a couple years ago. Dessert was superb! We shared a chocolate torte and a huge dish of blackberry sorbet.

This is getting to be a long post, but I need to catch up to where I am!

I found a ride to Redding, CA on Craigslist. It’s about a seven hour drive from Portland, and near enough to Mt. Shasta that we are going to hike there today. Yay, hiking! The guy who gave me a ride is a navy man heading from his home in northern Washington back to San Diego where he is stationed. I put $30 worth of gas in his car and he took me right to the home of my couch surfing host, which is where I am now. I keep saying this, and I’m going to say it again… there are so many great people in the world : )

Tomorrow I’m catching another ride that I found on Craigslist. I’ll be riding with a woman driving from Eugene, OR to San Francisco. I’m planning to spend two nights in San Francisco, and then I have something lined up to get me to Salt Lake City, where I’m planning to stay a night with Thomas’ niece.

More in a few days….