Back in Eugene

I had been in the Okanogan for three months, when I got back to Eugene. I went into virtual culture shock. I couldn't stand it there. I just longed with everything in me to be back in the Okanogan. I tried to be practical, and stay and sell at the market, to make money. I was dying. I couldn't do it. I just wanted to go back with all my being. Finally a woman at the market asked me if I went back, without making the money what is the worse that could happen to me? I said I could die in a snow drift. I went back.

But it wasn't that easy. I checked the weather, and it all seemed ok, so I set out. It was me and my cat I had retrieved in Oregon. It isn't an easy trip under the best of conditions. I got to Portland and it was raining. I turned right, onto Highway 84, which is a freeway along the Columbia River Gorge, and it was snowing. I wasn't the most experienced of drivers and had never driven on snow. I didn't have snow tires. I am lucky I am here to tell the tale.

I was driving for a while, and I was near Hood River. I was going kind of slow, and thought, maybe I should speed up a little. Bad idea. I put more gas on, and suddenly the car went out of control skidding all over the freeway. If there had been another car, or especially big truck, that would have been it for me. And I was afraid I would just crash into something on the side too. Somehow I got the car under control, and inched my way to the next exit, Hood River. It was so good I got off. The snow was way worse than I realized. On the freeway, it was melting some as it came down. Once I was off, the reality of the situation was way more obvious. The snow was deep, and the town was shut down. I drove my car down a hill, and I got stuck and stranded by the train station. I was there for the next two days.

Finally the sun came out, the roads got plowed, and people in town thought it would ok for me to continue on. I still had most of the journey to go. Hood River is the most a few hours from Portland. So I took off all confident about the weather. Not. I crossed over the Columbia River and was in Eastern Washington. Oh yeah, it was sunny, but it was zero degrees in the day. It was me and the cat. I wasn't used to weather like this. I had lived in Hawaii and  Western Oregon for the past 10 years. I went on. I was on the eastern side of the state and how to drive through desolate stretches. I was going from dot to dot on the map, saying if you can only get to this next point. I spent the night in a motel, and begged for my cat to come in. I was so exhausted by it all, I took a shower and passed out on the bed.

The next day I still had more to do. I finally got there, to my destination but I was shaking. It was a very hard journey. The last 40 miles, were on those back roads, and that is treacherous too.

Now the weather in the Okanogan Highlands was way different than I had left. It was before Thanksgiving and the snow was deep, and it was zero degrees in the day, probably 30 below at night. I got to John's and it was stressful. I don't remember exactly what happened, but we weren't doing so well and I left. What a time to leave. So I drove 60 more miles in that weather, and went back to Oak and the Circle. I needed somewhere to stay. I ended up staying in a friend's candle making shop for a while. It was warm because it was underground. Then Arborsun was leaving to go take care of his mother, so I got to live in his house for the winter. His house could barely be called a house. It was more like a little underground hobbit hole. It worked though and I made it through the winter. I chopped wood and carried water. I had friends around me, doing the same thing. I was on 500 acres of beautiful land. I made a little money selling hats at Christmas bazaars. I didn't even leave the land for 6 weeks, so I didn't really need much money. It was quiet and peaceful.

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