Portland, On Hold

March 30, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

From Eugene, we are moving on to Portland, and as it’s only a two-hour drive, Ric leaves me to sleep in as long as I need. When I stir, around 11:00, he tells me that we are headed back to a repair shop at 2:00. The engine warning is still showing up: ” Water in […]

The Oregon Coast

March 29, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Let’s go for a seafood lunch on the ocean.” So, I bundle up – the temperature is cooler here than we’ve used to – and we head along highway 126, out of Eugene. The two-lane road winds through trees, passes through a tunnel and leads us out to the amazing Oregon coast. We stop in […]

Oregon: We Made It!

March 28, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Could you please turn off the scenery so I can get some sleep?” We’re leaving California and driving along highway #5 into Oregon. Tall firs and pines line the road and a soft velvet green covers the hills. Peaks in the distance are snow-capped offering a shocking contrast to the deep green tips. The route […]

Redding, California

March 25, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

Redding is a mid-sized town with a population of 90,000. Our camp is set atop a hillside, and the scenery is beautiful, with mountains as a backdrop and tall trees beginning to bud. We have found spring. I have not quite recuperated from our trip to San Francisco, so we decide not to venture very […]

Pacific Coast Encounter

March 22, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

We drive through San Francisco’s waterfront, noting the interesting architecture and impressed by the artsy feel of the place. Like most big cities, San Francisco has its share of homelessness, and many officers on foot patrol can be seen talking to people in make shift tents, or others sleeping in cement flower boxes. It is […]

San Francisco Love

March 21, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Due to the rain, we decide just to drive through San Francisco and then swing back along the coast and pass by Half Moon Bay before heading back to our camp. Of course, neither of us has been here before, so we have no idea what to expect. The city is spectacular. We enter through […]

Turning North

March 20, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

It is raining the morning we pick up the RV – heavy dark clouds hovering overhead. Some days, it feels like my skin offers no barriers, for the damp weather seeps into my body and plays havoc. And then, just as we ready ourselves for the road, the sun breaks through and a rainbow lights […]

Writing Class #3

March 17, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

The prompt for this week is to consider the vulnerability of new growth and what it takes to protect it, tying it into nature. Here is the edited version, after the instructor’s suggestions. Rebirthing It came in the peak of summer that most optimistic time, when sunshine equates with health and bodies glow with exertion […]

RV-Disabled

March 16, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

“The bus is ready to be picked up,” Ric announces as he gets off the phone. It’s ten a.m., earlier then we’d expected the repairs to be completed, so we decide to forego the site we’d booked for tonight, just twenty minutes away, and start the journey north today. As it goes, 10:00 turns into […]

Los Angeles, California

March 13, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“There’s a place called Balloona Wetlands which is supposed to be good for birding,” Ric tells me the first morning I’m ready to go again. “It’s in LA, though.” Innocently, I shrug and say: “Sure”. We are staying in a motel in Ontario, California while our RV is having some work done. Los Angeles is […]

Back Seat Only

I can’t remember a timewhen elegance chose meto sit in the front seatride along in style She’d be clad in whiteand I’m ever too messycan’t control myselfmight tarnish the upholstery She’d want to go shoppingrings and jewels flashinglike Pretty Womanafter the haul I’m second-handtypically slink in and outgrabbing what I need and goinglest anyone see […]

Having a Why

(This is found poem, previously posted on OneWoman’s Quest II)

Over It!

One day it’s so mild that I don’t bother with a coat, the next we wake up to snow on the ground. The plants pushing up through the soil seem a little more patient than me – as if they are humouring nature’s fickleness. I’m ready for clear change. A pair of finches just flew […]