So I enrolled for the Fall session packed up my car at the end September and drove out to Sedona. The month was painful , long , and wilding rewarding. I knew every day waking up at 3 am hiking up the road to a 3 hour morning yoga class that it was good for me and I would appreciate it once it was over. But , I had moments and hours and some whole days of despair , or boredom, or just plain exhaustion. The chanting , vegetarian diet and 8- 10 hours of yoga a day cleaned me out, things started to look clearer and I was able to sit just longer with myself .
Homesickness sunk in pretty hard too and I wanted out of the wacky spiritual community of massage therapists and clairvoyants. I was wanting everything I wanted so badly to get away from ; the leaves , the crisp chill of fall, New England style houses ,the color and fireplaces. Arizona’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong, looking up at the canyons I would feel like I was under the sea , tiny and protected by this solidity and power. But the houses are all the same color and design. It's as if everything is too perfect too together , as if you are hovering above it all but can’t get close enough feel any of it. I became aware quite quickly that I didn’t want to move to the Southwest.
I’ve always wondered how people could spend their lives in the same place they grew up. To me, it seemed like settling, and not to mention boring. I will always feel that need to travel. I believe it because it enables me expand my small world just enough to see a bit brighter. But I also am aware that I am no different from these "small town folks" who choose to stay close to what they love. No matter what, there is nothing that will take the place of that place. It’s not necessarily a place it’s a feeling and maybe we can learn to take those feelings with us, but I know that once it goes missing, I will be back on the lookout, and will not stop until I get it back once again.
After we fought back the tears from driving out of Portland, we set out for California. We had to take a minor detour through Eugene, OR, but other than that we got to Cali pretty smoothly. Once again the landscapes were breathtaking. We wound through the mountains of northern Cali and entered into Redwood territory. My nickname when I was a kid was Randi of the Redwoods so I was getting pretty excited. We descended from the mountains after driving though one, and stopped to watch the sunset on the Pacific Ocean in Cresent City, CA. We hadn’t made it to any of our destinations before dark, and this day was no different. After seeing a few campgrounds that were pretty sketch in people’s backyards and seemed like they would chainsaw us in the middle of the night. We finally found a campground in the redwoods state park and set up for the night. We cuddled up in our two person tent read bedtime stories and crashed. We must have needed some good fresh air mountain sleep because we slept until 9am!! Shocking! We packed it up in the morning and set out for a day in the redwoods.
The time we spent in the woods was the most fun we have had in the parks so far. We would drive a little ways, then see a cool spot and get out and run around, drive some more, run around some more. This went on probably five times or so, we just couldn't get enough of the massive trees. In one spot we even drove our car "Whitey" through a tree. We felt so small and so at home in the never ending forests. Once we made it back into the car for good we were on our way to San Fran. The Napa Vally was stunning and our spirits were high, those redwood trees drugged us. We car danced all the way to the city listening to Fergie, Rihanna, MIA and the Strokes . Our lovely GPS brought us thru the city so we crossed the Golden Gate and finally made it into Alemeda which is right across the bay. Maureen has the cutest house right on the bay , and gave us her spare room and cooked us chicken for dinner. We were grateful to be here.
