915 total miles. 2 states, 1 National Park, 1 National Forest, 1 State Park, 1 Lighthouse, 1 old friend, 1 major city, 1 ocean, ½ dozen oysters all eaten by Erin, currently $71 under budget.
This week was full of more amazing scenery than you could shake a stick at! The Pacific Northwest (PNW) is a land full of wonders both big and small. Our National lands (Parks, Forests, monuments, etc) truly are a treasure that is hard to fully describe in any way that hasn’t been said better by other people. The greatest thing is that many State Parks also hold wonders both big and small. When you add County Parks like those administered by some counties in Oregon, the American people truly share natural lands holding a biodiversity that is hard to comprehend. Public lands in the U.S. are about 28% of all land ~ each state has a larger or smaller percentage, and most Western States have a larger percentage of public lands than most Midwestern or Eastern states. Feeling very, very lucky that some politicians and citizens had the forethought to preserve at least some of those lands for future generations.
We cannot talk about the West without talking about white settler’s impact on First Nations people. Most signage, especially in the PNW, contains native names of various parks & markers. And, especially in Washington, lots of effort has gone into highlighting non-white ways of life both pre and post contact. Both in Oregon and in Washington First Nations reside on beautiful and fertile lands that have been tribal lands for centuries. In our mostly ignorant white-centric way we both are glad to see what we perceive as some of the best lands remain in first people’s hands. (Disclaimer: please forgive us for any insult ~ none is intended, and we would welcome education to avoid any missteps in the future)
On another note, we have decided that we aren’t on “vacation”, we are “travelling”. Vacation implies a certain amount of indulgence, whereas travelling means there is work to be done regularly. We have cleaned the car twice in the last 21 days. We consistently must look ahead to think about our route and/or reservations so we know where we’re staying and what the budget is. We have done laundry approximately once a week and have packed/repacked the car approximately 1000 times.
Skills we have gotten better at:
- giving and receiving driving directions
- sign reading and comprehension at 60 mph.
- U-Turns
- interpersonal communications around anxieties and fears
- packing and unpacking the car.
Skills we need to work on:
- packing and unpacking the car
- not driving too long on a given day
- forward research on destinations so we don’t have to spend the 1st day as an orientation day and can hit the ground running with priorities.
- being as present in the current moment as often as possible
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