A New Friend

This will be a quickie post because I've got a deadline (already, I know...) and I should stay focused.  I just wanted to say that a neighbor stopped by today to introduce herself and to ask if she could pick some of the plums from our garden. "Sure" I offered, "take what you like."  I couldn't help but notice with sheer joy that my new friend was wearing a purple shirt and asking for plums.  Maybe one of you mentioned our blog to her? Otherwise, that's just an amazing coincidence.

We talked for a long time.  Sabrina works at the hospital where Dave will work and her husband works at the U of O--another amazing coincidence.  They're from Ashland (about three hours south) and Sabrina knows about the best yarn shop on the planet, also in Ashland.  So between the plums and the knitting I suspect we'll be good friends in no time.  We've already made plans to go to Erev Rosh Hashanah services together. 

And yes, we have plums a plenty in our gorgeous yard.  More on that in the next blog. 

Finally...tomorrow was here.

Tomorrow turned out to be further away than we'd planned.  We had high hopes of blogging but exhaustion set in.  So I will now give you two weeks of tomorrows from the perspective of yesterday...

Our journey began before it began on a visit to Eugene.  Dave had an interview in Eugene in July, and our connecting flight from San Francisco to Eugene was cancelled (of course!) so we had to drive all through the night to get him to his interview on time.  The California canyons were a welcome surprise.  I want to return to that color orange.  We arrived in Eugene the next morning with an hour to spare.  Somehow Dave managed to stay awake through most of the interview.  He got the offer on the spot, and we celebrated by visiting the famous Saturday market in Eugene where we ate peaches (no plums...they bloom later):

And then we explored the city and the river walk along Alton Baker Park.  Here we watched the sun set over the river. 

The next day we decided to check out the views from an hour west of Eugene. 

And later we assessed the views an hour east:

Because both views were so amazing we decided we should definitely move here. After chaotic packing, shipping, pacing, hand wringing, writing (to meet deadlines), applications filling out (to meet more deadlines), learning 5,000 new passcodes for new computer accounts, and millions of a trips to Staples and Petsmart, not to mention a haircut or three, we celebrated with a delicious family send-off/birthday dinner.

And the fun was only just beginning.  The next day the movers arrived.  I accidentally forgot to mention the overpass to the driver, so he got a little stuck on the way to our house with his semi.  Luckily Dave was able to rescue him.  After a day of packing in 1000% humidity (!), we headed out...all the way to King of Prussia (about 10 miles from home).  Potter discovered that he likes hotels:

Solomon, however, had other ideas. The mouse is a fake.  We stuffed it with cat nip hoping the drugs would calm Solomon.  You can see how successful we were.

The next stop was Richfield, Ohio which seemed to be fairly uninteresting...at least from the hotel.  But then we were off again to LeClaire, IA where we stayed in a hotel on the beautiful Mississippi River.  This was a great stop with a cool breeze.  I met a man on a motorcycle from Virginia.  We was taking his sixteen-year- old daughter on a ride across the country on his bike.  They were both lively and funny, and on their way back to Virginia.

Then on to Nebraska which was entirely too big and flat...but a necessary evil on our way to my favorite--Wyoming. Potter made himself right at home on a bed of his making (luckily there was a second bed for the humans). 

Solomon--ever the rebel--plotted his escape:

While Dave and I enjoyed the warm welcome we received on our way to Rawlins, Wyoming where we saw Pioneer Park:

A field of windmills:

We moved on to other discoveries: a place called "rattlesnake pass";  a farm with two lamas grazing amidst hundreds of cows; a field of marigolds; terrible thunderstorms that never came; and a wildfire that continued long after we left.  Wyoming, Wyoming, Wyoming--loves!!  We were greeted by a rainbow that reached from one end of the earth to the other.  And on my run I worked my way up a tall stone formation where I watched the sun set over the mountains as a train, ten miles long, passed me by.  I could see the snowy Rockies in the distance.  And we ate the best Thai food I've ever eaten in this tiny, remote pocket with a population of 5310 people, where they served something Philadelphia has yet to discover: tofu...prepared perfectly.

Later, while I dreamily lapped up the exotic (to me) and beautiful one turn after another, we stopped for lunch in a town in eastern Oregon.  The town has one diner and a mailbox for its 30-some residents--and that's all.  They carpool once a week to the grocery store 50 miles away.  They made me a mean taco salad...although they were bewildered by my request to remove the meat. Eastern Oregon was the biggest surprise of all.  The land is a place where I could imagine dinosaurs grumbling and wagons swaying in clouds of dust. 

Eventually we made our way here, to the other side where we've met new friends already.  Even Solomon agrees that this is a good place to stay.  See the vomit-colored green on the walls?  Dave took care of that while I scrubbed windows and floors and set up our kitchen.  Our first meal came from our amazing garden--more on that in a later blog ...once we finish unpacking.

I keep thinking about my new and old neighbors amidst the wild varieties of peoples and experiences I encountered along the way-- just a tiny sampling of the richness in this vast country.  What a gift and privilege to have made this trip. 

The source of the plums

    From Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"



         " Lizzie met her at the gate

Full of wise upbraidings:

“Dear, you should not stay so late,

Twilight is not good for maidens;

Should not loiter in the glen

In the haunts of goblin men.

Do you not remember Jeanie,

How she met them in the moonlight,

Took their gifts both choice and many,

Ate their fruits and wore their flowers

Pluck’d from bowers

Where summer ripens at all hours?

But ever in the noonlight

She pined and pined away;

Sought them by night and day,

Found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey;

Then fell with the first snow,

While to this day no grass will grow

Where she lies low:

I planted daisies there a year ago

That never blow.

You should not loiter so.”

“Nay, hush,” said Laura:

“Nay, hush, my sister:

I ate and ate my fill,

Yet my mouth waters still;

To-morrow night I will

Buy more;” and kiss’d her:

“Have done with sorrow;

I’ll bring you plums to-morrow

Fresh on their mother twigs,

Cherries worth getting;

You cannot think what figs

My teeth have met in,

What melons icy-cold

Piled on a dish of gold

Too huge for me to hold,

What peaches with a velvet nap,

Pellucid grapes without one seed:

Odorous indeed must be the mead

Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink

With lilies at the brink,

 And sugar-sweet their sap.”