Well, it was something of a struggle to get back home and so I’ve struggled somewhat to relive it all by writing. But, here we are at last, and my next posts (there should be several soon) shall delve into my delinquency in greater depth.
But picking up where I departed from my narrative and Fort Bragg, CA, in October 2015, I knew I would be getting home to Montana for Christmas (Lord willing, at least), but what stood between me and home in 6 weeks was this route: 
Add about 10 hours to the total, as I couldn’t put in all stops. So about 71 hours of driving (the last 40 in about a week)
Or, to summarize (the TL:DR version): a 4-hour drive East to Chico for a couple of days, 4 hours South to Sonora for a couple of days and then back to Chico overnight , 7.5 hours North to Corvallis, Oregon, 4 trips totaling 8-hours going back-and-forth in Oregon visiting Sissy in Silverton (and Newport for her birthday) over a couple of weeks, 2.5 hours back South again to Myrtle Creek, Oregon, for 5 days on a HelpX, then a single shot of 7 hours from there South to San Fransisco again overnight, sister, brother, and I going another 6.5 hours South to Santa Barbara (again overnight), 3.5 hours from there to Redlands for an overnight Thanksgiving visit, then back North to San Fransisco via the faster I-5 over about 8 hours of driving (interrupted by an oil change), a couple of days there, then 10 hours North straight from there to Corvallis, Oregon again, picked up the sister in Silverton and collected her things, spent a night 1 hour North in Portland before the 10-hour trip North East back home.
So, already craving rest, I was a discouraged just thinking about it.
I also didn’t have all that planned out in advance (no specific housing or routes), so, aside from my Chico destination, I didn’t know how it was going to work out (which by this point was becoming a bit stressful). I had multiple people and events that made sense to try to visit for this last season on the road and in this part of the country for a bit as I was stalling until Thanksgiving, which my siblings and I were to spend in Southern California. I had friends and cousins in Chico and Sonora, a baby dedication in central Oregon, my sister’s birthday, and her college to visit in Northern Oregon, Southern California for Thanksgiving and straight home for Christmas (the longitudinal opposite in the States from there, just about). *Sigh*
Obviously it’s all my choice – I could have stayed in Fort Bragg, but I saw it as one last opportunity for each of the visits that I didn’t want to miss out on for fatigue in the final lap(s). Don’t quit yet!
A few shots of the Inn before I departed it’s security, camaraderie, comfort, and beauty:
I was actually only planning on driving through Chico en-route, I thought, because half of the friend-couple who just had that beautiful baby grew up there and he was the last one of my close friends whose home town I had never seen. I adore my friends and I think where someone grows up is so significant. We called ourselves a “Fam” and I wanted to know about my sisters and brothers! But, as alluded to in the previous post, a couple days before I left I told the dear parents of that dear friend that I was passing through to see if they wanted to meet for coffee, since I also love meeting my friends’ families, and they invited me to dinner and included the overnight stay! I was blessed by the invitation and generosity. So Saturday, October 17th I drove away from Fort Bragg with my next blessed oasis (including dinner!) on the day’s horizon.
We had an amazing barbecue at their annual Duck-Hunters’ banquet (one of about 3 meals in my eating history I can bring readily to mind it was so delicious) and the mother informed me my lady-half-of-couple friend was coming into Chico for dinner Monday and invited me to stay for that. I felt like quite an imposition already, but since she was offering, it would be really nice to see everyone all together.
That gave me the next day (Sunday) to rest and explore Chico a little, so I got a perusal of Chico’s map and went to take a stroll through Bidwell Park and got a tour of the Mansion.
After my friend’s visit, I – feeling rude for imposing, but strengthened by their already more-than-expected generosity – asked if I would be able to spend the night after my visit in Sonora as we were all going to be going up to Corvallis the following Friday and the thought of another 11.5 hour day on the road with just a few snacks sounded increasingly rough and we were all going to the same occasion. They were kind enough to say yes, despite my boldness.
So, driving past miles of vineyards I don’t remember ever seeing before, I went to see my cousins, who I hadn’t visited with in 10 years!
On my way down I drove past my Nana’s old ranch in Galt, which I hadn’t seen since she sold it when I was 8. She had sold it to her old ranch-hands, who remembered me, and they welcomed me to come in and warmly chatted for a little while, which was so kind of them and meant a lot to me as I had so many old old memories of playing there when I was a toddler.
Me at one-and-a-half on a sandpile at Nana’s (eating it…)
And I got to spend time with my cousin’s baby! (All the babies!)
…And drive past the house we lived in when I was born, which – and my memories are *very* clear on this – was about 3 stories tall and had a massive parking lot for playing in (XD).
(Please note the “Estrellita St”… my name in Spanish is “Brigida”, so I have a little built-in nickname of “Estrellita Brigida” ^_^)
…And visit my Mother’s closest friend of 30-ish years (absolutely amazing with spinning her home-grown sheep and angora yarn).
Then, one-week after departing Fort Bragg, I chugged back up to Chico in the toasty Central Valley sunshine (I didn’t have A/C since Phoenix, if you recall) and, blessed to drag into my friends’ home and be served dinner as they were packing themselves for our 5:00am departure, I slept deeply and appreciatively in a bed and not my car for as substantial an amount of time as I could until we were on the road again.
I confess my impropriety that we were going to carpool up together, but, being in some danger of falling asleep, I chose to speed along independently as I am much more alert going at my quicker clip. Realizing apologetically that I was being inconsiderate by departing from my troupe, I dashed off into the dark winding road anticipating a 10:00am arrival and an additional hour of rest at our destination before the whole party arrived.
I did stop for just a moment, to get out and smell the fresh dawn air over this scene, somewhere in Northern California:
I also saw this truck, which I appreciated:
The next 4 weeks in Oregon passed thus. I spent that day with my dear friends (although feeling a bit in the way, with all the bustle and company) then went the next day (my sister’s birthday and the other reason for coming back north) to drive the hour to Silverton, where she was attending college, drive back for my friends’ baby’s Christening, and then, after spending some time at the church we didn’t anticipate, eventually drove to the beach (which my sister loves, but had not visited since we were in San Fransisco, since she didn’t have a vehicle or much time) and had a really good, but difficult talk about her struggles with her time at the school.
I spent five days in her college as a guest, through the end of October, not really able to work as there was no reliable internet in their canyon, but enjoying the moist Oregon fall, when not being too cold.
I also enjoyed this pumpkin carving event (I think she looks like Benedict Cumberbatch here, which is great since she did this dragon).
And we took a trip over to the Silver Falls, which she really wanted to go to together, especially since it looked like it might be her last chance as, at the end of the week, upon broaching the subject with her, my sister came to the conclusion that she really was not benefiting from her time in school and decided to come home with me at the end of the semester. It made for a lovely Oregonian outing.
That made it a constructive week of good sister time, but I then had to move on. Before departing to the beach earlier in the week, I had talked with my friend (with the baby) about possibly staying with them after my visit at the college was up, but they were very busy and crowded at the time already, so that didn’t work out. However, feeling compelled to ask her dad (who they were living with) he recommended asking a family friend of theirs (a girl my age), who I had met at my friend’s bachelorette party. She was willing to let me stay for a week or so and I offered to help her work on her house projects as a HelpX sort of situation, so that’s where I headed to next. In the meantime, I was still trying to do some remote recruiting work, which was getting me just enough dollars here and there I kept money in the gas tank and enough for basic groceries. My stay with my new friend ended up working out so well she offered to let me stay an additional week, which I gladly accepted! So I plucked away at working from the cafeteria of a local medical center that offered free wifi when not helping her paint or rearrange. I also got to wander around town with my friends, admiring the pretty town houses and the colorful trees, having some lovely time to hang out that was soon to become quite rare.
My hostess friend then opened the invitation up to the following months if I desired, which was so sweet, although I needed to start heading south at that point, so, bidding my new buddy goodbye, south I went, to a sheep farm HelpX situation in southern central Oregon for 5 days, which got me 5 hours closer to my next destination in San Fransisco (where my sister would fly to meet my brother and I). I also learned (out of what I will call desperation) how to make homemade chocolate! They opened their kitchen to me as part of the arrangement and I found if you put coco powder, some soft butter, and honey in a bowl (you can also “thin” it with instant hot cereal breakfast grain powders), it makes a decent dark chocolate replacement (I don’t know if I’ve stated in these posts that I was becoming increasingly dependent on dark chocolate to keep me going :`D).
Finally I headed back south again, for the final lap of my entire road-trip around the U.S: Central Oregon to Southern California to Montana in about a week, finding my brother’s happy countenance, philosophical bookshelf, and surrounding palm trees and sunshine to greet me in late November.
We had, I believe, the last occasion of a sibling trip before my brother got married almost exactly two years later to the lovely lady whom he had just started dating the summer of this trip – the last one with us all as independent kiddos of the same nuclear family before we started to settle into our own.
Of course I didn’t know that then, but it was lovely! We accidentally missed the slightly more scenic route down to Santa Barbara we wanted to take, but it was still lovely. We had my Uncle and Aunt’s lovely So Cal house to stay in for Thanksgiving amidst the transplanted roses that belonged to my Nana and which I have such beautiful memories of as a kid (roses are still basically my favorite flower because of that), chillin’ with the beagle and cousins amidst the smell of the citrus trees.
We played the traditional games from my great-grandparents’ era: the above bean-bag toss (with the very same board that my great grandma used around 100 years ago! And my Grampa at 84, the eldest of the party, making the final round) and “oink” (where someone stands in the middle of a moving circle of people, blindfolded and then sticks out a cane and points to someone and they say “oink” to a reply “oink” three times and then have to guess who it is! Creative “oinks” encouraged, of course XD).
Then we embarked North, had a delay for an oil change in the middle of the desert, because I realized it probably desperately needed one before we drove home and I think maybe something had happened that made us feel the need to stop at a shop en route, and then had a couple of days in San Fransisco when my sister flew back to Oregon to pack (she had already gotten tickets before deciding to leave the school), and I followed along on the ground.
When we got her all packed up, she was so relieved to be coming home, and, truth be told, so was I! After staying overnight with my lovely friends in Portland, we stopped for a luxury frappacino (a road trip necessity for her!) and, upon telling the barista she was excited to be going home, he added an extra dash of cheer to her cup, which was just perfect.
As for myself, I had been “window shopping” the U.S. for a job that called out to my ambitions or a place I’d really like to live and had prayed my way along, not feeling led to stay anywhere particular. I always knew I wanted to come home for Christmas and now, not having a plan for any return to any of the places I’d been to on this entire year and a half trek, I made a rough outline of a plan that I might apply to an assistant teaching position for English in a classical school in Colorado where I had a lot of classmates from college.
But for now, I simply set my eyes to the road for the last stretch in my immediate horizon, said goodbye to the Cascades of Oregon, and, with relief, went home for Christmas.
Adventures of a Soul 