The Wild Ocean
I've been on the road for I'm-not-sure-how- long. . . five or six hours at least.
The Pacific Ocean has been at my elbow for the last several hours. I had forgotten what it was like. The biggest water I've seen for several years has been Puget Sound -- not the same thing at all. I've stopped at lookouts several times, including one isolated little beach where I was completely alone. I took my shoes off and went out on the sand to just watch the breakers.
This was the right decision. The drive has been utterly gorgeous. Before I reached the coast highway, I followed a couple of rural highways that wound through mountains and farmland and along rivers. Sometimes the trees almost touched over the road. I saw buffalo and elk.
This has been good for my self-respect (traveling an unfamiliar route alone) and my soul. I realized an hour or so ago that this is the first time in ages I've had the freedom to travel wholly at my own pace.
It hasn't been lonely, but I have wished more than once that I had someone with me to share the beauty of the journey.
And now the tv in the restaurant is reporting the death of Michael Jackson. . .
The Pacific Ocean has been at my elbow for the last several hours. I had forgotten what it was like. The biggest water I've seen for several years has been Puget Sound -- not the same thing at all. I've stopped at lookouts several times, including one isolated little beach where I was completely alone. I took my shoes off and went out on the sand to just watch the breakers.
This was the right decision. The drive has been utterly gorgeous. Before I reached the coast highway, I followed a couple of rural highways that wound through mountains and farmland and along rivers. Sometimes the trees almost touched over the road. I saw buffalo and elk.
This has been good for my self-respect (traveling an unfamiliar route alone) and my soul. I realized an hour or so ago that this is the first time in ages I've had the freedom to travel wholly at my own pace.
It hasn't been lonely, but I have wished more than once that I had someone with me to share the beauty of the journey.
And now the tv in the restaurant is reporting the death of Michael Jackson. . .