What you don’t always appreciate is how much you love your home when you are away and, especially, your critters. On about the third week of our trip, we started to really think about heading home. We were missing it. But we had a schedule to follow, and it was time for mapping to Bozeman — our last stop on our shared vacation with the young folk. And what a special spot it was.
Our cabin in the mountains was the perfect place to decompress from all our adventures — surrounded by lush fall colors and an incredible family of deer. As we went out on the deck for the first time, a mule deer buck was sitting stock still in the forest foliage. I honestly thought he was a statue until his ear twitched. I felt so fortunate that he let me photograph him and then we never saw him again; though his family came around at dusk when we were relaxing in the hot tub and his obviously mule deer fawns chewed on their evening fodder. My lovely encounters with the deer on our trip have been feeding my imagination for a lovely children’s book that I have already started working on. Traveling fuels the fire of the brain fancy, there is no doubt about that!
Oh, and at the bottom of our road in the mountains is a bear sanctuary! What? We had such a good laugh about that. I spent nearly our entire trip looking for bears — through Wyoming and Yellowstone, where the bears are actually supposed to live, and here, I just had to wait until our last stop. We had such a lovely time at the sanctuary where the bears were beautifully spoiled and well-cared for. Samson and his therapy log Brawn will likely feature strongly in my children’s stories. He was such a lovely big grizzly and so enamored of his friend, the log, not to mention the watermelon treats that were all over the enclosure. These bears would not have been able to survive in the wild, so the sanctuary was the perfect home for them. I spent a good amount of money in their gift shop and took many lovely photos.
We dropped the young ones off at the airport and head back towards Canada. It was time to thank the lovely Kathleen at the Laughing Horse Lodge for her kindness years ago. Though we were pretty much retracing our steps back up to the Kalispell area, this was an important quest. Back when my daughter broke her back in that nasty car accident and her boyfriend had to cancel all their holiday plans in Montana, Kathleen shone out like a shining star in her kindness to them. Not only did she cancel their stay without question, she offered to make calls to their other bookings in the area. Kindness like that needs to be thanked in person. And she was so very surprised to see us, remembering my daughter and the awfulness that befell her on her way to Montana all those years ago. What a stunning place to stop indeed. Cabins around a lush courtyard where you could relax in the sun, their lovely golden retrievers always trying to coax the diners to share their food and Samson, the stunning African grey parrot who greeted everyone and chatted away when he was so inclined. (I loved his comment, “Straighten up, Samson!” said with such sincerity!) And the restaurant at the lodge was tiptop, Husband said. We enjoyed our very best meals in that divine space. We will return.
From there, we cantered through Washington State, Spokane and Yakama, rather full of bad drivers and less than fabulous motels, but we had the homing instinct setting in at this point and we weren’t really feeling like exploring anymore.
We arrived in Ashland, Ore., on a sunny day and went to see husband’s family. His old mom has Parkinson’s and dementia, which is a bit of a cruel combo, but she cheerily said, “There you two are,” when we walked in the door. I hadn’t seen her for five years. We had a nice visit and even sipped a little wine together, as we used to do. If this is the last time I see her, it was a good last time. We need to always check in with our elderlies and give support to their caregivers. Some folk sacrifice their own lives to take care of family members and that is certainly the case in our family.
We had some lovely deer action in Ashland too — there was a theme running through this trip. They were peacefully grazing everywhere we went.
From Oregon, it was onto Weed in California, where you need to buy the appropriate folks’ customary shirts, and then onto Eureka for the night, followed by Fort Bragg. During my entire 33 years in Cali, I had always wanted to visit the Mendocino Coast and, when I finally made it, I wasn’t disappointed. After a rather precarious drive from Eureka along the tricky highway one (think near single lane road, dodgy cliffs and tractor trailers headed towards you type of nightmare) and then a calmer journey towards Fort Bragg, I was so happy to see the Pacific again. I had missed her so much. That salty, seaweedy loveliness that speaks of home.
We stayed at a garden sanctuary in Fort Bragg, 8 acres of lush loveliness, tall redwoods, ponds, and water features. It was nice to sit quietly in nature, we needed that. We made a small sojourn to Mendocino and enjoyed the quaintness of the village. The lack of sea glass was a bit sad, because I am such a fan, but I vowed to revisit another time when I had the energy to be a bit more of an explorer. We were tired and it was time to go home.
Seven hours from Fort Bragg with a couple of brief stops only along the way and we were finally at the house. I thought my dogs were going to knock me over, they were so deliriously happy to see us. Everyone was alive and present at Solace, and we were so very happy about that. Sleeping in our own bed that first night of our homecoming reminded me again of how very lucky we were to be safely home again and resting, surrounded by the love of our animals. We had had a most splendid adventure and now it was time to unpack our lives and our memories and be at one with our good fortune at our home.
I highly recommend mapping the parts of this country that intrigue you. America is a marvelously enormous and diverse landmass with so much to explore. In due course, I’ll do some more mapping. For right now, the well-worn maps are back on the shelf with the postcards and trinkets from our incredible journey. Boy, it’s good to be back home again. Shall I say it again?
