Arrived at the Beach Just In Time For the Party

One thing I love about my camper setup is that I can choose beautiful places to park and I have these really wonderful views.  It doesn’t matter where I camp at night.  During the day, I can take advantage of the State Parks, pull outs, and other parks.

As I write this, I am backed up to the beach at Birch Bay State Park in Washington.  I came here this morning with a hankering for pancakes and so made pancakes at the beach.  The best restaurants I have visited on my journey has been my own home cooked meals in my camper.  In fact, I haven’t been out to eat once since I left home.  I have felt no need.  I have a great kitchen and good size fridge.

When I first came into town a week ago, my friends Bern and John had a beach party for his retirement from over thirty years as a UPS driver.  I parked my camper at their place, under the tall cedar trees.  The beach where we had the party was very artistic with lots of interesting carvings of wood faced creatures.

The weather is much cooler on this side of the mountains, only a couple hours North of Seattle, near the Canadian border.  It is in the seventies every day and doesn’t drop too low in the evening.  I turn my heater on for about five minutes first thing in the morning which takes the chill out of the air, and then I am comfortable the rest of the day without heat or air.  It is a nice change from East of the mountains where I was during the Northwest Heatwave.  I had the air running most of the day.

Biking has been my favorite past time.  My E-bike is the best investment I have made, next to my camper.  I have put well over four- hundred miles on it since I began my journey.  Yesterday, while biking through the Countryside I came as close as I ever have to running out of battery power.  My Rad City E-bike gives me around 40 miles of battery power if I keep the pedal assist at about a 2 out of 5.  But lately I have enjoyed having my pedal assist on 3 which allows me to sail down the road effortlessly, while still pedaling strong the entire time.  I headed out without fully charging my battery, as I had taken a trip into town earlier in the day.  I probably put over twenty-two miles on the bike and noticed the battery getting low.  So, I brought the pedal assist down to 2 and worked harder to get back to camp.

Birch Bay is a great beach town for biking, with miles of beach front to ride.  I’ve ridden so much that I made an appointment next week to have my bike tuned up by a pro bike shop in town.  I’m also getting my truck tuned up and getting a haircut next week.  It is time for maintenance.

On a deeper note, I continue to immerse myself in healing work as those long hours of alone time bring up the shadows.  I continue to discover things about myself, my fears and my traumas and remember that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.   There are times I feel that what is emerging from the shadows very well might kill me.  But then the insights arrive that are so life changing and powerful.  I awaken to another day, take another breath and celebrate another day of life on this planet.

Here is a video of the Beach Party and Birch Bay