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Family and Aliens
Columbia River at the Gorge near Hood River, Oregon Okay so family and aliens don’t really go together. Except that my family probably think I am an alien. This journey has been more about family connections then anything else. I had my time between events and visits to put my feet in the sand and listen to the ocean waves. Then headed to visit my parents for a few days. It was a nice visit. I enjoyed my time there in the Portland area.
I left on a Thursday morning and headed to the ECETI Ranch at the foot of Mt. Adams in Washington State. It is a beautiful ranch where I had the opportunity to camp, connect with others, visit the labyrinth and the medicine wheel and sky gaze in the evening.
Although we were at the tail end of a meteor shower and saw a few meteors, we were actually looking for UFO activity. James Gilliland, who owns the ranch, has had many sightings at the ranch and has some stories to tell. Curious seekers come to see if they are lucky enough to get a glimpse of something “out of this world.”
Mt. Adams in Washington State We are never disappointed as there is always something interesting going on. I visited ten years ago and learned about what to look for in the sky. I’ve been seeing unusual activity ever since. What was really mind blowing was to see the orbs in real time, through infra red goggles. Orbs are these round bubble like energies that are thought by many to be “beings.” They often show up in photographs and tend to show up more when there is music, or some kind of spiritual ceremony. You can’t see them with the naked eye, but can see them in the photographs and sometimes in videos.
I was writing a new song a couple years ago and wanted to record it so I could remember it. I set up my video camera on my phone, because the sound was best this way. I had the camera pointing out into the room and when I played it back, there were several colored orbs dancing around the room. they always make me laugh. They are such a playful, beautiful energy.
I believe our Universe is way to big to think we are the only one’s here. And we can’t begin to understand the world that is beyond our comprehension. We learn to see things a certain way, and we can be very attached to our beliefs. I’ve seen so much in my life, I am open minded. Anything is possible.One thing we saw the first evening I was at the ranch was a flash of colored light in front of the mountain. It was almost electrical, but not any kind of storm. It was a clear night and there was just a big flash of light in the sky, that had blue, green and pink hues. We all gasped when we saw it and found it quite exciting. We saw some flashes in the sky as well. Very high up, above where a plane would fly. We also would see something flying along and then flash very bright and sometimes disappear altogether.
River near ECETI Ranch There were flashes of light on the side of Mt. Adams that were going on both nights I was there. James explained that there is no trail on this side of the mountain. It is a solid rock wall that could not be climbed or hiked. People hike up one side of the Mountain but James also explained that the likely hood of seeing someone’s head-lamp from 14 miles away at the brightness we were seeing was slim to none. He had tested it with friends.
James had his explanation for what we were seeing and he believed it was ship activity. Many people who were watching wanted a more “human” explanation. James knew where the satellites and space stations were and when they tended to come by. He even pointed them out. “That’s a satellite,” he would say, or “that’s the space station.” Then he would point his laser at the sky and say “this is a ship.” We all looked up and watched the unusual activity in the sky as if we were star gazing. It was fun and interesting, but nothing landed in the field and nothing came to take me away.
Old Bridge near ECETI Ranch After two days at the ranch I headed out and checked in with myself to see where I was going next. I felt it was time to go home. The tenant renting my house and taking care of it while I was gone, moved out because she was having some issues, so my house was left empty and the yard unattended to. I decided it was time to make the long journey back to Arizona.
The next two days were wheels rolling on hot pavement, music blaring on my speakers and mind zoning out. Everywhere I went was hot. Driving through Idaho the temperatures were nearing 100 degrees and it remained pretty hot all the way home. Normally the trek from the Southwest to the Northwest is two and a half days. This time I did the journey in two days. It was too hot to stop anywhere. I slept a bit at a rest stop and a bit parked at a city park in Nephi, Utah. The temperatures dropped into the seventies in the evening and rapidly climbed back up in the morning.
Lake Powell in Arizona I pulled into my driveway early Sunday evening and even though it was 99 degrees when I arrived home, I was happy to be there. I pulled all my necessities out of the van and settle into my place. It felt good to stretch out, giving the mini-van a break. As much as I love the van, I’m thinking eventually I will get something I can stand up in.
Towards the end of the month, I may take another journey to Colorado. But for now I am settling in and getting some work done.
Sightings at ECETI Ranch
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A Wedding and a Celebration of Life and a Releasing
Westport at the Washington Coast I was on my way to my son’s Wedding when I learned my beloved Aunt had passed away after a long battle with Cancer. Being that the Celebration of Life would be in the Pacific Northwest, I knew I needed to go. As it turned out the Wedding was on the 20th and the Celebration of Life on the 25th. Both events brought the family together, and it was a time of reunion, tears and celebration.
As I write this both events are in my rear view mirror. I went from the Celebration of Life to the Washington Coast, which was only a half hour away from where the memorial was.
Feet in the Sand The Ocean is a great place to release, to let go of accumulative emotional energy. It is a great place to put my feet in the sand, to ground and connect with the great power of big water.
Water represents the emotions. It is said that the sea is a great place to get in touch with your emotions and the desert a great place to “dry out.” It is beautiful to have the opportunity for both sides of the spectrum.
There is a reason people go to the sea when they are grieving. It is as if they are giving their grief to the sea; letting it go with the waves and allowing the tide to take the grief out to sea.
Ironically when I arrived at Westport, on the Washington Coast, it was still foggy and a bit gloomy. It cleared up in the late afternoon and the evening was beautiful. I made lunch out of the back of my van and as I was kicked back in my van having my Veggie wrap, when my van captured the attention of two young surfers.We got into a long conversation about what it is like to live out of a van, travel to the places my heart calls me to, and eating healthy on the road. The young man and his younger brother had the same travel bug I had and dreamed of getting a van, like mine, and taking to the road. They were still working out the details of work and money. I encouraged them, as I would encourage my own son, or my clients, to follow their heart; because, well, life is what you make it. Live big and love big.
After our conversation, I took a long walk along the beach, and just enjoyed the fresh sea air. I collected a few sand dollars with flowery designs in the center, and sat on a log, gazing out into the abyss.
Beautiful Sand-dollar from Westport Beach. Notice the flower design with the crack right in the middle. That evening I parked at the Marina on the Bayside and enjoyed the view. It was a beautiful and quiet evening.
I was awakened to the sound of monster diesel trucks driving in and parking on either side of my van, idling in the cold, foggy morning. The morning at the Marina came very early for the fisherman, who talked among themselves, as they prepared for their day at sea. Somewhere out in the line of fishing boats there was the sound of grinding.
I extracted myself from my warm bed to drive back to the State Park. The park was already bustling with surfers in their wet-suits braving the foggy coastal morning, for a chance to ride the waves. I made my tea, wrote in my journal for a while and then took another long walk. It was now time to move on down the road to the next destination.
Westport has great surfer waves and known for its kite surfing. You can barely see the kite in the sky in this pic. It is attached to a surfer. He allows the kite to pull him along the waves and can stay afloat for quite a long time, surfing back and forth along the waves. Here is a Video taken from someone Kite Surfing at Westport.
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Lucky to be Alive
Winchester State Park in Idaho One thing I learned from life on the road, is that I need to stop more and explore those “out of the way” places, that I tend to fly past on my way to somewhere. I need to be less busy going somewhere and more relaxed. Stop and smell the roses, or at least taste the coffee.
Although I no longer partake of caffeine, one of my favorite past times is to hang out in quaint little coffee houses, where I sip on a Chai Tea or a decaf Americano. Normally there is an Internet connection and I can’t check my email and catch up on my writing.
I’m a little behind today, as I’ve had over a week of experiences since I last posted. Some of the experiences that were a big deal a week ago, are all but forgotten, such as the day from hell, where I almost hit two deer at two different times and places, while going 65 miles per hour. Both times the deer came jetting out of nowhere and crossed the highway directly in front of me, causing me to slam on my brakes. This resulted in things flying all over in my van and breaking my glass tea press and mason jar, I was traveling with.
Winchester State Park in Idaho That same day I was passing two slow moving vehicles going about 75 MPH and a car came up from a side road and decided to turn right onto the lane I was passing in. So I was in route for a head on collision, before the oncoming car quickly pulled off to the side. Whew!
My destination this day was McCall, Idaho, a little town on a big lake, but by the time I arrived it was so crazy busy, on a Tuesday afternoon, that I decided to keep moving. The State Park was full and the downtown area was so crowded I couldn’t find a place to park. I wasn’t in the mood for crowds and I had clients the next morning. I needed a quieter place.
Winchester State Park in Idaho One thing I realized about myself in my travels is that I am not a crowd person. I like the remote, out of the way places, abundant with peace and quiet. I like to be where I can listen to the sounds of nature, walk in the forest and have a relatively quiet camp spot.
As I was driving through the Canyon in the Snake River recreation area the temperatures were in the high nineties. I left Arizona to get away from these kinds of temperatures, I wasn’t interested in sleeping in them. It was evening and I had been driving all day. I was tired. I wanted to stop for the night, but not with this heat. So I kept driving.
Prayer seemed like the best thing I could do at this point. Could I please have a nice ending to a long day? Could I please celebrate that I am still alive after all the near misses somewhere nice? I specifically requested cooler temperatures, quiet and Cell Phone reception where I could get a Wifi signal for work.
It wasn’t long before I descended into a valley and the temperatures dropped from the high nineties to the seventies. I then saw a sign for a State Park two miles off the highway, with camping. I made a quick turn and found myself in a beautiful quiet State Park overlooking the lake, nestled in a pine forest. I had a phone signal. My Wifi unit worked. My prayers were answered.
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Lake Pettit in the Sawtooth National Forest
As I left Sun Valley in my rear view Mirror, I had my GPS pointing me towards McCall, Idaho. I wanted to go over the mountain pass outside of Sun Valley. Sometimes the GPS would show me this route, and other times my only options were to go back through Sun Valley and through Boise, Idaho. I finally got it to point me to the mountain pass and off I went.It was quite a beautiful drive over the mountains and on the other side were these beautiful rocky peaks, some still had snow. It was an even more beautiful place to me, then Sun Valley, and much less crowded.
This place had a great feeling. I saw a dirt road off to the left with a sign that said Pettit Lake. I made a spontaneous turn and headed the two miles of dirty, dusty road to one of the most beautiful places. I got the last available campsite.Borrowed from the Sawtooth National Forest USDA Website:
Pettit Lake Campground is located approximately two miles west of Hwy 75 on FS Rd 208. It is in a secluded area next to Pettit Lake nestled at the base of rolling hills and majestic peaks. Swimming, fishing, kayaking and canoeing are wonderful activities for Pettit lake. There are 9 single-sites and 3 double-sites which are all first-come, first-serve. Tin Cup trailhead leading into the beautiful Sawtooth Wilderness is located at the north end of the campground. There is a day use picnic area adjacent to the campground. Personal watercraft are not allowed on Pettit lake.
When I stopped at my campsite, I got out of the van and immediately hiked down a nearby trail to check out the views on the side of the lake. They were incredible. I loved this place. When I came back to the van the camp host Rachel, was waiting for me. “I was wondering where you were,” she said. She asked me if I would be staying and I noticed my van was in the direct sun and it was still quite hot out. She said “well, we have some cloud cover, and there are some thunder storms coming in.” I said “okay, I am staying and gave her the $16.00 fee for the night.
Rachel was a young woman, most likely a free spirit like myself, who decided to leave her former life behind and try out camp hosting. She lived in a Class B Motor-home at the park. After we talked for a while she told me she liked me and found me really interesting. I said “thank you, I like you too.”That evening Rachel swung by my camp and we chatted some more. She expressed an interest in music, so I showed her my new instrument, the strum stick, and played my new song for her. Before long we were both singing my theme song.
I took two hikes along the lake trail. One that evening and further down the trail in the morning. It was truly an incredible place. No cell phone service. Just peace and quiet.After a beautiful morning hike along the lake, I packed up the van to move to my next destination. I was truly happy to have stumbled upon Lake Pettit. This was the kind of place that made my spirit soar.
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Back In My Van
I got my Van back, with no diagnosis at all and nothing done to it. It wouldn’t “fail” to start for the mechanics. They tried over a hundred times to start it and it started without fail every time. Several hundred dollars later, I traded the Ford Explorer back in for my Mini Van and headed back out on the road.I spent a long weekend in my tent. Heavy rains were coming and I had hoped to get the Van back before they hit. These rains were badly needed because of the Forest fires in the area.
With the National Forests all being shut down in the area, I had the choice to “move on” or adapt. Adapting meant staying in commercial camp sites or camping stealth.
I pulled out of my campsite of nine days on the day the rains came. With the rain brought experiences that both rocked my world and turned it upside down. I found myself writing feverishly but unable to post my writings, because they were so deeply personal and I wasn’t quite ready to share this content. I realized that I would save some of the content of my journey for my “Flying Solo” book, which will allow me to have some distance from some of the experiences before sharing with the world. This is always a writer’s challenge. How “up close and personal” do we get with our writing.
The one thing I can say now, is if there is a such thing as “instant karma” I’m all over it. Every action has an immediate consequence, whether it is good or bad. There is a boomerang effect happening. Sometimes it is really good and sometimes it is really bad, depending on my actions and choices. I’m being forced to be “hyper aware” in every moment of the choices I make.
There is a saying “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Well, this is what my “flying solo” journey has been like from the beginning. Nothing was going as “planned” and I was being challenged on some very deep levels. I was being challenged to reach deep inside of myself and find the will to “carry on,” to keep going, even when the going was getting pretty rough.
There were times I allowed myself to get disorganized in my Van and the one thing I have learned is that everything has its place and if things don’t get put back in their place, I may never find them again. It is far too small a space to leave things lying around. I ended up bringing too much, which as I understand, is a common mistake van dwellers make. The more you have, the more you need to organize and find places for.
I cherished having my van bed. It doesn’t matter where I am, my comfy, cozy bed remains the same and is always welcoming at the end of the day. There are even times I wake up and I’m not really sure where I am. I have to reorient myself.
The van is starting for the most part but has had a few “near misses” where it didn’t start for me but eventually it did. I know that I could be stranded at any moment but taking it to a shop didn’t work out well for me. Eventually I’m sure it will go back into the shop, but under what circumstances? Time would tell.