DAY 20….

Goodbye, Kent.  Goodbye, Washington.  Thanks for the memories.Hello, Portland.  The mini-San Francisco of Oregon. 
last view of Kayse's place. 
it was overcast first thing in the morning.11.  got up and saw the coolest thing ever: Randy Journey of Journey Air Conditioning in Bakerfield donated $1000.00 to the Moreland fundrazr account.  I was floored.  What a way to start the day.  Thank you, Mr. Journey.  You kick ass.  Seriously.
22. I got ready and took off at noon.  I feel ready to be home and wanted to head out sooner rather than later.  It was a good drive.  I said my goodbyes to all the bridges and highways. 
bye bye washington.  i love you.33.     made it to Portland in a little over 3 hours.  Got to Allison’s house.  I’ve known Ali almost my whole life.  Her brother Matt and my brother Matt used to play when they were kids.  Ali and I became closer in our later teens, hanging out with the same crowd at coffee houses and easy going house parties.  We had a good rap session (more adult talks) about heartbreak and life and a little bit of spirituality.  It was good ties.
hello overcast Portland!44.    some friends of hers invited us to go see the swift birds migrating at this park just outside of downtown Portland.  Every year for about a month, these swifts migrate around this big chimney at this big school next to the Audobon Society building.  How convenient.  Remember that video of those birds floating in migration about  year ago?  Yeah, it was like that.  not as many birds, but just as cool.  The finale comes when a Peligrine Hawk shows up and tries to catch one.  When he showed, the crowd oohd and ahhd, but he didn’t catch one.  He swooped back in and got one and the crowd almost cheered.  Then suddenly, all the swifts disappear.  It’s like a weird bird game they play.  All I could think of was “clever girl.” more swifts. swifts.














5.    we went back to her friends’ house and had a glass of wine and talked music.  They introduced me to some new ones that I gotta check out.  They sounded awesome.  A good wine, some good music, and playing with their kitten, Nigel.  Great way to wrap up the night. vicious.......ly adorable!

66.    We came back to Allison’s around 9:30.  She went to bed, and now I’m writing before I get up early to head to Nor Cal in the morning.  I’m gonna drive until I can’t drive no more, thinking about making it past Eureka and into Ferndale, maybe even Willits.  We’ll see how my patience is working by that point. 
I’m happy to be going home.  I WANT to go home.  How unheard of is that?  On this trip, everyone I encounter is both and advocate for their city/advocate against Bakersfield.  It’s not the city I miss, it’s my family, the blood relatives as well as my adopted members (you know who you are).  I miss those faces and voices, I miss late night talks and laughing with them all about the stupid things.  I’m looking forward to hugging my nephew and sleeping with my puppy.  And I’m really looking forward to telling certain people about certain adventures or things I’ve seen on this trip that have reminded me about them. 
I feel like myself again.  It’ll be nice to see all those people feeling like myself again.  It might even be a new light that some people haven’t seen before, or in a while.  i’ll just wear the Scream mask.  That way it won’t frighten people as much when I take it off.  wait, no- I’m gonna wear a Freddy Krueger mask.  Old school; respect your roots.
Unfortunately, you guys won’t get to read this blog until the following night.  But I assure you, I didn’t laze about this time.  You’ll just get the pleasure of two blogs to read at once instead of one.  I hope I don’t lose my fanbase.