For Suzanne

She made this possible:

View from the beach near Devil's Churn

You see, a funny thing happened on the way down to Oregon.  We took the scenic route.  On that scenic route, there are many, many curves.  I'd driven through about 16,897 of them before Newton's Law of Inertia caught up to us.  I learned a valuable lesson the hard way: no matter if you've gone nearly 20 years without doing something monumentally stupid behind the wheel, there's always a first time.  Driving too fast on an unfamiliar curvy road definitely counts.  Thankfully, there were no other cars in the way and a nice dirt berm to stop us.  We had airbags to keep us from banging ourselves on hard bits that the seat belts may not have saved us from, and so I love them, even though those damned airbags deploying are probably the sole reason why my poor Nissan Sentra will be sent to the scrap heap rather than the body shop.  There's not much damage - I wasn't being suicidally stupid - but the insurance company tells me the airbags may end up costing more than the car.

So no shit, there we were, unharmed but stranded.  If it wasn't for Suzanne coming to rescue us, we'd probably still be in a tiny town near the Oregon coast trying to figure out how to get to a city with an actual rental car agency.  She spent a good portion of her afternoon and evening fetching us and delivering us to a place with a hotel and a rental car, and acted like it was no big deal.  You can't repay kindness like that.  All you can do is be there when huge favors need returning, and she knows I will be.

My intrepid companion took the whole thing with amazingly good grace.  I figured he'd want to head home immediately, but no, he was still up for adventure.  I have remarkable friends, you know that?

That all happened on day one.  By Day Two, we were off and running again, albeit taking curves about about 20 mph.  Grandmas look like speed demons compared to me these days.  We made it to Corvallis, where Lockwood showed us some of the finest geology I've ever seen.  He took us up a mountain and down to the sea.  We got to play in turbidites and tide pools.  I'll be days just sorting through the pictures. 

(By the way, if you're fortunate enough to have Lockwood invite you on a field trip, go.  You utterly will not regret it.)

More to come later.  For now, it's time to catch up on sleep, cuddle the kitty, and reflect on the fact that I'm incredibly fortunate to have friends like these.

I owe all y'all not one, but many.