Highs and lows. Greetings from Seattle... no, wait, greetings from Astoria, OR

Hello, Justin.
Hello, everyone else.
Okay, so I'm Oregon now. I didn't expect to be here, but I'll get to that.

Seattle is a wonderful town and I wish I could have seen more of it. It would be a great place to spend a long weekend. While there, I stayed with my friend Jesse, with whom I went to both high school and college. She works for an environmental non-profit and lives with a few wonderful hippie-types. They've got a rad teepee in their backyard.

I also met this guy, Schuyler.

He's the son of the owners of the Sunflour Bakery and Cafe, a great place on 65th St. NE where I had breakfast and a chocolate chip cookie. He's about to head back to school, where he's majoring in International Business. He grew up a few blocks from the bakery and has been working there for 8 years. When I asked if he'd like to move from Seattle, he answered "oh, definitely." He also doesn't want to end up inheriting the family business, as owning a restaurant has so many stressful quirks in addition to being a "slave to the business." He's hoping to study abroad in either Australia or New Zealand. He has an uncle from Australia, and the pictures he's seen of the country have always impressed him. He's a very funny and nice guy, and I think we could have been friends.

This here is Mel, short for Melvin, but he goes by Mel.

He works at the counter of the Travel Inn of Centralia, WA. He's a fascinating guy, deeply interested in finding a spiritual path that will not only improve him, but also improve the world at large. I recorded our conversation, but it's upwards of an hour, so I can't upload or even listen to the whole thing again right now. He's originally from Seattle and used to work in Computers and electronics (his business was called Hi-Fi Guy), but moved to Centralia for the space and quiet about 2 years ago, following his bad divorce. I can tell you that he's trying to write a book/gospel, The Book of the Word, inspired/guided by many of the dreams and instructions he's received by someone he has decided can only be God.

He's a big fan of the teachings of Jesus, and really believes it all boils down to just loving one another. He told me two very intense stories, only one of which I can barely remember. He came out one night to see a young woman in the passenger seat of a car, being held by her hair and punched in the face by her boyfriend. Mel called the cops, and they showed up and took the boyfriend and his car away, leaving this girl alone with no money or ID (her wallet was in the car!). Mel couldn't let her stay in the inn as much as he wanted to, but did find out that she had some family many towns over, accessible by a few buses and trains. He gave her what he had, a few 20's, I believe, and put her on the next Greyhound. When she got to where she needed to be, she called to tell him she wasn't able to buy an Amtrak ticket b/c she had no ID. I believe she ended up begging and pleading to be able to buy a ticket, and called Mel eventually to tell him that she finally found her way to her family's place. Something like that. eek.

Then I rode 80 miles. It was cold and wet the whole time. A few long, gradual climbs. The biggest hill was one I went down, and I think I ended up maxing out at 48 mph. Fun. What're not fun are logging trucks. They're huge and don't slow down one bit. Their slipstream/backwash/whatever, pulls you all over the road.

My father and I ended up at Cathlamet, a small town of about 500. After a late lunch, I ended up talking to Ashley. We spoke for about 5 minutes, but I've edited her audio down and included pretty much all my Cathlamet pictures. Here's my first audio slideshow ever. After spending hours using a million different programs trying to get something to work, here's the crap I have!!

[that'll go here. ] [oh, it's actually below]

We ended up leaving Cathlamet because there was no place to stay. Then it turned out there was no place to stay in the next town on the map, either. Here's where I cheated, but I was definitely enabled by my dad. Sigh. We drove the 20 odd miles to Astoria, which is a really nice town. There's like a lot happening here, relatively speaking. The drive put me on my preferred itinerary, but now I'm going to be crazy early getting into SF. I guess that's alright with me....

Okay, I'm exhausted. good night.