The next day, we were on the road again. I was eager give Anna a taste of the Olympics, Portland and the coast and had foolishly believed we could get to it all in that first weekend. Glimpsing at the map, it really didn’t feel like the Quinault area of the Olympics was that far out of the way from our route to Portland but about an hour out, with grey skies drizzling down rain in frequent spurts, I began to wonder if this had really been the best use of our time. With an hour to go though, it was too late to turn back.
We would make it to the park and walk the nature trail which in and of itself, made the trip worth it for the sensation of peace and calm that it brought to Anna. However, we also gained an unexpected story from the drive.
This is one of those stories that you typically put a time-sensitive factor on, in terms of the telling of. Like, how you don’t tell your parents about your high-school dating life and your silly excursions until you’re out of the house and they are more removed from those protective years. So, I should probably be putting this away in my treasure chest.
But I’m not.
That afternoon, I had my first experience of betrayed intuition in picking up a hitchhiker. We were about 15 miles from the park and the rain had started down again. No one was on the road except us…and a man wearing a bright construction vest, hood pulled over his head to protect form the rain. He had his hand out and as we drove past, both of us registered him as a young, caucasian construction worker. Just past where we’d seen him, Anna made a comment wondering about where he was trying to get to and that’s when I said I’d been thinking about him also. We both agreed that he was a safe pick-up and turned around. As soon as we’d pulled the car alongside him, he put down his hood and our faces probably drained of all color. the man was older, missing a couple front teeth, and had a bloody gash on the front of his chin. I gulped as he came towards the car smiling in relief and before I knew it, he was in the seat behind me, thanking us for the ride. I’d never felt so uncomfortable with someone in my car in my life. My shoulders immediately hunched up as I kept imagining a knife coming at me from behind. As we started to drive, I began talking immediately, to take charge of the atmosphere. He said he’d been in Aberdeen to visit friends for the week and had forgotten the bus didn’t run on Sundays. I imagined that he probably hadn’t been sober all week. My prejudice was quickly forming stories. As we kept talking however, I found out he was native to the Quilette tribe up that way and had deep respect for the tradition of the tribal ways. He spoke of taking kids to learn from elders and participating in ceremonies. He worked with wood, carving small feather art and when I asked if he sold it, he said he preferred gifting. He spoke of visiting his kids who lived so far away and how proud he was of his son, who was quickly becoming a man and I shared my work with kids. We waxed a bit philosophical about culture’s odd animosity towards one another and how people should be more accepting. I realized the irony even as I spoke my belief; we are all on this earth to interact and learn one another’s stories. Why do we isolate ourselves from one another so much? Every so often, I would become anxious that I had maybe missed our stop since I’d become so involved in conversation but we had told him where we were headed and he had the courtesy to point out entrance to the park, telling us an easy turn-around point to let him off at.
Once Daniel - that was his name - got out of the car, Anna and I breathed a huge sigh of relief and let out all of the anxieties we’d felt from that moment he’d opened the door. Even as I recognized my prejudice and hypocrisy in the judgement I’d placed on someone who had ended up being harmless, I knew I would never have made that same decision if we could repeat that.
The rain let up long enough for us to enjoy our nature walk and on our drive back, Anna shared just how much her mindset felt shifted from being in that environment. I was excited to see this part of her and even moreso, that we were sharing those parts so well with one another.
We arrived in Portland in time to do some groceries before dinner, which was a long awaited visit to Portabella. The burger I got was certainly flavorful and I loved their house made curry catsup, but Anna and I both felt that their pizza needed an extra something. Overall though, a wonderful experience and I would go back to try many more menu items. Afterwards, we met up with Tony for an evening of pool at McMennemins. I’d been vying for that most delectable warm pear brandy cocktail I’d had during the winter but it was off their menu and I wasn’t drink-savvy enough to figure out how to recreate it. Nonetheless, pool was fun, and we even got in a round of shuffleboard which Anna kicked our butts at.
We were up bright and early the next day, aiming to get the rest of our groceries, meet up with Mindi who had arrived in town the night before, and make it to the coast before heading to Packwood. By the time we got to the store, I was feeling super anxious about time and realized we could tack the coastal visit to the end of the week instead. I was torn, but ultimately, we just didn’t have it in us to do all of that driving. Instead, we had a nice visit with Mindi at Harlow’s an went to the rose garden. We were a bit premature for rose season but there were a few buds out. Conversation between Anna and I was feeling strained again so it was good to have Mindi between us. I think that a lot of it just had to do with pure exhaustion and part of it was my own projected expectations of how we should be communicating. But mostly, we were just tired. We did perk ourselves up with a stop at Voodoo donuts before leaving town, which was a novel experience.
We got back into Packwood before Open Gym started but I wasn’t about to be up for an afternoon with kiddos. We still had to unpack and I’d prepared to have teammates cover for me anyhow. We settled in and stopped by Loren’s cabin where I would be dog sitting for the next month before heading down to the Butter Butte for a pick-me-up. The evening was kept pretty calm, in anticipation for the next day’s bonfire festivities!
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