Jorrie and I were staying in Portland, Oregon on his bus. Mine had broken down back in Nebraska while we were crossing the country to attend a wedding in which Jorrie was the best man, and we left it behind to be fixed. After the celebration, we took a few days to rest, and also spent some time hanging out with Jorrie’s friends in the area.
One morning a group of us went to a pumpkin patch. They also had all sorts of animals for us to pet—cows, goats, rabbits and such. We looked around their cute little shops and finished off our time with some hot cocoa and sausages from the concession stand.
Jorrie’s friends Cyric and Sarah took us back to the bus. On the way there, we decided we hadn’t had enough animal time, and stopped at a little goat sanctuary where people could pet goats for free. I loved getting to just chill with the goats, and enjoyed the randomness of it all.
Later, Jorrie and I moved his bus off the street over to a giant, beautiful park with walking paths, wooded areas, tennis courts and bathrooms. We stayed there for almost a week without anyone bothering us. It was the perfect little spot, and also within walking distance of shops and restaurants, of which we took full advantage.
I often have trouble sleeping and one night after being up for hours and bored out of my mind, I persuaded Jorrie to get up and watch the sunrise with me. We walked through the park in our matching thrift store dinosaur robes, taking in the beautiful morning.
One evening after hanging out with Jorrie’s friends Henning and Solar, Jorrie and I, along with Solar went out. The first place we hit was an arcade. We each got a card with ten dollars on it to play the games, and the money went surprisingly far. We played air hockey, racing games, and a bunch of other random, silly games. I haven’t been to many arcades, but I loved the experience. We played until they kicked us out and closed. We finished off the night by going to a nearby bar and playing pool.
Taylor Swift is my favorite singer, and she was releasing her Eras Tour in movie theaters. It was supposed to be a concert experience and I so badly wanted to go. Jorrie was reluctant at first, but once he realized how important it was to me, he went along with it. At Taylor Swift concerts, the fans normally make friendship bracelets that they trade amongst themselves. I wanted to make some in hopes that there would be others who had made some too. Jorrie and I spent an entire afternoon making as many friendship bracelets as we could.
When the night of the concert arrived, I was beyond excited as we walked over. It was like the universe could sense my mood and wanted to add to the magic because all of a sudden a parade of mystically dressed people came by, accompanied by music. Apparently there had been a themed wedding in the park, these were the guests, and they were parading together to a bar. Of course we joined the parade, and one of the guests even gave Jorrie a cupcake.
When we arrived at the movie theater, it radiated excitement. There was only one screen, so everybody was there for Taylor Swift. We bought drinks and popcorn and settled in. I sang along with every single word, and in one of the seats in front of me, a little girl was dancing her heart out. She was the first person I gave a bracelet to, and I hope it made her night. By the end of the show I had given all my friendship bracelets away, and I had a sore throat from singing all night. I was too hyped up to go back to the bus though, and we decided instead to go back to the arcade. We played again until they closed. I had a great night, one of the best I’d had in a long time.
It was about time to leave Portland, but first we wanted to stop in to see our friends Crystal and Nelson. They also live in buses, but Crystal had also recently rented a house in Portland. They told us about a farmer’s market near their place and we met up there. We hung out with them for a while and got honey, jelly, and some fresh food from the market. Then we stopped by her house for a visit before heading to visit Jorrie’s Dad in Vancouver, Washington, and then on to his Mom’s house in Longview, Washington.
We stayed at his mom’s house for a bit, visiting, going for walks, and exploring. We were there for Halloween, and Jorrie, his brother Jerick, and I all carved pumpkins together. Mine was a carving of my one-eyed cat, and I absolutely loved it.
After Halloween the three of us headed to Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument to explore caves. It was a cold day and it was going to be even colder in the caves so we had to bundle up. We took a short hike through the woods before we came to a giant hole in the ground with a staircase leading down into darkness.
As we descended the stairs, everything turned pitch black, but we had brought flashlights and lanterns. In most parts of this massive cave, the ceiling was about 30 ft high.
We studied the rocks and walls as we went. The cave had been formed from lava, and many of the walls were black and shiny.
As we neared one of the ends of the cave, it split in two, appearing to have an upstairs and a downstairs. We took the lower level first. As we walked, the cave ceiling got lower and lower until we were down on our hands and knees crawling. Eventually the ceiling met the floor and we couldn’t go any farther. We sat in the tiny cave opening studying the rocks before going back the way we had come.
Next we climbed up into the upper part of the cave. It was a bit difficult climbing up the wet, slippery rocks, but we all managed. We started into this part of the cave, and found little openings we could crawled through that led to bigger “rooms.” Some parts had long, low stretches where we had to army crawl, although at this point I discovered that it was much easier to just roll through the cave. I definitely got quite dirty, but it was much more fun.
After that, we headed to another part of the cave where large boulders were scattered on most of the path. Only having the light of our lanterns made it a little difficult to traverse, but this was one of my favorite parts. I love climbing around on things.
In one section, we came to a part where we climbed up on the ledge of a cliff area. It was about 20 feet down, but we carefully walked along the edge until we came to more tunnels that seemed never ending. I kept going through and eventually found an opening to the outside in the middle of nowhere in the woods. Jorrie came up too, but we had to go back to find his brother. The tunnels were confusing and there were so many openings, and Jorrie had gone on ahead and I realized that I was a little bit lost. I had to have Jorrie keep talking to me, and followed the sound of his voice, and eventually made it back to him.
After we wandered a bit farther, we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. There was another steep staircase that led up to another entrance into a beautiful pine forest. Nearby was a mile and a half long hiking trail that took us back to the parking lot. This was my first real experience of the Washington woods, and it felt magical.
I wanted to explore more of Washington, but winter was rolling in bringing the cold weather, and I had to get back to my bus in Nebraska. Jorrie and I packed up all our animals and hit the highway headed east.
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