Finally Home!

 

Yes, I am finally home to my own wonderful space in Willits. Getting here was an adventure unto itself with the atmospheric rivers hitting the west coast.

I left on Wednesday the 8^th and had to travel between the rain, wind, and snow windows over three days to get home.

Thank God for my husband, (the Shiva Travel Service) for watching the windows and challenging weather on Windy.com and guiding me through the maze of weather!

I went down from Spokane towards the Tri-Cities in Washington, through the gorge, into Portland, and down to Cottage Grove the first day.
Once I got to the gorge, it was raining and trying to snow but at least the snow part was not sticking on the road. But it was difficult driving with the constant rain.
Got to Cottage Grove and stayed at the Best Western Hotel there. And really slept after weeks of sketchy sleeping.
From there I had to get to the coast as the high-altitude areas were socked in with horrific snow and after watching the news, I am grateful that I did not attempt to go that way.

This way was going to take me three days instead of two but it was better than dying!

Then drove down Hwy 38 along the Umpqua River. What a fabulously beautiful highway! I recommend it highly if anyone has not done that route. There is a beautiful wide river and wonderful riverbanks dotted with hundred-year-old and new farmhouses, old trees, and cattle.
Then I continued down the coast from Reedsport to Coos Bay. Then down to Brandon.

Got from there to Port Orford, a lovely coastal town in the middle of nowhere and discovered a fabulous restaurant called, Redfish. I highly recommend it as there are only two in the area.

I took pictures there of the gale force winds from the atmospheric river hitting full force and knowing that I had an hour and a half to kill till the winds died down and the rain stopped wanting to strip the car of its paint.

Made it to Crescent City, CA that night and slept at the hotel that I took my Lama friends from Bhutan to many years ago right along the coast. The wind was so strong it was whistling through the glass but I love a storm and the blustery puffs of wind coming through.

Finally made it home to Willits, where my husband met me and we did shopping as he had been stuck up to his hips in snow at our house at the top of the ridge for a week.

Once the in-town chores were done we got to our dirt road and then had to put the chains on the car to get up the road and to our house.

The road was so narrow with snow that if you met another car … someone had to back up.
We unfortunately met the FedEx truck and we had to take out our shovels and dig a path over so we could both pass.

Nothing like being prepared.
Once at the house, we have a pretty good hill.
So, on the flat part, I walked up the snowy driveway and opened the gate and my husband drove my car up to the meadow and parked it there, then came back to get the 4 wheel drive van and gunned it up the hill with the chains.

We made it safe and sound and I got to be in my hot tub last night and my own bed.

It was heaven.

I will tell everyone my grand adventure in Spokane later as it is quite a story, but suffice it to say that my mother’s mental health … at 86 declined sharply from dementia, and I had to dismantle her whole world, sell the house, send over 40 boxes to friends and family, and move her to assisted living.
While cleaning and fixing the house and unpacking a woman who could not remember anything from one moment to the next.

It was an enormous task, and I am grateful to be complete with it.

I am sure it will take me weeks to recover but I am home and tucked into my abode and grateful for my life where I could work from anywhere.

Thank you to everyone who was graciously able to change appointments as I tried to navigate a mother who was very confused and lost.

Namaste!

~Suzanne Wagner~