The Edge of the World

There is something utterly humbling about the ocean. It's existence is practically incomprehensible in comparison to our ephemeral human lives. As far as our human history and beyond it has been there and always will be, giving and taking to our kind. I am energized by and yet fearful of it's power. Subdued by it's presence we often found ourselves just sitting, listening to the ebb and flow of the tides powered by forces unseen but obviously present, a reminder of the moon, the stars, and the vastness surrounding us. We listen and are reminded to be present..even if just for a minute.

As much as we enjoyed the richness of city living for a few days we were relieved to be back where there were fewer people. More space, less cars, less stress. Our next show was Saturday the 15th at MeKeowns Irish Pub in a sleepy coastal city called Seaside. The weather wasn't cooperating and it rained incessantly the entire drive with a few intermissions of sunshine. But worse than rain was the seemingly hurricane strength winds that threw our 25 foot sail of an RV around like a small boat in a turbulent ocean. We practically lost our awning over the Astoria bridge. Beautiful as the scenery was here the stress of the awning rattling around tainted the experience with stress.

Bridge to Astoria.

But we made it and were positively welcomed by the new venue. The weather was a bit frightful still. You could barely get through the front door without the wind slamming it back into you and the rain kept on and unfortunately dampened our potential of a large crowd, but the people who did make it out expressed genuine interest. The owner liked it so much they asked us to stay for Sunday! Memorial Day should bring more people if the weather cooperates. It didn't cooperate, but we still got folks out and shared some music. We parked our RV in the lot behind their venue where it was directly confronted with the high winds and rain which actually rocked us to sleep like babies in a bough, except for the few violent shakes that woke us up, similar to earthquake thrashing. Yikes! We met some nice guys the next night who offered to let us park and hang out at their place in exchange for a ride home. We agreed and learned a valuable lesson. Don't let drunk people in your RV, or at least have a Puke Potential Test before they enter. One of the guys vomited under our table on the ride over. So gross. (We want to exchange the carpet for flooring anyhow). Fortunately, his extremely nice and responsible friend cleaned it up meticulously.



TILLAMOOK
We love cheese! Who doesn't like cheese?? We made a fun little stop at the cheese factory.

LINCOLN CITY and a LITTLE FUN



Finally got in a very overdue hike on the beach.

Lincoln City is a relatively new city for me although I have been there once before during a trip we took from Billings for my 28th birthday. For Daniel, however, it is a little bit like "coming back" not quite like "coming back home", but definitely brings up an upheaval of old memories and feelings. He spent some time here in his late teens and early twenties, a time wrought with emotional turmoil for most people that age, but particularly for one with as much questions as he had about what life is supposed to be and who he was. He may not have found it here, but it definitely helped shape who he is today. But that's another story.

The hike was amazing! It was a scattered rain sort of day with more sunshine than we could have hoped for and the rain that did fall wasn't even close to being able to dampen our moods or motivation. We soaked in the energy from the strength of the ocean, talked some, but kept quiet the most. A couple of hours in, as the rain got a bit stronger and I needed to use the restroom, Daniel remembered a casino near the beach. Although we are not big gamblers, it is fun to put a few bucks in the machine from time to time and have a little fun. We got free five dollars worth of pay, a bunch of free coffee and sunny D and about 3 hours of entertainment. I suppose the hike got cut a bit short, but what they hell. It was fun. We hiked the beach back in the dark , with nothing but the sound of the ocean to our right and the glimmer of human existence to our left.

We got to visit an old friend of his, Mary Jo. An awesome, old soul who I immediately felt a kinship with. They reminisced about old times, some changes in town, a few sad stories and more happy ones. It was an early night as she had to work early and we were tired from the long hike and needed to get up early to get to our gig in Brookings, OR on time. We finagled our RV into her front driveway with only a little corner peeking out into the usually uninhabited street. The 5 hour drive in the morning was a bit longer than we would have wanted, but the beauty of the scenery made it better. Taking breaks to boil water for coffee and eat a snack right next to the ocean made it easy.

Daniel experimenting with phone camera options.

Apparently there is a panoramic option on there.

I say hi while making coffee! :)






We made it to Brooking, OR to play at the Vista Pub just in time. The owner and the employees were all very friendly and helpful. The owner mentioned enthusiastically that he was psyched about the "write up in the Pilot" and asked if I saw it. I was smiling enthusiastically in return, mostly because of my empathetic nature when I realized I had no idea was he was talking about. Turns out the emails we sent to the local paper inquiring about a potential article worked out and we had a nice little write up about us playing at the Vista Pub, not that they emailed us back about it or anything. LOL. The show went well. The place was full for most of the show, but we lost some of the older crowd later on. We had some truly lovely conversations with some of the people who stuck around, particularly this English guy and his girlfriend who were particularly intrigued with Daniel's original songs and the lyrics behind them. We finished up the night with some on the house mushroom burgers and a few pints of delicious brew and hit the sack parked behind the venue.

Photo of the venue as we are leaving. You can barely tell but the sign says "Vista Pub".