Live as the Locals Do 🌍✨
What’s the point of traveling and experiencing the world, but then imposing your values onto others? It does not work. My objective with traveling is simple: make new friends, see old friends, experience life as if I’m living it for the first time, and live as the locals do. Today included a touch of all these elements. 🤝🌟
After waking up and preparing for the day, I took a brief walk outside and reached a conclusion: Oregon is the best-smelling state I’ve been to. It is so lush and green here that the delicious aromas cast a spell on a newcomer. I wish I could bottle up the sweet smells of pine trees and take it with me. 🌲🍃✨
After breakfast and parting ways with Annie Ruiz and Tom Springer, I continued my journey with the locals. The first stop was a chainsaw contest, where I saw Bob King in action as he finished his 7-foot sculpture of a boy, his dog, and two crabs. 🔪🪵🎨
The night prior, I met Bob where he discussed his art as a chainsaw sculptor. Intrigued by the quality of his work, I peppered Bob with questions about his art, learning process, and visualization. It turns out that Bob cannot paint or draw, but can understand “spatial perception” that allows him to visualize his art in three dimensions. He analogized it to understanding where a person is in a mall after looking at a map. Personally, I can understand and visualize a map, but I’m not sure sculpting is in my future. 🗺️🤔
Anyway, for his time explaining his art and passion, I cast a vote for Bob King. 🗳️🌟
I continued the ride northward on the Oregon Pacific Highway (101). Unlike the CA portion of this highway, Oregon’s is filled with small towns and traffic lights. Quickly, my personal romance of driving this road vanished. And after getting honked at after skipping through traffic to cut ahead at a traffic light, it was clear that I was not riding in CA any longer. 🚦🏘️
Aside from the traffic, with volcanic rock formations, cliffs overhanging the Pacific Ocean, and contours throughout the beach landscape, Oregon’s coastline is more geographically interesting than California’s. At Thor’s Well (I stopped there only because of the name), I enjoyed the moonscape rocks, the tranquility of the splashing waves, and the picturesque views. 🌋🌊📸
Further up the line in Lincoln City, I did as the locals do and ate fish tacos for lunch made of fresh fried cod… “really good,” Tristan Rinehart. 🌮🐟👍
The next and final stop brought me to downtown Portland where I met an old high school buddy, Mike Bear Abt. Back in the day, I remember talking about our favorite bands (Black Crows and Red Hot Chili Peppers, for example) and playing music. We had an art class or two together as well. Today, we shared in the experience of cross-country trips and changing our lives for the better. To my surprise, I found a new friend who gained a fresh perspective from making a leap of faith into something dramatically new. 🎶🎨🚀
While being a local with Mike for the evening, I shared stories with his friends, drank a few pints at the nearby dive bar, and ate gyros from a food truck. 🍻🚌🥙
It doesn’t get much better than that! 😄🌟
