Rambling postage

So I camped out a nigh above Cascade locks, right between bridge of the G-ds and I-84. Not the quietest campground, not a

good place for a fire, but a soft bed of ivy, along with immediate (100ft) access to running water/flush toilet. I rigged my

tarp mid-night sometime when the rain came down, and promptly crashed out afterwards. In the morning, I woke to a taut pitch

with one small trough holding (without dripping) water. I packed, headed back to the bathroom area, and spread out my gear

to dry. A nice gent with a dog dropped in, used the lav, chatted for a bit, and headed off to a short day hike with his dog.

After two hot oatmeals and a cup of tea (Stove, no fire), I repacked my gear tight and took off for Rt 14, the washington

state road (Like Rt 3A through wilderness) across Hood River from I-84.
My first lift dropped me 3 miles away, in the town of North Bonneville. From there, 20 minutes later, a lift dropped me

probably 20 miles away in the middle of a total nowhere. 10 minutes later, I got alift in the back of a pickup to the

outskirts of Vancouver, WA.
I walked my way from Exit 4 of Rt 14 to a coffee shop, picked up Wifi, called Arrow, hung out for a few hours while it

rained, and took off walking again. One sampler, two bowls of soup, and a pint of ESB (ALL of the beer was watery, and most

of it seemed to have a case of mistaken identity). I had a nice wander around Vancouver trying to find the walking path over

to Portland (need to stop asking homeless guys in WA for directions!), and away I went! I humped allll the way across

Vancouver and Portland to finally crash off next to the UP ebd/sbd split. There must have been a drug deal going down,

because I saw at least a half dozen cars driving down to an abandonded spot where I normally see homebums crashing out.
Well the next morning I walked to downtown Portland, where I caught a bus down to Tualatin, where I caught a diner breakfast

and hitched a ride to Salem. Arrow came to pick me up, and I spent a while running some errands and then showering and

hanging out at her place.
This morning, Arrow, Bolt (her daughter) and I drove down to Eugene, picking up Ben, a hitch-hiker (19, rather new to it) in

Salem and dropping him a few blocks from DirtyFeet's huose. I'm currently at DirtyFeets, having met she, her mother, as well

as Gingerail and her roommate. i'm going to crash at DirtyFeets (Ali: she lives in a Yurt!), and not sure what the future

holds. I offered to run escort for Ducky up to Seattle from Portland, but haven't gotten a response on that one. If not,

I've put out a few other offers to drop by, and will figure stuff out as I move on. Eugene seems like a pretty chill place,

and if I can find something to do/etc, I might actually stick around for an amount of time. At least, I think I might. And

then there's always MF, which Dameon invited me to go with him, and Gingerail seemed interested in. C'est la vie!

I've spent the past few days in Eugene, which I've found to be a really REALLY cool town/city in oregon. My plans are

finally taking form, if only because I've puttered around enough that I'm running out of large chunks of free time. So, it

looks something like this:

I'm going to Cougar Hot Springs to camp for a day/night
heading to Portland to see NickC and some friends, and I've just recently found that Alex will be in Portland Fri/Sat.
AMF goes from Monday to the 6th of July, and I'd like to attend SOME but not all.
Cael, the hitcher I met in Croatia, lives in Eugene. I'd like to stop back in and visit w/him.
I need to book flights to NYC and AMS/FRA.
Hiking in the sierras, which leads in to meeting with dad. This ends with my return to NYC, which leads to flying to Europe

a few days later.
Visiting with Anu for her birthday, checking back in with Casa, and hitching to Odessa for 7/8/9
Returning west a bit, meeting up with ANu, and traveling around with her somewhere, sometime.
Touring around Scananavia/the Baltics until I need to return back to the US.

That should drop me in NYC around the 10th of Sept.

Along the way, I'll be looking at visiting old friends etc.

NO idea what i'm doing this winter, but it could involve work, travel, or some combinatino therin. Work would include

working somewhere in/around the Gorge just east of Portland, Squaw Valley (Tahoe), Moonlight Basin, or heading to Colorado.

MANY possibilities.