Raffi and I are off to Brattleboro, VT!
The Lucky Penny was a splendid place to pass the first seven months of the COVID-19 pandemic. I wrote about that in How Are You Hol(d)ing Up? And the Willamette Week wrote about weathering pandemic life in a tiny house in an article called These Portlanders Have Spent the Last Two and a Half Months Quarantined in Tiny Homes that featured me.
But I’m ready for a change of scenery. And you know if you’ve been following along for a while, I’ve long-loved Vermont. Since I’ve been working remotely for the past seven months, I’ve learned that it’s feasible. So I asked my supervisor if I could work remote-r from Brattleboro, VT and since he too teaches at Yestermorrow he understands Vermont’s appeal. When I asked Green Hammer’s owner Stephen, who is a Vermonter himself, he gave his blessing and recommended some restaurants.
So I put the pieces in motion. We got the Lucky Penny settled back at Going Places where a friend of Ryan and Kyra’s will rent it for several months so she can enjoy tiny house living and community. Some dear friends from Simply Home Community helped me pack up my car last weekend. (Oh, yeah, I bought my first car. Covid made me do it. The only other vehicle I’d ever owned was the truck Isha and I had when building T42 which we sold as soon as the build was wrapped up and went Back to a Low-Car Lifestyle.)
And I enjoyed living in the Lucky Penny in Cully for a few days this past week as I wrapped up loose ends. The night before I left town I had said farewell-for-nows to my many of my dear ones in Portland and enjoyed one last ice cream cone at Salt & Straw. (I think I was one of their first customers a couple days after I landed in Portland nine years ago!)
Yesterday I headed to the Olympic Peninsula where I lived for part of high school and during my college breaks. It was great to visit with my auntie and cousins. We had a distanced (and very windy) picnic and I got to catch up with my baby cousins who are all teenagers now and very grown up.
Ferry ride to Seattle. Raffi’s first. He was a bit perturbed by the wind on the deck, but liked the people watching from the car.
So today is the first day of my journey east. I am on the ferry on my way to Seattle where I’ll have tea with a college pal and brunch with my best friend from high school and her sweetie. (Distanced, of course. When Kiley asked if I was okay bundling up so we could visit outside I said “Honey, I’m going to Vermont in October. Bundling up is going to be my new hobby!”)
I was born in Seattle, so there’s a delicious nostalgia of seeing the city skyline. It would have been quicker to go through the Gorge from Portland. And I do love that drive. But this ability to see people I love (even if I can’t hug them on this visit) and to retrace my steps from long ago, feels like an excellent start to the journey. Follow along if you’d like!
Road trip, ahoy!