I have to admire all of you who can write "on the road".  My computer seems to have trouble staying on line or I'm too absorbed in what I'm seeing and doing to even remember it.  I think it's a generational thing. 
I finally got up the nerve to take a remember trip.  It's been a long time.  I have had to be careful, for personal reasons.  An ex husband, an ex law enforcement person, who has tried to find me before.  Six years has made me feel safe enough to venture back to some old friends.
Lil Bit and I drove through Idaho and met  a "Cascade Girl".  Yah, girl of 60 +.  Neither of us think we feel or look as old as our parents at that age.  We hiked the mountains around her home, laughing and talking about the not so good old days, finding that the here and now is much more exciting.  The poltical excitement, the environment, the renewal of activism.  We are both products of college in the 60's, raising families in the 70's, mostly on our own.  Dreams changed, evolved, still keep growing.  She gave me more address of other "Cascade Girls"  and off we went to Oregon. 
Lil Bit loved the ocean as much as I do.  I've missed the Oregon beaches.  Wild, wind blown, salt spray and sand in our sandwiches.  The rocks, the sand, the squishy kelp all brought back happy/sad times.  We drove from Astoria to Newport where we stayed with another old friend.  She had turned bitter.  We didn't stay long.  How could she not see the beauty and change and possibilities all around her.  The storms rolled in right to her back door, bringing fresh beginnings if she would have opened her heart. 
Our next stop was just for us, a favorite "once upon a time beach" near Yachats.  The weather cleared and we stayed to enjoy days on the sand, the water, the land.  Then it was time to move on.  Carol was in Coos Bay.  Not a pretty town or beach.  I was surprised she had landed there.  She was the creative one.  Her dreams the boldest.  She still dreams.  We shared feasts of food and words.  Pictures on paper and in our hearts. 
She joined me on the journey back to our old school.  It was changed, big.  Cascade was still there, but bigger.  We had hoped to find one more old friend, but this one didn't work out.  There are others.  Two I heard even live not far from me in Colorado.  Maybe I'll make that search later, when I'm ready.  This journey brought so many emotions that I need to process first. 
Now it's Colorado in the spring time.  Sunny one day, snow the next.  Raging waters from the winters snow are tumbling down the streams.  It's time to catch up with myself, quietly.