Highs & Lows on Harris Beach
Day 10 – Corey’s Entry - April 22 - 8:03am – Harris Beach State Park – Brookings, Oregon
We are now in Oregon, our first state out of California. The coast here is fierce. The wind blows hard with a frosty chill.
We walked down to the beach yesterday evening along a wood chip path spotted with millipedes. We danced and sang as if nobody was around. I probably wouldn’t have stopped even if someone had walked up on us.
I just feel good here and that’s truly a blessing. Every morning as soon as I wake up, I feel slightly panicked. I ask myself, “Wait. Where am I? What are we doing? What the hell is that sound?” After quick brain recalibration, I will get up, crawl out of the tent, grab my camera gear, and with a smile on my face, begin to work.
It’s not the easiest transition from living in a house to a nomadic lifestyle. Everyday or so, I’m in a whole new place. There are new smells, sights, and surroundings. It can be disorienting at times, but if I can embrace the idea and realize Home is where you want it to be, then the entire experience becomes all the more exciting.
I can see now how some people keep traveling without ever settling down. There’s so much to see and experience in this world.
Side note: That night on Harris Beach was truly fun. Emily and I stayed up on a giant rock off shore watching the stars and sang Disney songs. I love Emily so much. She’s just perfect to me.
Day 11 – Emily’s Entry - April 23 – 10:47am – Morgan’s Country Kitchen – Florence, Oregon
I’ve been thinking about highs & lows. This trip has been full of amazing highs where we feel on top of the world or at absolute peace. We have seen such beautiful scenes, been in such humbling places, and have had absolute freedom. On the other hand, we have had our lows too. Our frustrations have included the weather, being dirty, being tired, being lost, no cell service (the last two are usually associated), having to immediately put away anything we take out, and the upper car rack making every kind of mysterious noise that sounds like at any moment the whole thing will just fly off into the Pacific Ocean.
YET with everything that happens, highs and lows, I figure the only things we will recall in the future will be the incredible highs. We’ll remember the strange characters, laughter, stunning views, and surpassing feelings. It’s because of the highs that we journey on.
We’ve done some incredible things so far. The night of April 21, we stayed at Harris Beach State Park in Brookings, Oregon. It was a high and low kind of night. Corey was shooting a time-lapse of the sun setting and other landscapes of the remarkable scenery. Primordial rocks jutted out of the sea. We hiked over small rocks and tide pools to a mini island. I was carrying equipment on my climb and fell on my knees. I got knee bruises as a souvenir. Corey and I had two ciders to drink to keep us warm. The temperature continued to plummet while we shot the warm sun sink over the horizon and the white moon begin to command the sky. We laid on a small clearing on this sea rock as the cold wind blew. I believe the temperature start around 45 degrees F and slowly dropped. We sang Disney songs very loud and very poorly. We knew nobody could hear us over the cold ocean wind even if they tried. I hate the cold, but I wouldn’t trade that memory for the world.
By the way, we saw former President Theodore Roosevelt eating an omelet in a diner off the 101 in Northern California. I would bet my last dollar it was he.