On Our Way

After leaving Augusta and heading north, Honeychild and I spent two and a half lovely weeks with Russ and Maxine Barnett in Whitefish, MT. Honeychild settled in immediately with the Barnetts' two horses and three mules and was reluctant to leave when the time came. I was a little reluctant to leave, too -- I was having such a good time! Russ and Maxine were kin right away and were as nice as parents to me. It was sad to leave when the time came to move on to Spokane, WA. Fortunately, Amtrak connects Corvallis, OR to Whitefish, MT, so I'm hoping I might be able to come back in the winter to go ice fishing...

While in the Bob Marshall Wilderness I'd met some folks from Spokane and exchanged contact information with them. I called a few days in advance and asked them if I could come stay with them for a week while I looked for a trailer ride to Enterprise, Oregon. "Absolutely," they said before I'd even finished my sentence. And so, on the last day of August, the Barnetts drove me west to Spokane and left me with Dean and Anna Koesel.

My week with the Koesels has been packed. Dean is a small and large animal vet and also runs an embryo transfer business with his wife, Anna. That means they artificially inseminate valuable beef cows and flush the 7-day embryos out to freeze in liquid nitrogen until transferring them to surrogate mothers.

On Monday I got to watch Dean flush a cow (wash out the embryos) and also got to put my whole arm inside the cow to feel around for her ovaries and uterus. On Tuesday I went to work with Dean at the vet clinic and got to see him treat several horses, a cow, a premature cria (baby alpaca), and a dog. On Wednesday Dean, Anna, and I drove to a large dairy near Moses Lake to breed some cattle, and on Thursday I spent the day swinging a hammer on the house their son is building. Today we moved irrigation pipes and picked up rocks and I got to drive a front end loader and a skid-something. Wow!!! I got to move several huge haybales with the front end loader (alone!) and I got to use the skidder in the field where we were picking rocks. Maybe my destiny lies in operating heavy machinery...

Tomorrow Anna is going to drive me south into Oregon, and on Sunday a fellow there is going to drive west to Corvallis Oregon. The fellow driving me to Corvallis is Barry, of Valley Mule Co., where I'll be keeping Honeychild.

I'm excited to get to Corvallis where I have good friends awaiting me. Three months on the road, depending on the generosity of strangers, is wearing. I've made so many friends, though, and have so many people to visit when I pass through Montana and Washington again. It will be good to have a stable place in Oregon where Honeychild and I can finally settle in. It looks like we'll be overwintering in Corvallis, so I suppose I'll be finding a job and a place to live. I feel so far from home. I've never been away from home this long before! I've never gone this long without seeing anybody from my family. Well, I suppose they will have to come visit me. I've been talking to my brother in LA and hope we get to have some adventures together while I'm out on this coast. There are so many places to see!

Once I get to Corvallis I'm going to look into the Corvallis to Sea Trail. I've heard it's a good 60-mile trail to the ocean. I'm hoping to travel it round-trip with Honeychild to conclude our adventures.

Even a week ahead seems too far in the future to contemplate. I am tired! And germs have finally caught up with me -- I have my first cold since before I set out on the road. Sigh.

Thank you to everyone who has been sending me encouraging notes. I'm not in a good internet spot at the moment, but I hope to respond to you all soon. I am so, so warmed by your good thoughts and wishes.

More soon,
~April