Wilder Tribe

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Marty strapping down our stuff in the back of the U-Haul.

We moved to Oregon

Well, we packed up our little 2 bedroom house on Dohr Street and loaded everything in a U-Haul and locked it all up in storage. Actually, the 17' truck wasn't enough, so went rented a 12' trailer to tow behind it as well. It was pretty hectic in those last few days, but our friends really came through for us. I (Marty) was sick and kaseja hurt her back. The kids were going completely stir crazy. We started loading up the truck on Wednesday and we didn't actually leave until Saturday afternoon. Rainyrain and I led in the U-Haul and barely cleared the parked cars on the corner. kaseja and Kite took off in the van, towing our camper trailer. The kids ended up preferring the van because they could listen to wonderful tapes that robin and Eileen put together for them. In the heat of the day, we stopped at a rest area and the kids ran through the sprinklers. We were chuggin along at 45 mph just fine until we ran into some road trouble.

It's not a flat tire!

A few hours into our trip, Marty had suggested that we take some time to enjoy the sunset. i was resistent at first, thinking that i really wanted to get some miles under our belts. but upon reflection (you know how i can be sometimes, i intially resist and then the idea grows on me) i thought that stopping was a great idea. i shared Marty's idea with the kids (who happened to be travelling with me in the van) and Kite really wanted to stop. so i talked with Marty on the walkie talkie and said let's take the next stop. it was exit 618, i believe, Orland was the name of the town. i took the exit and there was no Marty. i got on the walkie talkie and it was really hard to hear him, he was breaking up. he said he had a flat tire, so i drove south to the nearest exit (7 miles away) and then north. The kids and i enjoyed a wonderful gold blue, purple and pink sunset. when we got to Marty we examined the truck: it wasnt a flat tire, the tire had come completly off. fortunately, the back tire on that u-haul was a double one. still, it was pretty dramatic. we asked the very nice people at the usa gas station if we could park our camper behind the gas station and they said sure. along about midnight, after many phone calls, Marty met Joel at the disabled u-haul and added it to the camper, the u-haul trailer (pulled by our van) and the van behind the gas station. in the morning, after many more phone calls to u-haul, we got authorization for the hotel to get us all out of the boiling sun (it was well over 80 degrees by 10 a.m.) and we spoke with Robert from Sacramento, who was authorized to bring his mobile mechanic vehicle out to fix the u-haul. the bolts where the lug nuts were supposed to be had sheared off, so i didnt know if it could be fixed by a mobil mechanic, but i was sure hoping it would be possible, since the thought of unloading and then re-loading all that stuff into a new truck was more than a little daunting. well, Robert came with his partner and their kids and he fixed it. finally, at about 6 p.m. on Sunday we were back on the road.

isnt it amazing how Orland and Oregon sound so similar? well, i'll tell you, they are not very much alike.

as a p.s., i am so happy to be home, it has brought tears to my eyes every day. i thought i might be really old before i could come home at the rate i was going, but here i am in my 40s, which (compared to my friend Jessie) is still my youth. thank the goddess. and thank you all, who helped us get here: ming san, Naomi, robin, Marc, Eileen, Danu, Jesse, Alison, Dale, Kristen, Jaime, Jon L, Ruby, Iana, David, Joan, Twinkle, Mary Ann thank you thank you every one, and i hope i didnt forget anyone. we love you and are so grateful for your love in return

The next step

Tomorrow, we are going to Lost Valley Educational Community for a one week mutual exploration. We'll let you know what we discover there, so check back in a week or so.