Days Inn Eugene

So this is the start of my travel blog for FRANCE. I was just too excited to wait to start it until I leave in January. For anyone who doesn't know, I'm going to France on either January 9th or 10th to study abroad in Poitiers, a small medieval town in the province of Poitou-Charentes, which is on the western coast of France, only an hour and a half train ride to/from Paris (omg!). I really don't know much yet as for the ...

As anyone that has had the unfortunate task of traveling with me can imagine.....in order to get to our 8am flight at Regan Airport in DC, we got up at 4am and were at the airport by 6am. So the early start made for a long day, but with Florence struggling with a cold (no fever, so it's not Swine Flu), and a sore shoulder, we were ready to get home. <br><br>The flights were right on time, and we even caught the shuttle to our car with perfect ...

Dre.. transform and roll out..<br><br>Drove up to Eugene this weekend to stoop it with Benja and his lady Rachel. ****in refreshing.. <br>I met Benj in Kathmandu almost two years ago and he's pretty much my life. So being with him was incredible. I could go into details about my amazing weekend but it's just not going to scratch the surface or begin to explain his importance in my life. <br ...

We drove down the center of Eugene.<br><br>We met a friend of mine from college.<br><br>We got pizza.<br><br>We watched Bruno in theaters.<br><br>We went to a bar and had some pitchers.<br><br>We slept at my friends house.<br><br>We drove on 58 towards Oakridge.<br><br>We went to a hot spring.<br><br>We drove out towards Wildwood.<br><br>We got a camp site.<br>

I went back up to Eugene, picked up Katie and we drove back to Idaho. On the way there we camped in the Cascades at the Metoleous River. The photos don't really show how incredible this is, at the mouth of the Metoleous the water comes out of the side of the mountain. Turn around and it's a full river.<br><br>We drove through the Craters of the Moon National Monument, also an incredible area.<br>

... oh well.<br><br>I went to the coast with my friend LaRosa, drove by my old house and found the fence I built and designed still standing :) I went to my first of several WINGS seminars, I am learning and growing a lot from these seminars and will stay connected with the program. If you're curious, google WINGS Eugene and check them out.<br><br>

... about people that cut the bottoms off their pots with an angle grinder. So I whip out my trusty angle grinder and put wheel to pot and.... nothing happens. Sure, there are some sparks and lots of loud noise, but I'm left with nothing but a black smudge on my pot. What?? So I haul the pot over to my workbench and try the hack saw... and it can barely even scratch the surface, it's defenitely not cutting it. Then I realize that this super-cheap pot I got is an actual fired ceramic pot ...

... The old Custom House showed how this was once ruled by Mexico until the Americans took it during the American/Mexican War. We walked to Cannery Row which is now modernised but they have tried to preserve some of the character of the place. There is only one small section which is still a fish factory. Still it was interesting to see. The next day we drove out to San Francisco airport. There we eventually found a Qantas baggage officer and though he tried to fob us off we ...

... again, so we'll have to stop and awkwardly do the reverse procedure. Louis then remembers to start the t eacGPS (instead of when we first get outdoors), in order to enter our destination address so we can know how far we will be walking that day and to check how far we have progressed ah rest stop. However, the GPS will sometimes guide us in a puzzling detour, and we'll have to stand in the middle of the road deciding whether to follow those instruction or a printout we got ...

We moved on to Eugene. Amy and Aaron (Amy is a friend of Sandy's), have been living in Eugene working with Hosea Youth Services for the last few months. All those we meet have so richly blessed us, that we were excited to be able to serve others for a few hours. Hosea is an outreach for homeless youth, where they can come for a free meal, showers, and laundry a few nights a week. It was such an encouraging experience to participate in Amy and Aaron's ...