Just this afternoon we realized that it was Portland Pizza Week and we knew how we needed to spend the rest of the day. As Zach and Nicole worked on Yurt painting and construction, I reviewed all 45 pizza offerings and made a shortlist of the 10 best slices. We all agreed that 4 is the most we could eat as we embarked into the city.

First up was Straight from New York Pizza downtown, where we had the very garlicky Fearless Vampire Killer / Date Night Special. It was a great start to the evening.

Next was the Natural at HOTLIPS Pizza Civic, also downtown. The name is kind of a joke, as it includes Beyond Burger, a vegan “meat”. It will be remembered for its greasiness. I also wanted to get a pesto breadstick here, but I showed restraint, which I would later be thankful for.

For our third slice, we drove across town for the Elote Pie at Blackbird Pizza. Zach in particular was excited about this slice. It ended up being good, but not quite as good as we expected. It needed more roasted corn.

Lastly, already feeling full, we ended at Handsome Pizza for the Mac ‘n’ Cheese pizza. It’s basically pizza with mac and cheese on it. There was a line out the door that we waited in for about 20 minutes. Someone leaving told us that it was worth the wait. Luckily, we got there just in time, as there were only sixteen slices left for the night. As we were nearing the last of their pizzas, they were a big skimpy on the pasta, with maybe six elbows per slice. I honestly couldn’t tell you whether it was good because I was so stuffed at that point that I felt awful. I didn’t want to finish it but my honor dictated that I must. So I ate the whole thing and enjoyed it in some sense of the word enjoy that many may not understand.

One of my friends has a rule that you cannot mix two types of carbs on a food. This pizza flagrantly violates that rule and was proud of it.

Oh, did I say that we ended with this pizza? We did not. I still needed my ice cream for the night. Feeling a bit like a beached whale, I went to Salt and Straw for a scoop of rhubarb crumble with toasted anise in a homemade waffle cone. It was delicious and I ate it all. I have no ragrets.

No, these are not questions that I have been asked on my trip. These are questions I have asked Zach about Yurtlife, or rather, Vanlife, since he is not yet living in the Yurt. For everyone’s best interests, I will only be posting the questions and not the answers.

• So how do you shower?
• How often do you brush your teeth?
• How do you do laundry?
• Where do you get your drinking water?
• How does the lack of water and shower access impact your intimate moments?
• It’s cold. How do you stay warm at night?
• Where do you get food?
• What’s that smell?
• When is the last time you moved the van?

I love falling asleep next to a fireplace. I haven’t done that in years. Outside it’s pitch black, save the faint glow of Portland in the distance, gently creating a silhouette of pine trees. Inside there’s a warm nightlight.

I started my day in Yachats, and I learned very quickly that Oregon is a far different place from California, even Northern California.

As I checked out of my hotel in the morning, the receptionist mentioned that it was a sunny morning. It was not. There was 100% cloud cover, but it was bright and there was no rain. I’m a far way from SoCal.

For breakfast I went to The Green Salmon, a supremely organic café in the town. I got a breakfast sandwich and Yachatian Fog, their take on a London Fog, which was just what I needed.

For any coffee or tea drink, they had an option to add CBD oil, and there were even several drinks designed with CBD oil. They even had a coffee whole beans with CBD oil infusion for sale for home use. Since there was a snail on the packaging, I had to buy it.

More, they have a hot cocoa with a 14-mushroom mix ingredients. One of their lattes centers around reishi mushrooms. They sold dry mushroom snacks as a to go treat, too.

From there, I returned to the Cape Perpetua area too explore the beach when it wasn’t raining. I made it down to Thor’s Well. It’s basically a hole in rock surface on the beach that gets filled with water from the tide and occasionally gushes from a strong wave.

I walked around for a while before heading north to Tillamook, where I visited the Tillamook Creamery and Cheese Factory. It very much a tourist attraction on the coast. The place was packed. The cheese was good but not great. It’s a just-above-generic brand of cheese, so my expectations weren’t that high. It wasn’t bad at all—it’s just not a premium dairy brand is all.

It was cool to tour the factory and see how their cheeses are made. Lots of technology goes into it. And it seems that most of the milk is supplied by local family farms. Along the way they described the cows. The cows are certainly treated better than those in CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations, more commonly known as factory farms), and the displays emphasized their happiness and health.

It described the wonderful diet that they feed their baby cows and how they get their own private pen. It didn’t note that these cows are taken away from their mothers shortly after birth. It described the wonderful diet that the adult cows are fed of hay, corn (high in nutritional value), and food scraps (such as potato skins and corn cobs that would otherwise be trash). It didn’t note that cows should just eat grass, but grass is more expensive than corn and human food waste. But such is the industry.

Of course, I had to get ice cream there, but I also got a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch first.

Leaving the factory, I stopped by a gas station and was confused by the pump interface. An attendant came up to me and asked me what state I’m from. Apparently in Oregon there are no self-serve pumps. Fine by me.

On the road to Portland that cut from Tillamook on the coast, I saw many trucks pulled over by the side of the road, about one every few miles. The drivers were standing by themselves by the river, just staring. Maybe they were fishing, but I couldn’t tell. It was kind of strange. An unusual Sunday ritual, perhaps. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest.

I made it to Portland today. My old roommate and his girlfriend live in a yurt on the edge of the city. Kind of. They still live in his van until they complete construction of the yurt.

They have made a ton of progress since I was last here in the fall. It’s really cool. There’s a kitchen with a refrigerator, cabinets, and a sink, though the sink doesn’t work yet. The bathroom and lofted bedroom are half built. There’s a sweet Scandinavian wood furnace to keep the place warm at night. Electricity and lights are all set up.

There’s still no plumbing. I’ll be using the ports potty and not showering for a couple days. It will allow me to use all those odor-absorbing fancy clothes I got at REI a few weeks ago. There’s also no internet, so I’m writing this post on my phone.

As soon as I arrived, I found that they had set up an obstacle course for me. I had to wade through many large and small boxes to get from the entrance to the finished part of the Yurt. I made it through in record time.

For dinner, we went into Portland to the Sudra, a vegan Indian-food restaurant. I got a lentil bowl and it was quite good.

Special for my arrival, they just received a pull out sofa bed and bedding. As they’re still staying in the van, I will be the first person to sleep in the yurt! Tomorrow we will get their bed setup (it just arrived) so they can begin to sleep in the yurt too. If the bathroom flooring arrives, we can begin to work on that too.

Yes, I will go into Portland for ice cream and coffee and some touristy things, but I’ll also be spending some time here at the yurt. It’s very peaceful here and I can hear an orchestra of frogs outside.

I am also entering the final part of my trip, where I will be with close friends from now until I get on my plane back to Boston. I’m looking forward to spending time and catching up with them, as that, so far, has been the best parts of this trip.

It’s just after five and I’ve checked into my hotel at the Adobe Resort in Yachats. It looks like there’s plenty to do outside here, yet it is raining and just under 50ºF. Though they got some sun yesterday, it’s generally been raining non-stop here for the past two weeks—or so the two people at reception told me. There might be better weather tomorrow, so I plan to do a short morning hike before heading into Portland.

At some point I should probably find dinner. It looks like the nearby grocery store is open until 8 and there’s a restaurant in the hotel with pizza. I’m not sure what I am going to do yet. I’m feeling pretty lazy after a day of doing basically nothing but driving and snacking. Thankfully, my drive tomorrow is less than four hours.

With just ten days left in the trip, I finally left California this afternoon and headed into Oregon. The past few days have been unlike most of the rest of my trip. I’ve been on my own, I’ve been doing a lot of driving, and I’ve been staying in basic hotels instead of with friends or family. Tonight is a bit of an exception, as I am staying at my uncle’s brother’s house in Grants Pass. Just a few minutes ago I noticed that my hotel booking for tomorrow night is actually for sometime next month. Now I am on hold with the booking agency to fix the reservation.

After tomorrow, though, my trip returns to less driving and more seeing friends. I will be spending several days in Portland and then Seattle before flying home a week from Monday. I don’t have any grand revelations to look back on, but I can say that so far the trip has been good.

I’ve learned that I am always looking to the next thing. I usually can’t just sit still and I pack my days as full as I can. I suppose it’s some form of FOMO, that I don’t want to miss anything in the precious little time I have in each place. But I’ve also learned the opposite side, where packing in too much means that I don’t enjoy what I’m doing. Over the weeks, I think I have found the right balance. I need daily time to recharge, even though this whole trip is intended to be a time to recharge. I’ve also learned that Bluetooth speakers are really great at playing soft music before I go to sleep.

I’m writing this all as if my trip is over but I still have roughly a quarter of it left. Some people have told me that I am never going to want to return to Boston or go back to work. I don’t think that’s true. If I needed to go back to work tomorrow, I could, with little regret. As it so happens, I don’t need to go back to work tomorrow, and I will continue to enjoy this time off until I do. But as much as I like this travel—seeing new places and reconnecting with old friends—I do like having some sort of routine. Being away for so long helps put that all into context.

I miss my cat, and I look forward to seeing here again when I get back to Boston. (I do know that she is in very good hands, though, with my friends, who have built her an excellent box fort). I forget what it feels like to drive my car rather than the rental Ford Fusion. I kind of forget my room and my desk and my shower and the feel of my bed. I remember the walk to work, but actually doing work feels so distant in the past now.

I think my not working was what originally drove me to pack my days full of too many things. I always like to have a goal, something to be working towards. When I stopped working, I channeled that energy into planning my trip (which I did very little of beforehand). It took a good 3+ weeks before I realized that I was overdoing it. I’m in a good state now and I can keep that up for a while longer, but eventually I’ll want something to focus my efforts on. So I’ll be glad to return to Boston for that reason.

I’m not yet sure what I’ll be doing when I return to work, but I’m sure it will be something good. Until then, I will continue eating ice cream everyday, reconnecting with friends, spending time reflecting, and enjoying the great outdoors. Come to think of it, there’s no reason I can’t do all those things back in Boston, too.

Oh, the booking agency called back. I’m all good for tomorrow.

Sorry.

The forrest moon of Endor.

Departing my hotel just after 9am, I returned to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to hike Zigzag Trail 1 and 2 Loop. The reviews on Alltrails said that there were snails but I didn’t see any—just some banana slugs. There was almost no one on the trail. I ran into one couple taking photos at the beginning and then a small group being led by a guide about a quarter way into the hike.

Crossing into Northern California, the signs at the beginning of trails began to warn of bears instead of mountain lions. The signs also recommend not to hike alone. So I had my hiking poles and Bluetooth speaker to alert any potential predator of my existence so that I don’t startle them.

Having learned a few days ago that driving through the winding roads of redwood forest is more interesting while listening to John Williams, I was playing the Return of the Jedi soundtrack as I started on the trail. Normally, I dislike any music on the trail—it takes away from the nature—but I made an exception since I was on my own. It worked out quite well, since it looked exactly like the Endor in the movie. I later looked up that the movie actually was filmed in the Redwood National Park.

If it’s possible, this area is greener than any other area I’ve seen so far on this trip. The greens were really GREEN. And the trees were really BIG.

I finished the hike faster than I expected at just over two hours. So I drove to some other areas of the park that had gotten a bit more populated later in the morning. I came across the “big tree” and asked an older couple to take my photo.

Tomorrow I head back to the coast to Yachats, where I was planning on another hike. The forecast, though, calls for more rain, so we will see…

I crossed into Northern California last night and realized that it is cold here. So far, it’s been cloudy or rainy in the mid-fifties. OK, so perhaps cold is a relative term here. I was getting used to nonstop sun in the mid-seventies.

Tonight I will be rather brief. I am writing now standing in the bathroom at a Holiday Inn Express at an Indian Casino in Klamath. There is no cell service and the wifi is extremely spotty. It’s 7:45pm and I’m glad I ate in Eureka because there’s nothing here open after 8.

My day started out at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Beyond the typical cultivations of a botanical garden, they also had several acres of “natural” area where I could wander along trails to the ocean. As a group of about two dozen small children showed up just before I did, I beelined for the furthest edge of the gardens as soon as I got in. I didn’t see them again for the rest of my time at the garden.

Before leaving town, I stopped by Cowlick’s Hand Made Ice Cream in Fort Bragg city center. Of course, as soon as I entered the doors, there were those twenty five kids all eating ice cream and taking up every seat in the place. By the time I received my ice cream, though, half of them had left. I am doing a good job keeping up with my one-per-day ice cream goal. I’m just one ice cream behind.

The road to Eureka consisted of a 20 mile portion of 1 that was a winding road from the coast to 101 at Leggett more inland. It took about an hour to get through and felt like the most remote part of the trip so far. It’s amazing how big the trees are.

After driving the several hours to Eureka, I stopped at Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate, as recommended by a co-worker. I spent more money there than I care to share here. Definitely stop here if you have the chance. Nothing else in Eureka looked interesting, so I kept going.

Finally making it to Klamath just after 6, I checked into my hotel room in this very unusual place. The hotel room itself looks pretty normal, but it is eerily quiet here. Only about 700 people live in Klamath, and this area only has two restaurants and one gas station. I should be ready to leave pretty early tomorrow because there is nothing to do otherwise.

There are two hikes that I am aiming to do in Redwood National Park…actually, in the interest of not backtracking too much in the car, the hikes are in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. I drove by the trailhead earlier today. It’s basically just off the side of the road where there’s enough room for a few cars to park. I don’t expect that it will be too crowded.

By 2pm, I plan to be on the road north to Grants Pass, Oregon, where I will be meeting my uncle’s brother for dinner.

I spent much of today on the road, back on the 1 northbound. I departed Oakland shortly after 8 and immediately ran into massive traffic getting over the bridge into Marin County. Construction of some sort added about 30 minutes to what should have been just a few. After stopping by Starbucks for breakfast and REI for trekking poles, I made it to Reyes Point just before noon. It was pretty chilly, having dropped just below 60ºF with strong winds.

The Abbotts Lagoon Trail hike was more of a walk, with roughly three miles taking roughly an hour and a half. I didn’t see many animals or flowers, but I did see lots of sand dunes and reasonably large waves on the ocean side. At the start of the trail, I spotted a snake just before it spotted me. It scampered off quickly. I saw several small birds that weren’t afraid of people. There was a heron (I think) that was very non-photogenic. I didn’t see any Snowy Plovers despite much of the area being fenced off for their nesting.

For lunch, I stopped by Side Street Kitchen in the town of Point Reyes Station for a delightful meal. Usually I don’t like vegetarian sandwiches as a concept—sandwiches generally are a vessel for eating meat protein—but this one was an exception. The Mt. Tam Baguette had a brie cheese from the creamery next door, honey crisp apples, fancy mustard, arugula, and melted leeks. It was very good.

After departing from Point Reyes Station, I was out of civilization for a long while. I had no cell service and passed by maybe five towns with populations ranges from 50 to 500. Basically, I just saw five gas stations, five grocery markets, and five restaurants from Point Reyes to Fort Bragg. I did stop by Bodega Bay for a quick ice cream, which was the worst ice cream of my trip, but it was still decent.

After about four hours of driving windy coastal roads, I made it to Fort Bragg, where there were Starbucks, multiple gas stations, multiple restaurants, shopping centers, all the signs of a decent sized town. It’s just after 8pm now and I’m in a hotel room eating a grocery store salad. It feels good not to eat at a restaurant for once.

Tomorrow I’m planning to head north to Redwood National Park. I was so excited to hike some of the trails there until I saw the weather forecast: 100% chance of rain. So instead I may spend much of the day in Eureka, visiting a craft chocolate shop that a co-worker described as the “best chocolate ever”. Thankfully, I don’t need to be out of the Redwood National Park area until Friday afternoon, so I should be able to get in a hike Friday morning before passing into Oregon.