Gold Bar, WA

Awake at 6am. My computer tells me it’s 9pm today in Bangkok time.

I leave Gold Bar today.  The freezing wind has been blowing hard all night long.  Howling down the Skykomish river and batting around anything not fixed to the ground.  The bamboo plants with their icicle ornaments tinkle against the glass of Barb’s sunroom.  The wind has been stoking my anxiety, my itchiness to get underway.  It’s a constant goad to get moving.

Before I do, before I go through the complicated motion of re-packing, driving, storing the last of my possessions not bound for Asia, before all that my mind is stuck on this leg of the journey.

It hasn’t gone according to plan.  According to plan, Steven’s Pass Ski Resort would have opened on the 25th.  According to plan I would have skiied every day since, thrilled.  I’d’ve used the hot tub here to relax afterwards.

The alternation of weather too cold and dry and too warm and wet, with not simultaneous cold and wet to make snow cancelled that plan. The pitiful 15” of base cover is evidently not even enough to warrant an update on the resort’s Web site to string along the hopeful.

So instead a schedule un-planned and un-plannable arose.  The warm rain consumed any ski-able snow, but it also turned in the river into a mesmerizing torrent to watch.  Increasingly drawn to yoga in recent months, I found a nearby studio.  I’ve almost consumed the entire 10 session starter pack in the week I’ve been here.  They have exceptionally kind and friendly staff, even to a vagrant.  It’s a hot(ish) yoga and it’s been wonderful to really feel my body in the heat, heat presumably very like the climate in Thailand.  A forestaste. I’ve felt a drive to write, and have written a lot.  I’ve said goodbye to friends.  I’ve spent some time getting to know my host Barb, whose energy and joy are inspirational.  Whose humanity makes me feel like I’ve known her a good long time.

All these experiences were not part of the plan.  Yet they fit the time I had here perfectly. If the rest of the journey fits me half as well, I couldn’t have planned it better.