The
Meaning of It All
by Ann Ulrich Miller
© 2011 (all rights reserved)
An article from the AUGUST 2011 issue of THE STAR BEACON.
OUR TRIP TO THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA
In June my partner Doug and I embarked on a month-long road trip to Washington
state. Both of us felt the urge to move about a year ago. The northwestern part
of Washington was an option we needed to check out. I had never set foot in the
state of Washington before, although I had lived for 10 months in the Pacific
Northwest in 1984-'85. I remembered that Corvallis, Ore., was green and
appealing.
Our little 2004 Subaru Outback was packed to the hilt as we headed west through
Durango on Monday, June 6. Passing through towns where Star Beacon subscribers
reside became a game for me. Ursula Mayer lives near Bayfield, Colo., and
Anne
Carter lives in Durango. We cruised through Cortez, home to Claudia Sanderson and
Aileen Garrouté, and northwest into Utah, catching a small portion of Monument
Valley and passing through Moab and Green River.
Since we never seem to get a very early start anywhere we go, I didn’t expect us
to get very far our first day. I left the driving to Doug, who is a skilled and
experienced operator behind the wheel. Doug drove non-stop through Salt Lake
City, Ogden and Brigham City before I begged him to stop for the night in
Trementon, a town not far from the Idaho border.
Kaye Studstrup lives in SLC, and my son Scott Ulrich spent a couple of years
there after graduating from college. (He’s now in St. Paul, Minn.) Thad Brown
lives near Sandy, which we cruised by in Doug’s rush to put big city traffic
behind him. Doug never drove through Denver, which I think has worse city
traffic than SLC, and I’m convinced now that he won’t be wanting to go to our
state’s capital anytime soon.
On our second day, June 7, we took I-84 all the way across southern Idaho into
Oregon. We took the route through the Malheur National Forest, which was
gorgeous. We ended up in Redmond, Ore., that night, home of Carol Elek, who
writes Teotwawki Living. I was unable to reach Carol, who apparently was working
that night. Our most memorable breakfast was in Redmond on June 8, at the Black
Bear Café. We then continued west through the beautiful, lush Cascade Mountains
into Corvallis, so I could have another look at that one place I lived. Much of
it seemed to be the same.
We reached Newport and the coast by mid afternoon. What a delight it was for me
to see the ocean once again. And for Doug, who lived at sea for so many years
during his Navy and Coast Guard career, this was the first time in almost three
decades for him as well. We just couldn’t resist going to the Coast Guard
station. There we were given a tour and I boarded my very first USCG search and
rescue boat, the 52 ft. Victory.
That night we had seafood (fish and chips) at Tillamook, Ore. -- only about 50
miles from where subscriber Gayle Walker lives, in Beaverton. Then Doug drove,
hoping to get to Astoria, along Highway 101 up the coast in the dark. Finally,
without my nudging, he pulled over at Seaside where we got a motel and a good
night’s rest.
The next morning, June 8, we had breakfast in Astoria, Ore., and then crossed
the bridge into Washington state. Astoria is an interesting old city and the
morning was damp and foggy. Doug wanted to stop at Cape Disappointment, where
he’d gone to heavy weather school at the beginning of his Coast Guard career. We
stopped at the US Coast Guard station there, but they were too busy to give us a
tour, so we continued on north with a stop at Ruby Beach near Queets. In my
opinion this was the most beautiful beach in western Washington. At that point I
took over the wheel and drove through Forks and east toward Port Angeles, where
we had a vacation rental waiting for us.
Our hosts, the Ellefsons, live outside Port Angeles on 23 acres, with a
breathtaking view of the Straits from their house and from the upstairs
apartment over their garage, which is where we stayed. Our initial fear of
staying in a place too small for the two of us to get along for 30 days was soon
dissolved when we saw how cute the place was. The little apartment reminded us
of a doll’s house. The bed was very comfortable and we enjoyed drinking our
coffee in the mornings while cruising the Straits with our binoculars on the
balcony. Port Angeles is an international harbor at which all kinds of ships
come in and out at any given time of day or night. Unfortunately, some tall red
cedar trees blocked our view of the Coast Guard station out on Ediz Hook. But we
had plenty of chances to go visit the station during our stay.
Friday, June 10 we got to tour the US Cuttyhunk, a 110 ft. Coast Guard cutter.
There are three others plus a medium endurance cutter at the PA station. It was
fun checking out the PX and getting acquainted with the town of Port Angeles.
Our host and hostess had a barbecue for us that evening with freshly caught
salmon and halibut. What a treat!
On Sunday, the 12th, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge, part of the Olympic
National Park, and it was an overcast day to begin with. The higher we climbed,
the snowier and foggier it became. There was snow at the visitor’s center and it
reminded us of being in the Colorado mountains.
On Tuesday, June 14 we drove to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery, which is the most
northwestern point in the mainland United States. We loved the drive. We stopped
along beaches on the way and noted the quaint little community of Joyce, just
west of PA. We saw whales spouting near Shipwreck Point, but we never actually
saw the whales. Cape Flattery was more beautiful than we had imagined. Doug was
surprised to discover another Coast Guard station at Neah Bay.
We walked the mile-and-a-half trail through a mossy, wet rainforest so that we
could view Tatoosh Island, where there is a lighthouse station (automated
nowadays). Doug was impressed and said this was the first time he had seen
Tatoosh from the land side. I was impressed by the orange colored starfish
clinging to the caves as the surf crashed against the rocks.
On the way back to PA, we stopped at a park called Salt Creek, outside Joyce, to
eat our picnic supper, and discovered coastal artillery concrete bunkers used in
World War II. You can drive and walk through the bunkers, and they have a
display board in the park, telling about the history and showing photographs of
the soldiers who were stationed there. It turns out that Doug’s father was most
likely one of the men in the pictures taken in 1944 or 1945, when he was
stationed there. We had to come back the next day and explore more and walk
along the beach.
After a few days, we decided to check out Forks, a small town about 20 minutes
from La Push and the western coast. Forks is the setting for the Twilight series
of novels by Stephenie Meyer and the popular teeny-bopper movies. The chamber of
commerce in Forks has promoted Twilight for the benefit of the town’s merchants.
There are tours in the area for Twilight fans, who arrive in droves. We liked
what we saw of Forks, for the most part, and checked out a couple of properties
that were listed with a real estate agency. We ended up going back again to look
some more. Nothing was decided, of course.
We drove out to La Push, which is on the Quillayute Indian Reservation, and we
stopped briefly at the Coast Guard station there. Then we drove over to Rialto
Beach, north of La Push, and enjoyed that beach so much that we came back a
couple of more times during the week. I miss Rialto Beach and the smell of the
salt air, the crash of the waves, the multi-shaded gray skies and the rock
formations along the shoreline. While we were there, I saw a seal and some
porpoises in the ocean.
During our final days in Washington, we visited Lake Ozette and then the Hoh
Rain Forest southeast of Forks, part of the Olympic National Park, which -- as you
can imagine -- is huge and wild. There are very few roads into this park, and it
would be a challenge to hike anywhere. Lake Ozette was different. Maybe the
reason I wasn’t impressed with Lake Ozette was because of the mosquitoes and the
fact that you couldn’t really see anything unless you were a backpacker and took
a day to hike to the coastline. I did get some video footage of a river otter
that day.
We loved Hoh Rain Forest. It was overcast and drizzly when we were there, but we
never minded the climate -- which is quite different from the sunny Four Corners
area. We took a walk in the Hall of Mosses and stopped to take pictures of some
Roosevelt elk, including a nice bull along the road on our way out of the park.
Emma O’Brian, another reader, lives in Port Angeles, and we connected by phone
but I was unable to go see her this time around. We drove out to Sequim, the
town just east of Port Angeles, a couple of times, where subscriber Helen Pacheco
lives. There are several TSB subscribers who live in Washington state, most of
them in the Seattle vicinity. Kanai Callow lives north in Bellingham, and
Rod
Dyke resides in Bainbridge Island. Then there are Ken and Jackie Rebane in
Shoreline, Wash., along with DJ Welch (in Sumas), and Suzanne Ward, near
Vancouver. I would have loved to have met Suzy, who channels the Matthew
Messages and is the author of the Matthew Books and the beloved Amusing to
Profound — My Conversations with Animals, which was excerpted in the July Star
Beacon. We did drive close to her town on our way home, along the Columbia
River Gorge, but for many reasons just could not stop. Perhaps our next trip.
We left Washington on Friday, July 1, and headed east, then south along the Hood
Canal and through Olympia, where Lilian Mustelier (a woman of “high
strangeness”) lives. We felt we needed to check out other parts of Washington
state, because we have decided we definitely want to live there. So far the
Olympic Peninsula has won our favor.
The Columbia River Gorge was spectacular, but the appeal didn’t last long. Soon
we found ourselves in the desolate eastern part of Washington. Powerlines and
wind turbines were everywhere and I felt tired and slightly nauseous. We ended
up in Kennewick that evening and almost didn’t find an available motel because
of the holiday weekend.
The next day, Saturday, we drove into Lewiston, Idaho, and had lunch at a great
restaurant (Shari’s). I took over the wheel for the second time on the whole
trip and drove most of the way across mid Idaho, following the course of the
Clearwater River, which was beautiful. Of course we had to stop several times to
take pictures. Near Lolo Pass we saw a mother black bear with two cubs along the
roadside.
When we reached Missoula, Mont. -- what a surprise! We were impressed with
Missoula, and almost wanted to change our minds and move there. However, we
remembered that Montana has some bitterly cold winters, and that’s one thing
we’re trying to get away from, not to mention being at sea level (I fell in love
with the ocean).
From Missoula we headed west toward Bozeman and decided to try to get a room at
Livingston and then head south into Yellowstone the next morning. When we
arrived in Livingston, there was a thunderstorm in full force and the motels
were filling up fast with tourists. We decided to go back to Bozeman after we
found out the price of motels on the Fourth of July weekend. It was worth going
back and then seeing all that beautiful scenery of the Absaroka mountain range
again the next day. Subscriber Louise Bowman resides outside Livingston.
Monday, the Fourth of July, we drove through Yellowstone National Park in
Wyoming. Not far away is where Star Beacon columnist John Cali lives in Cody,
and subscriber Sheri Gould in Buffalo. We stopped to take video of wild buffalo
with the Grand Tetons as a back drop. Then we spent the night in Jackson. Motels
were gouging people there as well, but we had to pay the price like everyone
else. We did get to see some fireworks from the parking lot.
The next morning, July 5, we headed south through Pinedale and Rock Springs. We
then discovered the beauty of the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area before
you drive into Utah. Perhaps one day we can spend some time enjoying these
natural beauties on Mother Earth.
The drive into Vernal, Utah and eastward into Dinosaur, Colo., and Rangely was
uneventful. We drove over Douglas Pass and finally reached Grand Junction, where
we rested that night before taking the final leg of our journey home. Subscriber
and handwriting analyst Polly Cady resides in Grand Junction.
The next morning we drove over Red Mountain Pass and home to Pagosa Springs. Our
vacation was wonderful. We saw a lot and drove more than 6,100 miles (with 98
percent of the driving done by Doug). The Subaru was the perfect car for this
long trip and it kept us safe and comfortable, along with our guides and angels
-- thanks, guys!
A special thank you goes to two people who helped keep our gardens and our house
plants alive, along with Jessica, my black cat. Thank you, Dan McCamman and
Heidi Moller, both subscribers, and also to Iwetta Luckhaus, who collected my
mail for me. It’s a comfort to know you can go away for a whole month and rely
on good friends.
Really, there wasn’t anything paranormal about our trip. The only strange thing
I noticed was that daylight came around 4:30 in the morning in Port Angeles and
lasted until 10:00 at night. Because the location is so far north, it all has to
do with the position of the sun at the time of year.
We didn’t find Bigfoot, but I did buy one of his T-shirts in the Hoh Rain
Forest. Again... maybe next time we’ll be able to visit him (or her). And yes,
there will be another trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Perhaps the next time we go
there, we’ll stay.
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