To Oregon and Beyond!

Before heading off to the farm, Kim had to spend some quality time with her family. She had been wanting to take her Dad, Terry, to the hippie wonderland that is Breitenbush Hot Springs. For those of you who have never been to Breitenbush, you are seriously missing out. Breitenbush is a pristine retreat center set on 160 wooded acres, surrounded by National Forest. They have several bubbling hot spring tubs to soak your weary bones in, a cute sauna, a beautiful river, daily wellbeing classes including yoga and qi gong, and the most delicious organic vegetarian buffet meals. All of this is included in the price of your accommodation, be it a cabin or tent. They also offer various workshops ranging from massage, belly dance, mushroom hunting to creative writing. They made cabin reservations and hopped in Terry's van.

On arrival, a serious problem was presented: The tubs were clothing optional. Well, that's not really a problem. After a couple years in massage school, Kim lost most of her modesty. And Terry was a traveling musician hippie dude who spent lots of time at Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco in the 60's... 'nuff said. The problem was not the nudity, but that father and daughter were not to keen on nudity together. They devised a sophisticated system in which they knew eachother's wherabouts at all times. They did not want to risk the possibility of eagerly walking up to a tub only to find the other getting out, all naked and prune-skinned. Luckily, this did not happen.

For 4 days and 3 nights, they soaked, slept, ate, soaked, slept, ate some more, soaked, did some yoga, slept, ate, met some new people, soaked, went in the sauna, slept and ate. It was grand and blissful.

From there, they hopped back into the van and headed off for Coos Bay on the Oregon coast to visit some of Terry's friends. It was interesting. His friends, Mark and Sharon, had 8 cats. Mark's sister Cleta and her husband Mike were also visiting, along with their weiner dog. Mark and Sharon shared the property with their daughter and her boyfriend who lived in a camper, and Mark's parents. Mark's dad is 80 years old, and he always wears a hat that says: "I'm a member of the I Don't Give a Shit Club." He was awesome.

The father and daughter toured along the coast, had campfires, roasted marshmallows, jammed out on guitars and sang, told dirty jokes and ate a lot of processed pork products. Kim doesn't ever remember having eaten so much sausage, and in such great variety: breakfast sausage, Keilbasa, Cheese Brats, hot dogs, and spicy Mexican sausage. They also ate white bread, eggs, fried fish, pancakes, and chips. Chips are made of vegetables, right? Kim's digestive system is still recovering.

Mark had a friend named Hobo John who has been hoboing for the past 18 years. He looks like one of the guys from ZZ Top if they were overweight, dirty and toothless. He spins long, fascinating tales of riding the rails. He's had to stop though, because gang violence has become a problem on the trains, and Hobo John was even thrown off a cliff by gang members. So for now you can find Hobo John in Coos Bay, living out of a shop and drinking cans of Coors Light around Mark and Sharon's campfire.

Kim and Terry returned to Idaho. Kim spent a couple of lovely days hanging out with her Grandma Emi, and then it was back into the van as Kim and Terry drove 5 hours to Idaho Falls to visit Kim's half-brother Mark. Mark is a local rock star, so they went down to the local bar to hear his band play. It was a good time had by all. Plenty of drinking and merry-making. Terry even got up to dance a couple times, much to the chagrin of his children. After several late nights and many South Park reruns, Kim and Terry headed back to Nampa, where Kim prepared for her journey to MaryJane's Farm. Whew! Kim has spent waaaaaaaaaay too much time in a car lately, and is not looking forward to yet another several hour drive, but she is TOTALLY excited about settling into farm life. She'll let you know how it goes.

Love,
Kim

monica posted on 2008-07-23 at 12:13 am

where are the naked pictures!?

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