Thoughts From Oregon

We arrived in Oregon on Saturday and the simple change in weather has been good for all of us. Before we left Virginia I think we were all experiencing a bit of "heat rage." But with highs in the low 80s here we've all been a lot more pleasant to be around.

The Js went fishing with Big J's dad today. It was so great seeing little j excited about fishing with Papa. Tomorrow she is going riding in the arena and might even learn some barrel racing (slow, of course!).

We've had one major disappointment -- a little drive-through that we used to get yummy/greasy corn dogs and curly fries was pretty bad. We went there on Sunday and, in addition to waiting nearly 45 minutes for our food, the quality was far below what we recalled. Maybe we had hyped it up in our memories, but even Big J's brother and partner agreed it was worse. We had really talked it up to little j and felt bad when it didn't live up to our memories and her expectations.

We hadn't been in our college town for a couple of years and it was good to drive around and see how things had changed, or, rather, not changed. The college itself looked great, but the downtown seemed so small. But good memories trump everything. And little j enjoyed seeing where we went to college, our first house, and the neighborhood she spent her first 9 months.

We leave for my hometown on Thursday, and, while I was there just a year ago with little j, I'm sure that we'll have some of the same feelings.

One thing that really struck both Big J and I was how we used to feel driving into the valley after a long time from home. It felt like coming home. It still feels familiar and comforting, but not in the same way. We know that we'll have that "coming home" feeling in two weeks when we return to Virginia.