Getting Ready

By PT PT

Little Blue’s Almost Ready     May 9, 2025


Little Blue is almost packed—and so am I. Just three more days until I hit the road. After wrestling my garden into something remotely manageable for whomever’s stuck with watering while I’m gone, it’s time to start organizing, packing, and fitting things in like I’m playing a game of Tetris.

First stop: twenty-three miles east of Burns, Oregon. Crane Hot Springs. I’ll be spending three nights unwinding—soaking in hot springs, stargazing, and maybe heading toward the Steens range in search of wild horses if all goes well.

I’m not entirely sure how my horse-spotting adventures are going to work—either here in Oregon or later in Utah—because of Beamer. (And just plain luck.) Do I leave him in the camper with the A/C running? Or bring him along, even though horses can spot a stranger (or a corgi) from miles away? It’s not that he’ll bark—he probably won’t even notice them. His focus is usually about four inches off the ground. Scent is his superpower. Plus, if I do take him along, he might just blend in with the sagebrush like a short, fuzzy desert gnome. I’ll figure it out when I get there.

This morning, as I finish my coffee, I’m already longing for that high desert silence and wide-open sky. Every time I drive up there, something shifts—usually about 30 minutes east of Bend. My shoulders drop, my lungs expand, and I suddenly remember how to breathe. It feels like freedom.

I’ve felt that same release in other chapters of my life—when I ran away from home at sixteen; hitchhiking from Colorado to the West Coast, one ride in the back of an old pickup; hiking alone through Taylor Canyon with nothing but time and wind and the tall pines waving, whispering and the rush of the river. I know now that it’s about space—big skies, no walls, no noise. Just peace. For a little while, I let go of all the judgments and worries and just… notice.

In other words: Be Here Now.

(Sorry I'm late posting, it's been a hell of a time the last few days! I'm working to catch up.)


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