10/01-02/07: Rustic Cabins & The Mother Tree

Last night I arrived in Gold Beach and found a great place to stay for a few days while I visited my brother. It was called the Ireland's Rustic Lodges. I highly recommend it. I got a discount for being over 60, so it cost $80/night -- pricey, but better than some others. It had a "real" fireplace in it where I could burn wood, which smelled good and covered my brother's smoking. It had a big living room/bedroom, another small bedroom and bathroom, small fridge and microwave, wi-fi, TV with HBO (if one were interested) and no phone, which was interesting. I now have moved to Skype (with the help of my son Stan) and can now make video calls to anyone with Skype for free anywhere in Canada or the U.S. (hey, hey).

It was a great place for my brother Frank and I to have some quiet space that wasn't Driftwood Lodge, where he lives, or a restaurant or the bush. He said it really reminded him of places where he and my mother would stay on their many trips around the U.S.

The next day I picked my brother up and we drove down to Crescent City (about 40 miles or so down the Lost Coast of Oregon into California) where he did some bank business, and we got some Kentucky Fried Chicken lunch to take with us to Jedediah Smith Redwood Forest. My brother remembered exactly how to get to the triple-trunked tree where we spread my mother's ashes last year. Turn off 101 to Forest, turn left on Walker Road, .25 mi down road on left.

My brother had noticed only after we had spread her ashes around this tree that it had one big trunk and two little ones coming out of its base (symbolizing our small family). So it was fairly distinctive looking and no mistake could be made as to which tree it was. We ate our picnic as last time and then I burned a sage smudge and said "ki ki so so ashe lha gyel lo" around the trunks. My brother thought I was funny. But hey. Each in our own way. He searched and found that the dumping area had either been cleaned out or grown over and it all looked very beautiful and peaceful. This last is sunlight on a fern growing from her tree.