While this is technically a Roadtrip blog, I’ve gotta say that it’s been woefully short on actual road trips lately. Air trips? Sure. Sea trips? Plenty. But getting out on an actual slab of road and driving somewhere? Not so much. I guess that was a part of the mental clockwork ticking away when, on Sunday morning, the weather had turned sour enough that me and Devon flying ourselves up to Port Townsend didn’t seem entirely prudent. We’d been planning the trip for weeks – Devon’s not been up in ages; so we were definitely going to go. We’d even cajoled D’s parents to come down to Palo Alto for the week to housesit Jeremy and our bonus teenager. And you just don’t waste grandparental babysitting.

So sure, we could buy last-minute airline tickets, but there was another way. We’ve known for a while that we needed a car up in Port Townsend. A while back, we’d shopped around Craigslist, and decided that the thing that made the most sense was to just replace our trusty Subaru (a.k.a. the Titanium Mint) with another trusty Subaru, and to move the our old one north. So we kinda looked at each other, did the math – 879 miles, approximately 13 hours of driving – and loaded up the car. Rooooooadtrip!!!

Immediate observations:

1. There’s something cathartic about getting in a car and just driving.
2. Driving 15 hours with your wife, but without any kids, is a lovely way to spend time.
3. The I-5 corridor up from California to the Northwest is pretty damned gorgeous.
4. 879 miles is still a hecka long way to drive in one go, even if it is gorgeous.

Yeah, we were tired when we arrived. And the final leg up through the Olympic National Forest, over dark, winding two-lane roads in pouring rain had a few more Rocky Horror jokes than were strictly necessary.

But the thing is, tromping around on the farm together that next morning? Totally, totally worth it.

Port Townsend is the best possible therapy I can imagine for me in these troubled, fractious times. Sun, rain, wind, darkness – doesn’t matter. This place and the people here just feel like they provide the oxygen and sunlight I need to breathe and grow, regardless of the weather. No long story here (though you’ll note that I just posted a new story over on Medium); let me just leave you with a couple of pictures from yesterday to soothe your own minds:

Devon – outstanding in her field

For those of you who read The Duchess last month: behind the counter at the Blue Moose