Two kids are out of town for a few days and the other doesn't need me to be home, so I hit the road mid-day on Monday and spent a couple nights at Tim's home away from home. Sorta. His home as far as being in the town of Rufus, but not the actual four walls he stays in. He lives in a studio apartment, but there was nothing appealing to me about staying in what amounts to a tiny bachelor pad all day while he's at work and sharing a twin bed at night. So we rented a room at the Rufus Hillview Inn that was much better suited for two people.
We didn't have a ton of time together, as he usually works 11 hour days and ended up working 14 one of the days I was there, but something is better than nothing. It was great to have a few hours at the end of the day to just be us. No parenting or talking about our kids. None of the practical tasks that are unavoidable when he comes our way. No conversation about the parts of our life that are stressful or otherwise unpleasant.
Yesterday was my only full day there and temps are topping out at 109-113 degrees there this week, so I took advantage of waking up earlier than I wanted to by beating the heat and going for a walk at dawn. The hotel is the middle of the tiny town (population 268), so I headed to the sunrise end, wove my way up and down side streets in the middle, walked to the opposite end, and then went back to our room.
I'm glad I got to see the sunrise.
You can't tell by looking, but there's a freeway, river, and train tracks on each side of the river in the middle of the picture. It looks serene, but it's a busy area.
I thought this keyhole bridge design was pretty.
There was also a bridge with all sorts of ceramic decor that was falling apart, but this tile still looked good. Functional art is cool.
I noticed my speed was being clocked as I came down one road. I tried to catch it at 4, but it always dropped to 3 in the time it took me to stop for a picture. I don't think my speed as a pedestrian has ever been caught like that before and it made me chuckle.
Just part of the view across the freeway.
It may not look like much, but this is where I happily parked myself after my walk and a shower. Three hours of reading my Bible and other books, watching the birds fly all over the place to the right of the picture, getting whiffs of the lavender to the left of the picture, chugging water, and grazing on finger foods while I sat in the morning shade.
I took this picture from my little patio area for a glimpse of the type of work Tim's doing at a wind farm. He's actually working about 40 minutes from Rufus, but a windmill is a windmill and this gives you some perspective on their size. Notice the height of the nearby semi on the left compared to the relative height of the semi on the right, across the river and up the hill. Then, for scale, compare that tiny semi on the right with the height of the windmill in the center, a little farther away and higher on the hill. Those windmills are gigantic!
As I lost shade at our front door, I headed inside to nap (didn't happen, but it was still nice to rest) and read some more. Tim got off work three hours later than expected, so our plan to grab dinner at a nearby restaurant was thwarted because I was really hungry long before he arrived. I ate more of the food I'd picked up on my way out there for my dinner, so he suggested he do the same, then we could walk to the restaurant for milkshakes instead of dinner. Deal.
We got to the restaurant, but they'd run out of ice cream earlier in the day. I said we could just grab some sort of treat at the gas station market next door, but he decided we should drive to the neighboring tiny town to grab ice cream instead. I love black licorice and a co-worker had told him about a place that has that flavor of ice cream. We arrived and found they'd closed an hour earlier. At that point we went to the closest gas station market, picked ice cream from their Good Humor case, drove around the corner to a spot along the river, and ate our treats while watching the sunset reflect on the water while birds floated on it. Not the ice cream we originally planned on, but a beautiful view we'd have missed if things had gone our way.
I slept in a bit this morning, read outside until check out, then headed home. But first, a quick stop at Dinty's in Biggs Junction to get licorice ice cream, per Tim's request because he hoped I'd like it. I'm cooperative like that when it comes to dessert. I haven't had licorice ice cream since I was a kid and it was a delicious Umpqua flavor that I didn't know existed.
Time with my husband. Time alone. Ignoring regular life. Relaxing. Enjoying air conditioning. It was a great way to spend 48 hours and I'm thankful I got to go.
