My Nomad Journey – Mount Shasta and Southern Oregon

Shorter posts coming! I’m ridiculously behind on posting updates to my journey! I will slowly catch you up. Now that I’ve had time back home and started on the road again, I’m thinking I’ll post “by destination” so that the stories will be more focused. Here we go!

Here’s what I did:

I spent the month of September home in Sacramento. It was a “break” from the road and I had some local teaching gigs, a commitment to friends to housesit and petsit, and I also took care of some doctor appointments and other domestic tasks. After spending the month taking care of business and catching up with friends, I was back on the road again!

By the way, I had decided during the summer that I would continue the nomad lifestyle into the foreseeable future. While I have no idea where this is going or when it will end, I am 100% clear that I want/need to continue and see where this goes. The manifesting generator (Human Design) in me says “go” and every other part of me agrees.

For the rest of September, I planned to spend some time in the mountains of Northern California (Shasta) and southern Oregon. Since I had mostly driven through these places many times before, I wanted to see what it was like to stay here. I started in a small town at the base of Mount Shasta, called “Mount Shasta”. I stayed one night and was able to explore the town center (walking around outside – I’ll explain why in a minute) and staring up at one of our country’s largest volcanoes. The mountain is 14,000+ feet high and stands alone on the horizon like a behemoth!

During my stay, I tested positive for Covid. While the symptoms were mostly cold-like, I masked up so I wouldn’t infect others. I only explored the outdoors and masked up to get takeout food. Since I wasn’t able to spend time in cafes or coffee shops or the gym, I went out in nature. One thing I did was Castle Crags state park. I went up to the vista point, where you overlook a unique rock outcropping at the top of the mountain that looks like a castle perched on the side of the summit. Amazing and beautiful. From there you can also see Mount Shasta as well. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors and I was grateful to be in this place while dealing with my Covid.

From there, I moved to Medford, Oregon. This smaller city and region is nestled among mountains and only a few short hours drive from the Pacific Coast. I spent some time resting and trying to feel better. I discovered a vegan restaurant that was in walking distance. I was able to order online and pick it up to go (wearing my mask, of course) or sit out front and eat at their 2 tables on the sidewalk. That was a fun change and the food was amazing, whole and healthy.

Crater Lake was my destination of choice while in Southern Oregon. I had never been, so this was a great way to spend a Saturday and also be able to do something outdoors while I couldn’t “hangout” in indoor places. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it!!! About 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazama was a 12,000 foot volcano that collapsed in on itself, leaving the fully enclosed “bowl” of a lake that it is today. It sits within one of my favorite geographical regions and is surrounded by natural beauty that is hard to match elsewhere in the country.

I was scheduled to move on to visit friends in Seattle, but due to the Covid situation and some other matters my friends were attending to, we all agreed to postpone until another day. So I needed to decide my next move. At this point, it was the beginning of October. I needed to be in Miami by the first week of November, so I had about 4-5 weeks to plan my travels and make stops in California, Arizona, and Texas, before arriving in Miami.

Since I had time and because I was in “explorer mode”, I decided to convalesce on the California Coast. I found a motel in Crescent City, CA and moved onto different terrain and the coast that I love the most! I’ll write from there, next!

What I learned: I’m not going to focus as much on this going forward. If I have learnings, I’ll share them. What I learned about myself on this leg of the journey is that I’m much more experienced with the travels, systems and routines of MY nomad life, now. I feel very competent to manage my life on the road and all of the work, personal and social needs that I have. As I embarked on this second beginning of nomad life, I felt very clear that I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing.

What’s next: I’m making parts of this up as I go. Unlike the first 10 months where I had a specific route and plan to circle the US, now I will go with the flow. I will use major milestones, such as work commitments, appointments and dates I’ve set with friends to dictate my destinations.

With that said, and since I’m catching up about 2 months of travel, my next destinations are:

• Spend time in Crescent City, CA by myself
• Visit friends in Seattle (postponed trip rebooked)
• Take care of business in Sacramento on the way south
• Visit friends in Phoenix, AZ
• Visit friends in San Antonio, TX
• Make stops to break up the drive along the way, before arriving in Miami, FL in early November

As always, please interact with this post. I love getting your questions, your thoughts, and your comments. I’ll reply when I’m able.

Please enjoy yourselves in this week ahead and look for another update from me about the adventures of the journey. Be well my friends!

Want to hear other people’s stories about getting off their commas? Check out the podcast!

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