Excerpts from my diary:
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We spent the day of the 7th in Elko, Nevada, just reveling in the state of not being in a car. Our show that night was in a wine bar, and although not many people showed up, those who did bought a lot of merch.
At midnight, my bandmates wished me a happy 22nd birthday as we munched on foot-longs at a Subway somewhere in Nevada. Then we hit the road again. Tyler was determined to drive as far as he could tonight.
I fell asleep without stretching, and woke up in screaming pain with a paralyzed neck. In between quiet sobs, I tried to get it in working order. Adrienne leaned back from the front seat and rubbed feeling back into it, and then I spent the next couple hours trying to stay awake so I wouldn’t fall asleep and hurt my neck again. Tyler began weaving down the road, and finally pulled off onto a gravel byway in the middle of nowhere and announced we were all sleeping in the car. Adrienne graciously gave up shotgun for me, and I collapsed into exhausted sleep around 3:30.
At 5:30am on July 8th, Tyler was up and at ‘em again. I woke up and sat up and watched the Oregon desert slip by, rocky and hilly and spotted with sagebrush. Prairie dogs slipped across the road every once in a while, and huge-eared jackrabbits bounded out of our way. We saw a couple antelope, and even a grey wild horse!
At last, we reached the wooded area of Oregon, and Tyler stopped at a waterfall. It reminded me a bit of the Smokies: jubilant white water gushing from the pores of the earth, tangling through mossy roots and galloping over smooth river-stones. Tyler ran around, and I have never seen a man look more at home in any place in my life.
He took us to a second waterfall, almost as big as the one I’d seen at Zion a few months ago, spilling from the lip of a huge cliff, falling in slow motion. Mist dusted the air, and I watched birds and insects swirl by overhead. I laughed in delight, and I wondered if— minus the mosquitos— this is what Eden will be like.
Our last stop before reaching Tyler’s parents was a set of hot springs. After a rocky hike to the far side of a mountain, we reached the milky-watered pools full of naked people, found one unoccupied, and slipped into the water. The sun was hot, but the springs still felt great on my joints. We just hung out for a couple hours, soaking away the pains of the road.
Around 3:00, we were on our way, and by 4, we had reached Tyler’s parents’ house. I had met them at the wedding, so it was good to see them again. Tyler’s sisters, Alicia and Hannah, as well as their babies and toddler, were there. We all just hung out, then ate lasagna that Laura, Tyler’s mom, made. She even baked me a cake for my birthday and had everybody sing! I crashed on the pads laid out on a bedroom floor for Amanda and me, and fell asleep at once.
~Lisa Shafter
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