Day 373: The Shoe Tree

Tennis shoes. Cowboy boots. Ballet slippers. Heels. Flats. Hiking boots. What do all these things have in common?

They grow on trees. On one tree, to be more exact.

I've biked 80 miles down the road from Homedale and have arrived 17 miles east of Juntura, Oregon. There, right along side the road on Highway 20 stands a lone tree. In a somewhat boring section of a drive, in a somewhat boring section of the state (apologies to anyone who lives there), resides a shoe tree. Hundreds of pairs of shoes cover the tree.

Every year when we would head out to the Oregon Coast for spring break, we'd pass by the shoe tree. But since we always left home in the wee dark hours of the morning, it was still dark when we passed by the shoe tree. Then when we headed home from the coast, we were always dog tired by the time we got to the shoe tree and never stopped. But one year we did.

And we're glad we did. Because since these pictures were taken, vandals have burned the tree and the shoe tree is no more. We have yet to come across another shoe tree in our travels, but I'm sure there are others out there, just waiting to have their picture taken. I hope you're lucky enough to see one first hand.

Next stop - a long jaunt to one of my favorite places, some 226 miles away from the shoe tree - Sisters, Oregon.

Day 372

I do appreciate how blessed I am. While things aren't ever perfect and something always comes up to throw a wrench in things, there are a lot of good things in my life.

• I have a home that's paid for. A new roof over my head. I can look out the front windows to the river or look out the back window to the rose garden or the mountains. I can look out the sewing room window to the soon-to-be vegetable garden.
• I have a cat who has become a lap cat. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, she's either along side me or plopped down on me.
• I have a daughter who is self-sufficient. Who can pay her own bills and not ask for anything from her mom except advice.
• I have a husband who offers to make breakfast for me every morning. If I take him up on it and I'm awake before he leaves for work, he brings it to me in bed. If I'm asleep, he'll leave it for me to warm up.
• I am able to serve others through my quilting. I can remain at home, yet provide comfort for kids in need.
• I have this blog and the people who read it. Making this past year's struggles public has made me stronger. It has held me accountable for my thoughts and actions and has motivated me to be a better person. 
• I have a job that I go to where I feel respected and valued. The position fits within my limitations, fits within my schedule, fits with my strengths. A job where on my drive each morning I have views like this.

Day 371

I'm not a vegetable fan and I'm certainly not a carrot fan. But yesterday something made me change my mind about carrots. Well, at least one kind of carrot.

Every morning when I go to school I check with the school secretary to let her know I'm in the building for the day. Yesterday before I got a chance to turn around and go to my office, she stopped to show me her huge carrot. Her huge, gorgeous, vibrantly colorful carrot.

Even though she used the carrot last Easter and thought it was fine, she pulled it out again last Saturday. She needed something to do and didn't want to go to town and get something new, so out came her carrot. And she finished it. She's SOOO glad she did because she likes it even more now!

It was a quilted carrot tablerunner.

According to her, it was really a quick and easy project. It may have just taken her longer to pick the material out than to sew it, but it doesn't matter much. Whether she uses it as the tablerunner it is, or opts for a wallhanging option, it's the prettiest darn carrot I've ever seen.

Don't you agree?

Day 370

I had to give something up. To bike, to sew, to work, to keep trying to focus on the positive meant I had to cut something out.

Tuesday Tutorials.

I know they've been popular and I've gotten lots of warm and fuzzy comments about them (and I love those comments!), but I have to temporarily (or maybe permanently) stop doing them. It's a combination of time constraints and a lack of creativity. My creativity has been slowly draining away and what creativity I do have left I want to spend on trying new quilting techniques for the kids' quilts. And the time issue? Probably kind of obvious.

Trying to focus on the positive becomes another draining activity. I'm doing my best to keep my mind off rheumatoid arthritis issues. I hope my writing reflects more positive thinking this year than it did last year.

Something that is just like last year is the rose garden. On March 7 of last year (Day 5) I awoke to the rose garden covered in snow. Since yesterday's temperatures were in the 60s I didn't expect today, March 6, to see snow. But I did. Here in March, almost to the exact date, the garden is covered in snow. I didn't snap a picture of it this year, though.

I went with the Amaryllis that is blooming (again).

Day 369

I was oh-so-close to going to work today.

It wasn't a work day for me but I almost went in anyway. The pile of things that need to be done this week keeps growing and without the scheduled work days to do them, I am getting a bit antsy. But I held back. I did what I needed to do for me.

I stayed home. I stayed home and biked. I stayed home and worked at putting my sewing room back together. My mom and I are trading pieces of furniture - I get an armoire she doesn't need and she gets one of my bookshelves. The plan is to put the armoire in the sewing room, but it's not here yet. My daughter and her boyfriend are doing the switcharoo tomorrow so I'm in a bit of a holding pattern.

With the sewing room in a holding pattern my sewing is in a holding pattern, too. That one thing that grounded me, kept me thinking about others and kept my mind off my own issues isn't there right now. I need to make sure once it gets up and running again I get my behind in there.

I don't want it to turn out like the sunsets. For months the sun in my eyes over the computer screen bugged me like crazy. It may have bugged me, but it gave me the opportunity to see lots of gorgeous sunsets. Unfortunately now that I have curtains up I haven't even thought to look out the window.

I'm glad I caught what I was doing and started looking out the window again.

Day 368: Homedale, Idaho

It seems that if I'm planning on making an official cross country trip I need to start at one coast and go to the other. Being that I'm in Idaho, I guess it makes sense to start at the west coast.

My mom and I were talking on the phone yesterday, laughing about me probably having to do some multi-tasking. For as many miles and hours that I'll need to ride, I'll have to be doing something else at the same time. Something like biking and sewing.

While I didn't bike and sew at the same time today, I did bike and fold a couple loads of laundry. I don't think my husband was all too pleased that he had to hand me the items. I just couldn't figure out how to take things out of the basket, fold/hang them and return them to the basket, all while trying to balance the basket on my lap. That multi-tasking - and plenty of miles - wore me out so much today that as soon as I came upstairs I took a nap. I was darn tired!

But thanks to multi-tasking like that, in two days I've covered 33 miles so far. I was only planning on biking 11 miles to get myself to Homedale, Idaho but it seems I overshot it. So no story on Homedale, just a pic I took on my way to work the other day.

Next stop, a roadside attraction outside of Juntura, Oregon some 80 miles down the road from Homedale. Might be a while for me to get there. Or, if I can figure a way to sew and ride, maybe not.

Year Two Begins

Thanks to all who stopped by yesterday as I finished up Year One. It sure was nice hearing nice comments from the nice people out there!

Now it's on to Year Two.

With another year comes another goal. A huge goal. A goal bordering on unattainable. An I can't believe I'm aiming this high kind of goal.

It started with an inspirational story I saw about a guy named Steve. I don't know Steve but I read his story here. Steve joined an "Everest Challenge" where participants climb enough stairs to equal the distance up Mt. Everest. He was the first participant to reach the "summit", climbing up to 440 floors in a day. But that's not the most inspiring part. Steve did this while a patient in the hospital, not long after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

So it got me thinking. I can't do stairs, but I can do the exercise bike.

What if someone like me - someone who is looking for a lofty goal and needs to find a focus, someone who loves to travel but needs to stay close to home because of health reasons, someone who certainly could use some exercise and doesn't mind the exercise bike - rode that exercise bike mile after mile?

And what if those miles added up? Added up to equal a cross country trip?

So, here we go. I'm heading out on my exercise bike with specific towns, cities, and destinations in mind. I'm only traveling to places I've been before and I'm only "riding" on roads I've driven before.

I hope you join me as I head out on the year-long trip. You'll get to learn about this great country as I make my stops. Being that I've been to all 50 states, the possibilities are tremendous. Just check out the map of everywhere I've traveled!