Deserts, Volcanoes, Obsidian Seeking, And Crowds!
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a pandemic vacation
Of late, I had been feeling blah….sad….probably a bit depressed….having trouble getting anything done….etc….
I think it was my pandemic life catching up with me. I have worked at home for years, but I was never S.T.U.C.K. at home. My now infrequent trips to Costco are the highlights of my months. I live in a nice spot — on a river — and it’s summer — but even that river life lost its glimmer for me.
My daughter-in-law asked me what I’d like to do — and I said get away somewhere — go someplace other than Costco! She said she’d watch my pets and I should go the coast — I’d be treated to a vacation.
I thought about it and foresaw walking along the ocean [which I love to do] — but it mentally felt no different than walking along the river so I said thank you but not my thing — not now.
After a bit, I said what I’d really love to do is to go to the high desert and dig obsidian — but it was not a trip I wanted to do alone — especially in this pandemic time.
My daughter-in-law said she’d love to go do that with me and so we started planning our camping-digging-for-obsidian vacation. We figured what foods we wanted, packed extra water, lots of fruit, camping gear, boots — and layers of clothing.
I’ve never done this dig before — but it’s been on my mind since moving to Oregon. I’d been wanting to make wind chimes and other art pieces with the glass.
In previous years, I had fallen in love with western volcanos and on this trip, we were going to be near or on many volcanos.
The vacation as it unfolded
Off we went — from Portland to Glass Butte!
Glass Butte volcanic area is a great area for gathering obsidian — it’s all over the place! The trip past Mt. Hood [a volcano I ski on] and on down toward…
