To the Edge

 The morning of my departure from Glacier National Park, a soft rain continued the rain that fell on and off all night. 

 I said farewell to Two Medicine Lake, although I really did not want to leave. The main pul out of this trance was that I was continuing westward, through more territory I had never seen, across the rest of Montana, through Washington, with the destination in mind being Olympia, where I have friends. I had thought of visiting Seattle but decided I wasn't up for a large city, a day after Glacier. 

 Rainbow four. 

Below, the Columbia River Gorge. I briefly toyed with the idea of staying here overnight, to look for the rare endemic cactus, Pediocactus nigrispinus, but decided to make that a separate trip someday. 

 I arrived in Olympia in time to settle into my hotel and then go downtown around sunset for dinner. The latitude was apparent to me, as it remained eerily light out until quite late. I think the below pic was taken near 10 pm. 

 The next day I met with friends, had a grand time, slept a lot, enjoyed the soft, grey, rainy weather. Locals apologized for how gloomy it was but it felt like paradise to me. 

Weirdling nostalgia for what had never been crept back into my consciousness here, as it had in Ann Arbor and Duluth. The simple missing of an absent person whose company one enjoys. But like a death, "absent forever," at least in my telling of it. The exhilaration, lightness and acceptance of Glacier started to get heavy again here, and I had to learn to just move through, roll with it, and make space. I was still in a more resilient place, at least, of night fighting it. While I admire my Olympia friends and find them fascinating and attractive, there was a weird underlying comparison going on. Thius person is not THE person. Troublesome. but there also seemed to be nothing I could do about it.  

Olympia felt like a friendly, funky, somewhat isolated, eccentric town. I wondered what it would be like to live in such a place. Probably not a match for me, but I had a great time. The next stop: Sunset Bay State Beach in Oregon, one night of camping.