cloverdale wishes you a happy july 1th

Warning: another boring travelogue ahead. Yesterday Bec and I drove out to Lincoln City to kick off birthday month in one of the best ways -- Road Trip Leading to Reading on the Beach! We went the longer way rather than the efficient way, driving up through the winding coast range roads to Tillamook, then down the coast the 40 miles or so to our destination. There are practical reasons for doing this -- it is longer, but traffic is generally less. The roads are twisty, which makes them more fun to drive (as long as it's not raining or dark) and there are certainly fewer RVs and other road menaces. The best reason, of course, is that it is simply more beautiful!

July 1th? What's up with that?, you may wonder. I'll try to piece it together, although I was laughing too hard to get any actual FACTS. (facts: overrated.) The first weekend in July is when Clover Days are celebrated in the small town of Cloverdale. There was a sign in front of a large red barn (usually home to a flea market) that said "Happy July 1th!" I think they were probably just prepping for the 4th, but who knows? Maybe they number time differently in Cloverdale. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Speaking of clover, it was blooming like mad (thank god for claritin!) and smelled so sunny and sweet. We were rolling along listening to my ipod Happy Playlist (which did pretty well considering that some songs that make ME happy are merely puzzling or disturbing to others) with the windows down, inhaling the wonderful early summer smells of clover, freshly mown hay, ah, nature etc, etc. Just as moving to the middle of a meadow seemed like a really good idea, we would get a hit of the UNHOLY PONG of cows and not be able to roll the windows up fast enough. On the way to Tillamook, cows are inevitable. (Town motto: trees, cheese, and the ocean breeze. for real).

Once to Lincoln City, we found a spot on the beach with a slight windbreak and spent a couple of hours watching the ocean, reading books, watching the kites, dozing off, etc. I read The Trouble With Poetry by Billy Collins (recommended!) Thanks to liberal application of SPF 45 I didn't get a sunburn. There were even people galloping by on horseback, which I don't think I've ever seen there before. (It looked a little bit like a deodorant commercial which made it slightly more hilarious than magical, but it was still cool.) Once the wind picked up and the clouds started moving in off the horizon, we trekked to the car and drove back to town.

The evening was capped off with popsicles, chilled beverages and watching The Philadelphia Story. Everyone should change their name to C.K. Dexter Haven IMMEDIATELY. Or maybe I need to give that name to a cat or dog or canary or something. I just want to say it a LOT, which is a problem I should probably work on privately. (Cary Grant is about the only logical argument for cloning that I can imagine.) Anyway, I hope everyone had a great July 1th -- I certainly did!