DAWN OF A NEW DAY

 

 We woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful golden  day.    And not only because of the perfect Autumn weather.

 

"We are in a battle for the soul of the nation. It’s a battle to uphold and honor the values that we hold dear, values like empathy, and dignity, and respect for truth. These are our values and they are the values we need for a better future."   Joe Biden.

 

 

 

 Of course we still have problems and they won't magically go away now or in January.  But there is hope.  And there are beautiful Autumn colors.      The pictures above are all from Saturday at our son-in-law and daughters.  Our Covid-pod.   And we are more than OK with that.

"Introverts were social distancing before social distancing was cool"  -  Don Kahle, Register-Guard (Eugene)  October 30

In addition to visiting the lovely people in our pod on Saturday, we  took a couple of day-drives earlier in the week.     The weather really has been perfect and Autumn color is wonderful.  Getting out there is something we like to do and my favorite form of stress relief.  Fortunately Bill enjoys it just as much.

 

 

A random drive-by shot of typical scenery in our part of the world.  I love the layered look of the hills.

 

 

 

Oakland Oregon is a small and historic town in the next county to ours.  (Historic for this part of this country.)   It's only about an hour from home on the freeway, but longer for us because we explored backroads on our way there and back.    We are fortunate to have our  camper van because public "rest stops" are few and far between these days.  We wouldn't be nearly as comfortable on a day drive with just a car (or at least I wouldn't).     

 

 

Oakland was pretty much completely shut down on the week-day when we were there.    The downtown is mostly antique and souvenir stores and wineries that had opened in repurposed historic buildings.  I wonder if many of these small businesses will survive Covid. 

Leisurely heading back home after our walk around Oakland, we stopped for a while in the even tinier town of Drain.  The town wants to make sure people know why it  has that odd name.

 

 

I remember the days when almost every outing, whether for errands or pleasure, included finding a fun restaurant.     Many of our old favorites have re-opened at home (in the Eugene area) , but we haven't patronized any this year except for a few takeout meals.  We wouldn't have found much at all on this outing, even if we'd been planning to "eat out."  

 

 

 Things change, but life is good  — and hopefully getting better.

 

Thank you to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:

MOSAIC MONDAY;  NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;    TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS ;  OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TUESDAY TREASURES;   SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS;