Costello's

Friday, February 22, 2008 - When I first moved to Portland I continued on my regular routine of finding different Starbucks to work from. Ana kept mentioning a local cafe that she thought I would like even better. I checked out different cafes around Portland as well, but eventually we finally came to Costello's Travel Caffe for dinner one night, and that was it. I haven't gone anywhere else since. Why?

1) They make the best mocha I've ever tasted. I don't care if it's a girly drink. It's what makes me sexy.
2) The place feels like a pub (they do, after all, also serve beer and wine here).
3) They have 2 flatscreen TVs on either wall, and next to one of them is a chalkboard with "Today's views", and a list of different places around the world (Paris, Prague, Italy, Peru, etc) that changes from day to day. And each day, the flatscreens are on a continuous display of documentary-style video of each of these daily places around the world. It's always refreshing to take a little break from work and look up to see video of a distant land.
4) They play only the music that I like. I lot that I've heard before, but lots of new stuff too.
5) The staff is super cool.
6) They know my order by heart now.

Yesterday I was working here and Ana surprised me by stopping by. I was on the phone, so she just over, quickly kissed me, and went on to go order her drink without sitting down. The girl across looked at me very confused.

"Do you know her?!"
"Never seen her in my life?????"

It's on.

Monday, February 11, 2008 - This photo compliments the initial shot I took the day I left Dallas last August. Dallas, my car just packed up, and me by myself. Portland, my car just unloaded, and with Ana.

I searched around for a house to rent over a few weeks with the help of Ana, Jeff, and Kira. Each house I saw was ok, but something was somehow amiss with each one I saw. I finally found one that was far and away better than any other I'd seen, and cheaper than a lot of the others. And as expected, there were tons of applicants for the house (I saw several of them when we were initially shown the house). Somehow I was chosen over all the others; it was likely because of how sexy I am. I moved in last Friday; the house is a total stud. It was built in 1900, but is still in very good shape. The living room is too large to be just 1 room; I'll likely use the back half of it for something else. The dining room will not be that; it will be a pool room as soon as I get a pool table. The kitchen is updated with a granite slab countertop and copper farm sink. It looks out to the backyard, as does the sun-room. There's a huge unfinished basement, and the 2 bedrooms on the main level are sizable as well. Below are some pictures..

Bathroom - penny-tile floor, updated old-fashioned tub and sink, attractive brasilian	Looking from one bedroom to the other
Looking through the french doors in the dining room into the living room	Looking down the hallway to the sunroom into the backyard. Backyard is lined with bamboo around the perimeter
Sunroom

Houston > Dallas > El Paso > Los Angeles > Redding > Portland

Tuesday, January 15, 2007 - I stayed with my roomies Greg and Melissa in Dallas for a couple days while I attended some meetings at work. While in Dallas, I had possibly the worst canine experience of my life. On Friday I was at Greg and Mel's putting my socks on. Their dogs, Rando and Tough Guy, thought it would be fun to chase around the socks as I put them on, so I humored them and teased them with the sock a little. I remember Greg telling me a few months back that Tough Guy isn't the most accurate dog when going for a toy, and that he can chomp down on your finger if you're not careful. I wish I would have remembered this. So at one point, the sock I guess was in front of my jeans. Tough Guy apparently had enough of this little game and was simply determined to take the sock from me. He flew across the room, he overshot and his mouth went right past the sock, and he chomped down on my finger. If only this were the worst part. As I said, the sock was, um, let's say, right in front of the zipper of my jeans. And let's just say that his momentum carried him forward and he didn't stop his bite on my finger. I felt like I was in Something About Mary. Tough Guy chomped down on a part of a me that no dog should ever be near, and he didn't let go for a couple seconds. He drew a little blood. I was not happy with Tough Guy on Friday.

I drive 10 hours to El Paso on Saturday and stayed with cuzzie and Monique; it just so happened to be Monique's birthday so we all went out and had a blast. I drove 10 hours Sunday to Los Angeles, then about 8 hours to Redding, CA on Monday. This drive turned out to be beautiful, as I was eventually surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides of me; yet there was lush, green grass everywhere. Monday night I went to Chipotle to get some betterish fast food, and ended up talking to a couple guys in line that are currently getting their Masters in Theology. They suggested a school in Portland that I need to check out (George Fox university). Tuesday, I passed through Mt. Shasta and Lake Shasta - this was completely unexpected land that was absolutely beautiful. The elevation of I-5 at this point was 3,000 feet, but the peak of Mt. Shasta is 14,000 feet.. This was a striking site while driving down the road.

And now, I am back in Portland.. Ana comes back tomorrow, and I can't wait to see her. I had no idea what to expect on my pacific trek, but it worked out quite well. I have no idea what to expect going forward here either, but I can't wait to find out.

The weenis monger on the left	Heaven shines on itself
Arriving in El Paso - the sun setting over Mexico	A heavy fog during my drive in Arizona
Redding	Lake Shasta
Lake Shasta	Driving up to Mt. Shasta
Driving up to Mt. Shasta	Mt. Shasta
Mt. Shasta	Mt. Shasta
Mt. Shasta

One chapter closed, another one opening...

Monday, January 7, 2007 - For those of you that don't know, I will be going back up to Portland. How long will I be there? Indefinitely. My car is just about packed right now, and I'll be leaving tomorrow night with a couple-day stop in Dallas for work and to see Greg and Mel.

As I prepare to leave, things seem to be falling into place.

Personally: I got a call from my lawyer today and was told that the divorce is now officially final!
Spiritually: I've been studying the Old Testament for about 2 years now, starting from the first book and reading until the last book. It's taken me a while, as I've been picking it apart by reading multiple commentaries for each book and doing plenty of research. I've also written about 130 pages of theological research. I can think of exactly where I was at different points in my life when I started reading certain books of the Old Testament over the last 2 years, but perhaps none will be as significant is this one.. I currently have 1 page left of the Old Testament before I begin researching the New Testament. Could it be any more symbolic? As I close the page on one chapter of my life, I start a new book.
Environmentally: Spoke with my cousin Jeff last night, and he and his wife Kira helped me for about an hour looking at different places to live. I thought I would have a somewhat financially hard time in Portland finding a place to live, but was shocked.. There are some killer places there that are cheaper than Dallas.

Right now it almost feels like I'm living a dream. I had certainly not expected all these blessings.

Before Ana and I left Portland in December, we came up with a list of things we wanted to do together. The list ranged from places in the world we wanted to travel, to teaching Ana how to snowboard, to teaching me how to dance some Brasilian dances .. Anyway the reason I re-iterate this is because I've created a new blog to chronicle some of these things we do. I'll still post a few things to this blog here and there, but once we are both back in Portland I'll probably mostly be posting to that new blog.

The new blogsite is: http://brentandbombshell.blogspot.com.

Thanks for following along with me in my travels.. It was definitely a help to know that there was, for reasons unknown to me, an audience with me the whole way. But I have a feeling there will be plenty more to come...

Houston

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - I made it back to Houston on Sunday in one piece.

One thing seemed profoundly clear when I returned.. Where I'm from (The Woodlands) is a very nice place, it's comfortable, the houses are nice, the people live well here, the people are nice.. But, staying within this little cultural bubble isn't reality. There's a whole country out there waiting to be explored, and it's our rights as Americans to see it. There's a whole world out there that's waiting to be explored, and it's our rights as humans to see it.

For me, I very much feel like this trek marked the closing of one chapter of my life and the opening of the next. One cool thing about this trek is that it was impossible for me to think about the future.. It was quite futile to try; I was jumping from place to place every other day, having no idea what kind of land, town, or people awaited me. But I believe that way of thinking works out beautifully.

Ana returns to Portland in mid-January, and I'll be there waiting for her. From there, I don't know what will happen, but I will continue this new chapter of my life in the same mindset I learned from my trek. Like Aghila said, "When the mind is silent, the universe surrenders itself to you."

Pubey	Dirty Steve
Kram

Arizona > New Mexico > El Paso

Saturday, December 8, 2007 - I arrived at my cousin Bryan's in El Paso to some Texas hospitality and a gigantic feast by Chef Monique. A pretty uneventful drive, outside of a little incident where one of my kayak mounts disassembled itself mid-trip and nearly launched my kayak off the side of my car (thank God I had my tools with me). Otherwise it provided some good time for me to study some Portuguese, and I also got some decent pictures out of my driver side window.

The open road	An approaching Arizona dust storm
	UFO

Yuma

Friday, December 7, 2007 - Saw my friend Rick at Starbucks yesterday and we chatted for a couple hours. An NFL game was on that evening, so I headed to my trusty Ole's Tavern for a couple brews; saw Steve there again. For some reason I decided to leave at halftime, getting me back to the campsite by 7:30 or so. I then decided to go ahead and pack up what I didn't need that night. I was asleep by 8:00..

My tent woke me up at some point during the night as the wind had collapsed it ontop of me, just like at Half Moon Bay a month or so ago. The winds were pretty strong and it was starting to rain as well. I figured it was probably almost time to wake up anyway, so looked at my watch and noticed it was only 10:30pm. Crap. Tried to go back to sleep but woke up about every hour when the wind would get ticked off and crumple my tent. It was raining harder and harder by the hour. Finally by 2:30am I had to make that God awful decision of bailing; my tent was permanently caving in on itself and rain was now starting to rush into the tent. About 30 minutes of hauling stuff to my car and packing up my tent and I'm in my car at 3:00am debating what to do.. There's no real point in just sitting here until 6:00 waiting for Starbucks to open, I'm leaving today anyway so I decided to just book it to Arizona and find a starbucks there.

I've never driven in fog this thick.. There weren't a lot of cars on the road at 3:00 in the morning, but the ones that were out weren't going faster than 20mph, and for good reason. For about 45 minutes there I couldn't even see off the side of the road; I had no idea if mountains were next to me, forest, desert, etc.. A strange feeling. The fog then got even worse. Going only 20mph, all I could see on the highway at this point were the little white markers in the middle lane, and at that I could only see the ones a few feet ahead of my car. Then the fog got even worse. For a short time there I couldn't even see the white markers 3 or 4 feet away from my car. And then, nearly instantly, it was all gone and I was presented with a beautiful desert sunrise.

So I made it to Yuma, AZ by 6:00am. I found a starbucks and when I pulled up the internet, I noticed that one of the top 5 world headlines on MSN was about severe storms in southern california; potential mudslides and flash-floodings. There have been many times on this trek that I've felt somehow protected, and it couldn't be more appropriate to have that feeling once again on my last day in Cali.

Arizona desert sunrise

San Clemente IX

Thursday, December 6, 2007 - Yesterday I saw my friend Rick from the last time I was here.. We talked for a couple hours about theology (of course), science, politics. He has, if I remember right, about 3 degrees in the field of science; one of which was in the realm of climatology. He was very interesting to talk with on the subject of global warming, of which he believes is almost becoming a new religion (something he's not very happy about). This guy is truly open-minded in the real sense. The last time I was here I remember he was reading a book written by a staunch atheist. This time he was reading "What's So Great About Christianity?" - a theological rebuttal to the atheist's book. But this, to me, is the true embodiment of open-mindedness - actually listening to both sides of the argument. A fascinating guy to talk to indeed.

As the week has wore on here I think I've started realizing something.. When I first set out on my trek I was still in the healing process; in the aftermath of everything that had happened in my marriage. When I was last here, I felt like everything I was doing, seeing, and experiencing were somehow necessary. And I ate it up. But now, that feeling of dire necessity no longer seems to really be there. Of course it could just be that I've met Ana, or that I'm getting used to this, or that my mind and body are growing tired of travelling (which I doubt); but the reason that seems to jive best with me is that I've healed. I now look forward to the next chapter of my life more than anything else.

San Clemente VIII

Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - Worked quite a bit yesterday as well; about 11 hours. Although I did actually take a break to get a Fatburger and bring that sucker back to my campsite for lunch. Saw Chester again at starbucks and then raced back to my campsite to catch my first glimpse of the beautiful San Clemente sunset.. I've been working so much and talking to other people so much that I hadn't got to see the sunset yet. Minha gata (portuguese - "my good-looking") called precisely as the sun was dipping below the ocean horizon, so I even got to watch an incredible sunset while talking with Ana. A great ending to the night.

I was exhausted from the past couple days and went to sleep by 7:30 (which was about an hour and a half after it got dark). I woke up for some reason around midnight and heard shuffling feet outside my tent.

"Brent! HEY BRENT!"
"(groggy) Uhhhh... Yeah?"
"It's Henry dude! I made it back!"
"Uhhh.. Ok.."
"I'll see you tomorrow bro - I'll get coffee!"

I have to be honest, I was a little weirded out. I honestly said a prayer and went back to sleep.

Woke up about 5:30 feeling pretty refreshed; got a good 10 hours of sleep. I have to be working by 6:00 anyway to make sure I'm supporting my company back in Texas, which is at 8:00.

I got my stuff and walked out of the tent and saw what looked like a couple of bags on the picnic table at my campsite.. It was still a little dark so I walked closer to see what they were - I didn't remember leaving any bags there. As I approached them, I noticed they weren't bags. It was Henry, who had apparently been sleeping there since midnight.

Mountain view while leaving Portland	The actual goosebumps on my arm while driving into San Clemente
	While talking with Ana
Goodnight San Clemente