Rockaway Beach

After the Arch Cape to Wheeler leg of the trip, Paul and I stumbled upon a wonderful place in "downtown" Wheeler called the Old Wheeler Hotel. The staff treated us with great kindness and fellow guests were intrigued by the pilgrimage. There were only nine rooms in the whole hotel and each doorpost had a personal sign of welcome with the name of the guest. There was a common room for snacks and food and a living room with an old Victrola phonograph. Now that I think about it, old Victrola is kind of redundant! A special pleasure was that the owner put me in the only room that had a private bathtub and it also had air jets to create a jacuzzi effect. After yesterday's two mountain climbs, the bathtub was much appreciated. There I go with redundancy again!

Today's journey wasn't mountainous at all, though there were a few climbs along the highway. The first two hours led me along Nehalem Bay where crabbers were getting ready to head out and clam diggers were slogging through the mud at low tide. When one of the clam diggers returned to his truck to put a bag of clams in his cooler, he was accompanied by his Golden Labrador retriever. They say that there is nothing more friendly than a wet dog . . . but I found that a muddy dog can be pretty friendly as well! Nehalem Bay is one of those places that you just can't appreciate when driving 50 miles per hour through the many curves in that stretch of Hwy 101. The Blue Heron which graced me with a visit the afternoon before, made a return call this morning (or someone from her family did). Blue Herons in flight are something to behold; they remind me of prehistoric creatures and they are so big that you can hear their wings flap under the right conditions.

Paul and I decided to meet at the high school at Rockaway Beach at about the mid-point of today's journey. It was 6 miles down the road from Wheeler and there were about 5 miles to go. We've established a good routine for taking nutrition: the halfway point is now marked by rest, oranges, and a protein bar. When I arrived at the high school parking lot, I found Paul waiting and a man approaching us both. It turns out that graduation ceremonies were to begin in two hours and he was there as a reporter for the Tillamook newspaper. We innocently introduced ourselves and he was curious about our presence. When we told him about the pilgrimage and the project underway to support 1st Way, he saw "a story." The next thing I knew, we were being interviewed, even as graduates were showing up for their big day. I acknowledged that I wasn't seeking publicity, but I was happy to get the good word out about the work being done at 1st Way. One of the questions he asked was "Would you ever do this again?" I said, "I'm only four days into it. Ask me again 26 days from now!"

As soon as I left the high school, I got off the highway and walked through the neighborhoods of Rockaway Beach. The sunny day drew many people either to the beach or for a drive along the Coast Highway; traffic was heavy and that led me to seek refuge along the less busy streets of the town. I had been to St. Mary by the Sea Church many times during my years in Astoria and it was a welcome sight when I returned there today. A wedding was just concluding and so I knew the pastor had to be close by. Fr. Larry Gooley greeted me warmly, though I think he was a little suspicious at first. A sunburned, perspiring man arrives at the sacristy door with nothing but a walking stick and a knapsack, you'd figure he was out of the Bible or out of money! But I introduced myself and mentioned the pilgrimage and, before long, we were talking about mutual friends and mutual experiences in life (including his own pilgrimages over the years). In the end, I asked if I could join him at the altar Sunday morning and he asked if I'd say a few words about 1st Way at the end of Mass. God works in mysterious ways.

I carried a holy card in my pocket today which I picked up one morning at the Carmelite Monastery in Eugene. These words from St. Teresa of Avila accompanied me all day:

Let nothing disturb you, nothing dismay you.
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patient endurance attains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone suffices.