Latest Update from Karla

ROCKAWAY, OREGON 3-21-01

Today I walked 14 miles from Manzanita to Rockaway Beach. A couple miles away in the town of Nehalem I was just getting ready to cross the Nehalem Bay bridge when I saw a man standing on the side of the road a few yards in front of me. Then I realized it was David Dillon from the North Coast Citizen Newspaper. He wanted to take another picture while I was walking. We visited a while longer, and he gave me twenty bucks and left. He was going to email the picture to the McPherson Sentinel.
I then walked through the town of Wheeler, and continued on to Rockaway Beach.
The weather was absolutely beautiful, and it was a great day to be out walking. Today’s journey was mostly over gentle rolling hills with nothing too drastic. Today is the first time I came upon some road construction. They just let me walk through while all the traffic was held back.
Rockaway Beach is a very nostalgic place for me. As most of you know, I was born and raised in Oregon in a little town about 140 miles southeast of here. When I was a child, my grandpa owned an itsy bitsy teensy weensy cabin in this town, and I have many great memories of spending many weekends here. I remember my folks would give me twenty dollars to go blow at the Penny Arcade, and I'd spend the whole day there. I also remember the bumper cars, paddle boats, bowling alley and cotton candy stand. And I remember that tiny cabin, long since sold and torn down. Today I walked over to where the cabin was, and there's now a motel on that lot. In fact, the motel I'm staying at now is only 3 blocks from where the cabin was. I also remember taking between 12-20 neighbor kids & school friends to that cabin and playing volleyball, flag football & softball out on the beach. We'd also go wading & swimming in the ocean, and on our last evening there
-- usually Saturday night -- we'd always build a bonfire out on the beach and roast hotdogs & marshmallows and eat potato salad (usually complete with sand.) So I'm looking forward to taking tomorrow off and doing some exploring and reminiscing.
I'm staying at Tradewinds Motel (the first night $45, the 2nd night free) tonight and tomorrow night (w & th). If you'd like to give me a call, please do so at: 503-355-2112 Rm 107. Take care & I'll talk to you later. KB

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