Last December 31st we fired up the twin Yamaha 115HP engines aboard Great Ambition and complied with Washington State DNR's order to vacate the state, despite paying tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and fees over the last 10 years. You don't want me around? Fine, you don't have to tell me twice! And it wasn't the first time DNR kicked us out, so we should have known better, but sometimes you just don't learn the first time.
That said, it turns out the whole thing was a blessing in disguise. Our new moorage is great! We have an unfettered view of every sunrise right off our front deck, we are right next to the West Hills so we have mountains right out our back door. We are just 3 miles from Scappoose (instead of 8 miles from Vancouver) and 8 miles from Portland. We are patrons of two libraries that serve all our needs, and we have been grandfathered in to our very livable liveaboard marina for life, so we'll never be kicked out again. The owner recently told the marina manager, "If everyone who lived here was like Dan and April, this place would be great!" Sometimes when bad things happen to you, you just need to do what's required (it was a ton of work and money to get re-integrated back into Oregon) and hope for the best. Now, we couldn't be more pleased. It makes us wonder why we didn't make this move years ago.
That said, it turns out the whole thing was a blessing in disguise. Our new moorage is great! We have an unfettered view of every sunrise right off our front deck, we are right next to the West Hills so we have mountains right out our back door. We are just 3 miles from Scappoose (instead of 8 miles from Vancouver) and 8 miles from Portland. We are patrons of two libraries that serve all our needs, and we have been grandfathered in to our very livable liveaboard marina for life, so we'll never be kicked out again. The owner recently told the marina manager, "If everyone who lived here was like Dan and April, this place would be great!" Sometimes when bad things happen to you, you just need to do what's required (it was a ton of work and money to get re-integrated back into Oregon) and hope for the best. Now, we couldn't be more pleased. It makes us wonder why we didn't make this move years ago.
Several years ago I befriended a female cat, who (as Charity Payne put it) was sorely in need of a friend. She had been dumped at the end of Lower River Road by the Humane Society and left to be eaten by the coyotes (how humane is that?!!!). She moved into the marina we were at, but the residents didn't like her living there, so they trapped her and moved her by boat to Caterpillar Island. Very much like the Indian woman who lived all alone on San Nicolas Island (where I served in the US Navy) and fictionalized in the book, Island Of The Blue Dolphins, Gracie had a hard time living all alone on Caterpillar Island. No humans, no other cats, and hungry coyotes everywhere. No structures to escape the cold, snow or rain, no warm saucers of milk, just moles (which she was really good at catching) to eat. I built her a warm, cozy and coyote-safe home and made daily trips out to the island to feed her hot chicken broth, scraps, even salmon, turkey and once a whole goose! She loved me, and I her, but I couldn't let her live aboard my houseboat, it was just too small for a cat that was used to living out doors. One day I took her for a boat ride over to Reeder Beach on Sauvie Island where I used to patrol the beach looking for coal from old steamship wrecks. Gracie dutifully followed me along the beach, but in an act of exploration, climbed to the top of a hill, looked out and saw in the distance an unlimited number of homes, farms and barns to live in. Without even a "meow" she took off and I never saw her again. When I tell people that story, I imply that she died by saying that "she went to a better place ... Oregon." And now I'm there too. A better place, and just like Gracie, I'll never look back.
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