Yurts, Cats, Redwoods…and Moana

We stayed at Lisa and Clark’s all day Monday. We were going to do some adventuring, but after waking up for my 6 am meeting (a respectable 10am for my Halifax crew) and working until 2, I was beat. We all were. Plus, the yurt was pretty sweet. Bright, clean. And, on top of our gracious, kind, and fun hosts, there were four cats.

Now, if you know anything about Iris, you know she loves cats. She is a cat. She was perfectly happy to sit around (not in an RV), watch Avengers movies, and pet the beautiful Russian Blue kitties that live there. Plus, there was a heated pool. Seriously, we were in heaven.

Around 5:30 we ventured into town to pick up some food and peek at the ocean again. My nephew Calvin, who’s living at our house while we’re away, texted asking if I could call him.

Uh oh

I called and found out that our cat Daisy was worrying him because she didn’t eat her food that night. He felt like she was acting funny. He called his friend who is a vet tech and she told him that cats can get sad and cranky when their people are away for a while.

I asked Calvin if we could talk to Daisy. Maybe hearing our voices would help her. So he held the phone up as we all told Daisy how much we loved her and missed her. I told her we’d be home soon. She actually meowed back at us through the phone.

When we hung up I texted Calvin and told him about how sometimes Iris gives Daisy water from a glass cup. She holds it under her chin and Daisy drinks. Maybe if he did that for her she would know we were still looking out for her. Being the sweet guy he is, he filled a glass of water and held it for her as she drank.

Redwoods and Moana

The next day, after another morning of meetings, we packed up and left Lisa and Clark’s beautiful Fieldbrook home. It was Tuesday the 20th and we were going to see the huge redwoods in Redwood National Park. This was also the day we needed to time right in order to get past Last Chance Grade on our way to Oregon.

Clark told us that a good place to see large redwood trees was Prairie Creek. We could do a short hike into the woods and be surrounded by huge trees for a while and still have time to make it past Last Chance.

We were pulling in to Prairie Creek when I got the text from Calvin:

“Hey, I have some bad news. Call me when you can.”

My stomach dropped out. I looked up from my phone to see the girls pointing excitedly out the window. There were elk on the side of the road. Eric pulled over. He saw the look in my eye. I silently mouthed the word “Daisy.” I didn’t know, but I knew.

We all got out of the RV and the girls ran over to see the elk. I walked to the front of the RV where I had one bar of cell service. I called Calvin. He told me he came home from work to find that Daisy had passed away. I told him that I was so sorry that he had to find her like that. He said he was so sorry that we lost our cat. He offered to bury her at Eric’s mom’s house, next to Chester and Rocco. I gave Eric the phone so he could tell Calvin how to find the right spot.

I walked over to the girls. They were beaming. So excited about the elk and the big trees they were about to see. They were dancing around in the grass on the side of the road. There was a fence along the road and someone had stuck a lost Moana Barbie doll on the fence post. The girls were doing a ceremony to honor Moana, singing her songs and giving her flowers.

“See the line where the sky meets the sea?

It calls me

And no one knows

How far it goes…”

I didn’t tell them. It’s Thursday when I’m writing this and I still haven’t told them. I can’t. Maybe I will tonight when we get to our hotel. Maybe not. We’ll see.

Big trees

We got back in the RV and drove into the redwood forest. Soon we were surrounded by giants. It was 1:46. We had to make it to last chance by 3:00 or we’d be stuck on this side of the pass.

We pulled over on the side of the road and got out near a stand of three particularly huge redwoods we saw. The girls were ecstatic. They ran up and touched the bark of the first tree they saw. They picked up moss-covered sticks (baby Groots, they called them), they plucked oversized clover (even though I told them to admire but don’t pick).

I was still reeling but trying to enjoy their awe. We decided to drive further up the road to the trail head to explore the forest. The girls and Eric walked back to the RV, I stayed behind for a moment, and stood in the center of the three giant trees. I looked up into them and said a prayer—hoping the heaven in their boughs would send my prayer to Daisy: May you be at peace, my dear friend. May you know you were loved. May my daughters’ hearts heal after I tell them.

“See the light as it shines on the sea?

It's blinding

But no one knows

How deep it goes”