Pay It Forward

We made it to Ashland! Our first day on the road went well. We left Bellevue around 10 am, with almost everything we thought about taking along packed into our Prius. The weather was perfect for a fall day. Yesterday was rainy and blustery, so the change in weather was a relief. We also found that there was little road construction going on to slow down traffic. The fall colors were so amazing that it may have been nice to have slow traffic in places to be able to observe things more closely. We made it around 6 pm, just at sunset. After settling into our hotel, Village Suites at Ashland Hills, we left to explore the town and have dinner. First we tried the Lithia Water. A fellow sitting near the drinking fountains said that alcohol tasted better. I agreed with him. Larry didn’t enjoy the water, but enjoyed inhaling second hand marijuana smoke from some other young people hanging out by the fountains. We had a nice dinner at the Asian restaurant “Sesame”, walked around town some more, then returned to our hotel. It has comfortable, pleasant suites. We are happy with it.
I keep thinking about a couple of incidents along our way here. We had stopped at a rest stop. I noticed several people begging for money. One of them, a young man in his twenties, approached me and asked if I could spare any money to help him get his flat tire fixed (the car with a flat was right in front of us). I had a relatively small amount handy, so gave it to him. He reminded me of son Phil. When I last saw Phil a few days ago, I noticed that his tires were practically bald. I pleaded with him to get new tires for safety’s sake. As I saw this other young man, I thought of how fortunate our family is. We could afford to get Phil new tires. My only worry about Phil was that he might put it off, not recognizing the danger, and skid. At any rate, the young stranger I helped seemed to appreciate it. Just an hour later I had an experience where someone else his age paid me a kindness. Larry and I stopped for gas just off the freeway. We were confused about how to get back on and started following signs to Eugene. It turns out that we had already passed Eugene, and the signs were directing us to go N not S. I stopped at a light in the left-turn lane that would have taken us N onto I-5. I knew I didn’t want to go that way. In the right lane a state trooper pulled up. I wanted to pull into the right lane to eventually turn around. The trooper didn’t move even when the lights were green. I figured I couldn’t change lanes after all. I wondered if he were watching me. I then had the inspiration to make a U-turn. I had not noticed the “no U-turn” sign directly above me. I thought for sure the state trooper would pull me over and give me a ticket. To my surprise, the young man just went on his way. Maybe I reminded him of his white-haired mother or maybe he was off-duty and wanted to get home. Whatever reason, I am grateful I didn’t get stopped.