Home Again, Home Again

The pavement ends and where the gravel picks up, a deer bounds across the road. I’m in dad’s truck, hauling luggage and groceries in the hot afternoon sun. The breeze is forgiving and the humidity better than I expected. Once the deer clears the road, I look ahead to assess the damage. PD warned me that we’d had hard rains since I left and that part of the driveway may well have washed out.

Washed out indeed. There’s no way my Volvo will make it up the first fifty yards to my little makeshift parking lot. Today, I’m in the truck though, and I slip it into low gear and start to gain speed. It hops, skids, and bounces far from gracefully through the carved waterways that scar the driveway. The vehicle has the horsepower to handle this but it’s not four-wheel drive, hence the skidding. But I make it up and around the first bend in one try, then up to the gate and on through for the final ascent. Again, the last stretch of road is just as torn up as the first, and I press the pedal down, skirting the crevasses and skidding new scars into the driveway.

At the top of the drive I glance back in the rearview mirror: avocados, Rainier cherries, and tofu decorate the truck bed like party favors. I look up and see the house on the side of Fork Mountain and laugh. I am finally, finally, home.

Today’s website update: Pictures from home!