We leave Missoula earlier than I expected on Tuesday morning after enjoying the cooler weather, kitchen conversations, buying stickers, baking cookies by the bucketful, and watching Over the Garden Wall.

Jessi paints little horses, Jake catches dinner on fire (on the grill) and starts over, Lyra is taking finals this week (as a high-school freshman), and Sam is still unpacking from an adventure in Anaheim.

We make it to Portland to stay the night with Rachel and Chris (and their three kitties) and have Nathan join us for dinner at Farmhouse Kitchen. We stay long enough this time to shower and for Jessi to put her nursing skills to use.

She walks into the kitchen on Wednesday and, upon seeing a red, still wet puddle, asks Rachel if she had spilled some wine. Rachel’s reenactment of her sloshing about with breakfast booze led us to another, bigger pool of blood.

The injured kitty got his holey leg wrapped, and we left for coffee, car fuel, pee stops, and walking every chance I got. We listen to part of TimeSuck, episode Pig Farm Killer, because the description of his family’s disgustingness is a modern marvel.

The Bootleg Campground has a gallon of water next to each fire pit. I’m sure the trees hope that this idea will spread, as it’s great. I start watching the stars emerge, but I will have better luck seeing them a couple of hours later.

I’m the first one up, so I’m able to enjoy a hike with the quiet robins and noisy blue jays. I’d have kept going over the pine needles, feeling them shift underfoot, but after a mile, I was over having to empty trail treasures from my shoes.