Rambling Wanderer

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It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I decided to make a list of all the events I plan on attending in northeast Oregon for the year 2012 for www.northeastoregononline.com. It is a hefty list, and I will add to it often as the winter months click by, making way for a spring, summer, and fall filled with travel, people, and fabulous food. A great place to learn about all of eastern Oregon is the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association website. On this site is a wealth of information about the area, and right at the top of their events page was a listing about horse-drawn elk viewing tours from T&T Wildlife Tours. A road trip instantly popped into my mind. I could go to the Elkhorn Wildlife Refuge at Anthony Creek, look down from the viewing area and get some great pictures of this tour, but I also know this has been one of those strange winters with little snow in the mountains. The chance the elk were still wandering around in the wilderness and not needing to come down to the feeding stations was high, so I knew I needed to call and make sure the tours were actually happening. I called the number (541-856-3356) and sure enough Susan Triplett confirmed this has been a strange winter indeed, but the elk were coming in to eat, and the tours were still on, but they were doing things a little differently than they ever have before. One of their Percheron horses was not feeling well, so they would not be feeding from the back of a trailer pulled by horses, instead the trailer would be pulled by a pickup. This might scare the elk, so they weren't sure how well it would turn out for the visitors who came to see the elk, but they were hoping for the best. They believe their horse will be well enough to be back to work this coming weekend. Tours will continue on Saturdays and Sundays through February 26. She told me if I decided to come over, they would let me climb up into the barn and watch over the feeding field and leave me there between the time they brought one group of people down to see the elk and the next group. Sounded like the day was created just for me, so I grabbed my cameras, my husband, and my car keys and bolted out the door. The tour would begin in about an hour, or so, just enough time to drive from my home to the elk viewing sight in Haines. The weather was amazing for an eastern Oregon February Day. The sun was shining bright against the beautiful blue sky, and we made it to North Powder in record time. We warmed ourselves by the fire alongside the road as we watched the elk in the distance. After a brief introduction to the day by Alice Trindell and Susan Triplett, the owners of T&T Wildlife Tours, we were led down a long muddy hill then down the road to the barn where all the rich alfalfa is stored. Once at the barn my husband and I broke away from the crowd, climbed up the bails of rich smelling alfalfa, and planted ourselves right in the middle of it all. What a view! Right in front of us, maybe 50 yard away, were about 200 elk, mostly cows and yearling calves, but several bulls were also mixed in the herd. A great sight to see. We watched as the boss cow of the herd came to investigate the alfalfa flakes dropped from the pickup and trailer. She was a stately cow, with a large radio collar of some sort. Once she felt it was safe, she turned, walked back to her herd, and then led them to the alfalfa. They trusted her instincts more than their own it seemed. The elk relaxed, even though, right inside the barn were a dozen, or so people watching their every move. Alice and Linda both talked to the group, educating them with probably just a fraction of their knowledge on these elk that they have been feeding for 21 years now. Mike Moore is also involved with the feeding of these elk and stood up in the barn with my husband and I as we listened to his knowledge on these grand creatures. It was a great experience. We met some great people, saw some beautiful animals, and were able to walk away from the experience "life richer". Thank you Alice, Susan and Mike. I look forward to visiting with you all again.

As I lay on the table, my body becomes putty under her touch. I drift into another realm as she nudges, tugs, pulls and pushes my muscles into submission. My mind fidgets between a world of worries, deadlines, debt, and another place of peace, joy and the complete willingness to surrender completly.
The joyful place wins, as my mind wanders into a peacefulness that only a massage can bring.
While in this state of bliss, I often thank God for her healing hands that I know have a way of making my body function more effeciently, in turn healing the parts that have been wounded.
Today was different that my normal visit. I had ringing in my ears as a result of the auto accident I was in back in June, which is why I came to see her in the first place.
My doctor thought massage could possibly lessen the ringing that was obnoxious come bedtime.
So here I was, feeling like a piece of artwork under her masterful hands. My shoulder and back have been the issue we have focused on for the past seven months, but today after a swedish massage of those areas,(I swear, one of the closes things to hevean has got to be a swedish massage) she began Cranial Sacreal Therapy. I was familiar with this technique, she had used it on several occasions and my physical therapist used this type of therapy each time I went to them during my recovery.
She sat at the foot of the table with both of my heels in her hands. I believe when someone is trained in Cranial Sacrial Therapy they are able to feel the flow of the energy that moves through the spinal cord and throughout the rest of the body.
After several minutes of her holding my heels in her hands, she moved to my hip, she later told me that there seemed to be something there that was blocking the flow. I explained I had fallen in the ice the week before and landed hard on my hip. The practitioner can physically feel the patients body release and the energy begin to flow even more than the patient can usually.
She worked on my face and neck as I lay peacefully between awareness and complete relaxation.
I see a beautiful indigo blue often times during this therapy. It comes in blotches, circles and dots. Today I also saw a sheet of deep crimson red.
I know this isn't my normal travel article, but the moment I left her relaxing space I knew I had in fact been on a wonderful healing journey, and I can hardly wait to travel there again next week.
While laying in bed last night I listened to the ringing in my ears. At times I try to find words to describe what it is I am feeling/hearing. A high pitched ring, that seems to come from the top of my head and down into each ear was still there, although it seemed to be a touch quieter that before. Also there is usually a type of vibrationy hum, that seemed to have lessened considerable.
I highly recommend letting this lady take you on a journey of total relaxation. Please contact me and I will gladly tell you how to get a hold of her.

2012 already! I am so excited about this year. It is almost the end of January and so far most of my traveling has been to La Grande and back (36 miles round trip), but we have managed to make a couple trips over the mountains to the more populated portion of northeast Oregon.
Last weekend we went to Wildhorse Resort. I had won $100 of free play in a birthday card they sent me, so we were off and running. We even had a $50 credit at the Arrowhead Truck Stop, so we were able to fill our tank with gas once we got there. We ate at McDonalds, just because it sounded good at 9 o'clock at night. I mean, who doesn't love McDonald's french fries for a late night snack? Our entire trip cost us $10, so we were feeling pretty lucky, we just knew this would be the night when we would walk out of the casino with thousands of dollars in winnings. We had already told our daughter we probably wouldn't come home that night, because we were going to just get a room with all the cash we planned to win.
Well, it didn't quite turn out like that afterall, and I blame it all on my one crazy mistake. It threw my whole night off and I just wasn't able to get myself into a winning vibe again.
My plan was to go to a machine, punch in my card code so I could play $50 of my free money. I was going to spin the wheels once, then cash out my ticket, so I could have $50 and my husband could have $50. I walked up to the first machine I saw. It was a $1 machine.....I don't play $1 machines, I play penny machines, but I knew it was just one pull and who knows, I might of gotten lucky, but I didn't.
My husband said, "Hey, that's a dollar machine." "I know," I replied, acting like I knew exactly what I was doing, only I didn't. I pulled the handle, I didn't win. No problem, it was just one dollar and it was free, so I pressed the 'cash out' button and waited for my ticket to pop out, it didn't. A man walking by pointed at the screen and said, "You have to play this machine. You can't just cash it out when it is their money you are playing on, you just have to keep playing? And you better play $3 at a time, because see, you would have won here, but you only played one dollar."
Turns out I would have won about $45 on that one pull alone.
My heart sank. I did not want to play a dollar machine, I wanted to play a penny machine, where I could sit for a really long time betting thirty cents at a time. Grrrrrr, I was so mad at myself.
Of course there was that same guy, who kept wandering around behind us, saying I'm going to be right here when you win big. Which to me is no big deal, but I could tell my husband was getting a little irratated. Not only did he see his night of fun fading quickly away at $3 a pull, but this guy kept hanging around his wife.
Finally I won a couple rounds and we were able to cash out $24, so I only actually spent $26 at the dollar machine, but boy did I learn my leason. Don't put your money in a dollar machine unless you want to play a dollar machine.
The rest of the evening we had fun, but I think I threw our whole night out of wack with my hastiness to get started playing slot machines. Live and learn and journey on.

February 17
    We got our itinerary last night at the Philly meeting.......So excited! We are going to be doing so many things it will be hard to catch our breath, but wow is it going to be a great time. I am so looking forward to it.

8:26 am
    Well the day has come that Debi and I are going to Ellensburg to the Spirit of the West Cowboy Gathering with my photography and cowboy decor. It will be the first time I have done anything like this, so it will be interesting to see how things go.
    I'm all packed, the Exterra is beyond packed, and I just got a text from Debi, it sounds like she too is packed up and ready to go.
    It takes about four hours to get to Ellensburg and with all the snow over the pass it will take a lot longer, so I probably should head out. I will post more soon.