City: Eugene, OR
Distance travelled: 2432 miles
Total distance: 19,365 miles
Theatre: Hult Center

 

We returned from a week layoff and reconvened in the beautiful Pacific North West.  Eugene is a small but really enjoyable town. The people there were so friendly and welcoming and the food at the local restaurants was brilliant.

It just so happens that two of my very good friends live there and I got to spend some wonderful quality time with them.  Jackie and Michael and I have been friends since I moved to Chicago almost a decade ago.  Jackie has had her challenges and has been doing a great job of fighting off cancer for the last 4 years.  She and Michael moved to this part of the country to make the most of the healthy, outdoor lifestyle in order to help her recovery.

They took me on great hike in the mountains to Cougar Damn.  I couldn’t get over how dense the forest was and how tall the trees were. It was like something out of a nature documentary and the air smelled fresher there.  It felt as though you were being recharged every time you took a breath.

We sat and ate our lunch looking out over an enormous reservoir listening to Fleet Foxes from the car stereo, it could not have been better and that evening we made a home cooked meal and sat and caught up.  I am so grateful to get to see those guys.  They are the kind of friends that, even though time may pass, when we meet again, it is just like we saw each other yesterday.