California – Twists and Turns

 A Road to the Boonies

In my last blog, we were about ready to leave Apple Town for our northern California coast B&B. It was a Sunday, our third day in the sunshine state and we headed north to eventually swing a left toward the coast and Elk, CA. Chris had this notion that it was a 3.25-hour drive from our San Fran area hotel up to our B&B. It was all of that just to the road of twists and turns. California has mountains that run parallel to its length; with much of the entire length of the state having a range that butts right up to the coast. So go west my friend go west to the Pacific, yes, but before you hit the ocean in many CA locations you must first cross or cut through that last western mountain range. Yes, we had a scenic trouble-free freeway drive north on the 101 until we reached a town called Ukiah where we headed west toward the Pacific on the 253. We were headed into the coastal mountains toward a town called Boonville. That town should have been called “The Boonies” because after 30 minutes of twists, turns, switchbacks, and redwoods, we barely noticed a couple of buildings in Boonville. It was then that we realized the drive from San Fran was going to be more like five hours. 

Twists and Turns

The final stretch from Boonville toward Elk, supposedly on the coast, took a good 50 minutes with more incessant hairpin turns, narrow roads lined by stately and I might add no doubt immovable redwood trees; and yes throw in a couple of single-lane bridges. The forest was thick with redwoods and we were frantically closing in on sundown and the glare of the sun coming through those stately trees, especially at twists and turns was blinding. We had experience with whiteout blizzards in ND, but this was being blinded usually right at the narrow hairpin turn with either solid trees or steep drop-offs on either side. In ND, at least if you go off the road, it’s likely straight as an arrow with a gradual ditch. We learned later that we were traveling on paved roads that were converted logging roads; made sense. 

Metaphors

My road in retirement has so many metaphors with actual roadways it's dizzying. Amid all these twists and turns, we were always a bit anxious about what was around the bend. That has been my road in retirement; what is around the corner: worsening dysphagia, progressive Parkinson’s deterioration, more setbacks, another infection, another fall, or maybe new therapies to add to existing ones that are topping out? More positively, maybe around this next corner there will be a bed, rest, and then breakfast! Maybe after this procedure, or new medication, my condition will be more endurable. No matter the type of thoughts I am having, when I start thinking like this, I have to climb inside my heart and remember scriptures like in 2 Corinthians 4 where the severely persecuted and suffering apostle Paul says, “Therefore we do not lose heart, . . .  for momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Circumstances will always pull us into the temporal, but a heart focused on God aims into the unseen, the eternal, where only faith is the champion.

Mindset

That scripture corrects me and reminds me to set my mind on the things above, as in on God, Jesus, and his Spirit who goes with me. Yes, like this California logging road/highway, my life has had some tough twists and turns, but ultimately, in a spiritual mindset, I know by faith that around the corner is indeed eternal glory that simply has no comparison to suffering in this beautiful yet overwhelming redwood forest. 

The Cove

Finally, like one of those thunderstorm cells with torrential rain, hail, and howling winds that suddenly stop because the cell's front has moved past, the brown columns of rugged redwood trunks and accompanying deep green canopy gave way to ocean blue  . . . the Pacific. We pulled over to the side of our twisted road at the intersection of road-so-twisted with coastal Highway 1 and stared numbly at the majesty of the great ocean. With the twists and turns and trees and glare (things of earth, temporal) we couldn’t see the beautiful end to that mountain road (things eternal weighted with glory). Now we were at our penultimate goal, parked at the precipice of rest, and below us at the coastline lay our B&B snuggled in an ocean cove with its promise of constant calming seashore waves and rest  . . . and pancakes.