Month: April 2021

Oregon Coast Day Two

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It was shortly before 7 AM on Friday, June 21st of 2019, when we got started with our day. Leaving our hotel, we headed to North Portland, Oregon and arrived at Cathedral Park only a short while after 7.

We spent a little over half an hour enjoying a walk through the park and admiring the outdoor cathedral appearance of the gothic arches supporting the St. John’s Bridge as it traverses the Willamette River. A couple of homeless men with bicycles and small trailers to be towed behind said bikes congregated beneath one of the arches and, if I’d had the presence of mind, I would have liked to capture some images of them where they rested at the base of those columns. I’m not sure that they would have been amenable to being photographed, but I really should have asked.

Photos from Cathedral Park are above.

From there, we headed South on Interstate 5, traveling down to the exit for Corvallis before making our way West. Arriving in Newport, we continued South along Highway 101 until we arrived at our first destination of the day, Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve.

Making my way over the rocky shoreline at the end of the Thor’s Well trail was made far more challenging by my efforts to avoid the crunching sound of assorted bivalves clinging to the exposed surface of the stone due to the low tide. Countless tidepools spotted low points in the rough stone and the views all around were magnificent. I would have liked to be there near high tide so as to capture the fountain effects of Thor’s Well and Spouting Horn–as well as the appearance of the area once it was largely submerged–but we had other places on our itinerary for the day.

Photos of the coast near Thor’s Well are included above

We headed back North along the Oregon Coast Highway, returning to Newport. Our next stop was for lunch. A little while before 1 PM, we arrived at Asiatico Waterfront Fusion Sushi. We opted to dine outdoors on the pier overlooking the Yaquina Bay. The food was superb, the service was no less so, and we had the pleasure of seeing some harbor seals poking their heads curiously out of the water to peek at us while we ate.

After our lunch, we made our way to the other side of the bay and the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

It wasn’t until close to 4 PM when we finally arrived at the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. Our first stop there was somewhere we’d fallen in love with during our previous visit to the area in 2017.

Cobble Beach (as seen in the photos above) is difficult to describe. It’s as much an auditory experience as a visual one. It’s not just the sound of the waves coming and going that does it, but rather the way the smoothly rounded stones of the shore roll over each other as the water from each wave recedes. Sitting or standing there in silence, you’re soothed by a strangely-pitched rumbling sound of rock against rock, as if being inside of a giant tumbling machine. This beach is somewhere I could spend hours without noticing the passage of time. As it stands, we did spend close to an hour right there.

Heading back up the cliffside, the lighthouse at Yaquina Head and the views from there are stunning. The sounds of waves compete with the cacophony of nesting seabirds to produce a peculiar, natural symphony.

Photos of the Yaquina Head lighthouse are below.

Perhaps the most worthwhile thing about our visit was the sheer amount of wildlife we got to witness. It wasn’t just the birds nesting on the rocky promontories all around. There were easily a dozen harbor seals playing in the surf, sunning themselves on the lower rocks, and even one mother nursing a pup…as you’ll see in the photos below.

We continued North along the highway and arrived at Devil’s Punchbowl State Natural Area at 5:30 PM. I’d been here previously, in both 2014 and 2017, and it never disappoints. The landscape and features of this section of the Oregon coast are always so lovely, and the wide, unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean are exceptional. Photos from that stop are below.

Continuing North, our final stop for the day was the Tillamook Creamery just after 7 PM. When we’d been there in June of 2017, the facility had been undergoing major renovations, though we’d still been able to enjoy a surprisingly great dinner there at that time.

Upgrades complete, the creamery was even better. A full dining area awaited us inside and the food was perhaps even better than it had been during our visit two years before. After dinner, we treated ourselves to ice cream at the separate ice cream bar. The abundance of flavors made picking anything an almost painful experience, especially knowing just how good any of those flavors were likely to be. None of us had anything to complain about, unless it was that we couldn’t try all of the flavors available.

We enjoyed a self-guided tour of the building, complete with samples of various cheeses on sale…but it was getting late and we had the long drive back to Portland still ahead of us.

Full stomachs and full hearts from a day of beautiful scenery and fun, we began the drive East, taking the Wilson River Highway through the Tillamook State Forest. The surrounding scenery was no less lovely than it had been when we’d taken this same drive two years before and the daylight remained with us until we’d reached Highway 26. The angle of the light as the sun approached the end of its apparent arc through the sky deepened the forest shadows and made it feel like we were surrounded by an endless sea of diverse shades of green.

It was after 10 PM when we returned to our hotel and settled in for the night.

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Howls From Hell: A Horror Anthology from HOWL Society Press

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Howls From Hell was a thoroughly refreshing anthology to read. Filled, as it was, with names largely unfamiliar to me from my extensive reading, I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this ARC of the book.
The stories are as diverse as a horror anthology can be, with tales that entertain, unsettle, or force the reader to question what they’ve just read.
The foreword provided by Grady Hendrix took me back to my teens in a way I enjoyed. Though I must admit that my friends and I never played a game quite like “rehash” and I’m not sure I could have convinced anyone that it was a game worth playing, no matter how hard I might have tried. The theme of that foreword is one many–perhaps all–horror fans will find familiar, the way the films and literature of our youth provide us comfort as adulthood takes its toll, and we often find ourselves returning to the unconventional things that help to reinvigorate us and, at least temporarily, return us to those golden years of our youth.
It was no surprise, after reading that, to find the fantastic selections collected in this anthology. These were horror stories written by those who deeply and unabashedly adore horror in the way one does when it was one of their first loves.
There isn’t a bad story to be found in this book, but there were some that stood out more for me than others, so I’ll focus on them.
The infernally-oriented urban fantasy of J. W. Donley’s “The Pigeon Lied” paints a fascinating picture of a Seattle underground that puts the underground music scene there to shame.
“She’s Taken Away” by Shane Hawk is an entertaining and disturbing take on the evil twin tale.
The surreal, horrific folklore underlying Solomon Forse’s “Gooseberry Bramble” reminded me of the late 19th and early 20th-century horror stories of the American gothic authors.
“Possess and Serve” by Christopher O’Halloran blends a bit of Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report” with Richard K. Morgan’s “Altered Carbon” to produce a near-future mystery/suspense tale that kept me focused on the screen of my tablet until the end.
Finally, “It Gets In Your Eyes” by Joseph Andre Thomas showcases an eye infection from hell…something I found personally disturbing because I’ve got a bit of a phobia centered around eyes and injuries associated with the eyes.
These were just my favorites, your favorites might be different. You’ll have to read the book to find out for yourself.

Firefly: Big Damn Hero by James Lovegrove: Narrated by James Anderson Foster

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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I decided to pick up James Lovegrove’s Firefly: Big Damn Hero as an audiobook. That uncertainty and fear of disappointment directly led to the title sitting in my Audible library for an extended period before I chose to give it a listen.
The graphic novel mini-series hadn’t been a disappointment, but Joss Whedon was credited with at least co-author status on those titles, with other writers from the television series being his compatriots. In the case of this novel, Lovegrove was not affiliated with the television series, nor was Nancy Holder, the individual who developed the concept behind Big Damn Hero…though Holder had written media tie-in novels associated with other Whedon properties such as Buffy and Angel. So, naturally, I was a little bit iffy about diving into this title…concerned that it might be a letdown.
From the beginning of James Anderson Foster’s narration, I knew I’d made a mistake by letting the title sit for so long. This man thoroughly captures the tone and cadence of the characters in such a way that it’s obvious he’s watched Firefly and Serenity more than a time or two…or at least he comes across that way. Mal and Jayne are particularly well-narrated, with Badger, Wash, and Book coming in just a little bit behind those two. His narration of female characters leaves a bit to be desired, but that’s not at all uncommon, so I’m not going to worry altogether too much about it.
The story of Big Damn Hero falls somewhere in the timeline after Episode 12 of the Firefly series, The Message, wherein Mal and Zoe put to rest a former comrade-in-arms from the war. There are references to the absurd knit hat Jayne received from his mother, the experience with Tracey (the comrade-in-arms I’d previously mentioned), as well as other threads of the story from earlier in the series. I suspect this story falls not long after The Message and a little while before Heart of Gold, the 13th episode of the show. It definitely takes place before Objects In Space, the final episode.
Big Damn Hero centers around Mal and his life before and during the war. As such, it provides a good bit of backstory and character history we’d never encountered during the television show or subsequent movie.
The crew arrives on Persephone to take on a hazardous job from Badger, while Mal has arranged a secondary job contact to supplement their cash flow. Pursuit of this second job leads Mal, Zoe, and Jayne to a bar on Alliance Day. If you’ve watched the show, you know what sort of things happen when Mal finds himself in an Alliance-friendly bar on that day of celebration…and that he somehow always seems to find himself in that situation.
When Mal disappears, it initially looks like he’s been captured by Alliance loyalists seeking to root out any traitorous Browncoats foolish enough to be out and about on Alliance Day, but the truth is far more painful.
As the rest of the crew attempts to solve the mystery and locate their Captain, Mal finds himself confronted by ghosts of his past and the memories, both good and bad, associated with those not-so-friendly faces.
It could be that I’m biased by my love of all things Firefly, but this was an excellent way to spend close to ten hours. I recommend this for any fan of the show.

Wandering Portland

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Thursday, June 20th of 2019, was spent entirely in Portland, Oregon. It was time to take a break from long drives for a day. We’d traveled 474 miles on Wednesday, 324 miles on Tuesday, 241 miles on Monday, and a whopping 713 miles on Sunday. Of course, that was combined driving and walking, but only a small portion of that was spent walking…I was, as you can imagine, ready to spend a bit less time behind the wheel.

Besides, we had a great way to get the day started and a surprise for my daughter that evening.

Our first stop was The Waffle Window in Northeast Portland (that location no longer appears to be open). At 8:30 AM, nothing could have hit the spot quite the way that waffle did, the one I’d purchased no longer appears to be on the menu at the current Waffle Window locations, but it included strawberry and a cream made using rose hips. I believe it was the Rose City waffle, which may be available only at certain times of year. It was amazing.

After an excellent breakfast, we headed West toward Washington Park and the Oregon Zoo. We had a schedule to keep.

I’d spent a few hundred dollars a couple of months before, in preparation for this vacation, to experience something we simply had to experience for ourselves.

We received more than my money’s worth with the sea otter experience at the Oregon Zoo. I’d known we would be able to spend time behind the scenes, seeing the otters in their enclosure rather than through the usual viewing location. We got to watch as Lincoln was given treats and samples were taken from him. I expected that to be about as close as we’d get. Instead, we were given the chance to hand-feed Juno and Sushi for approximately ten to fifteen minutes. We were provided with a bucket filled with diced up bits of fish and other assorted sea life, and we were allowed to spoil them rotten. Photos of the otter experience are above.

After spending a rather long interval at the zoo, we returned to the hotel until a little after 5 PM.

We headed toward downtown Portland and parked in the Chinatown area.

Our next stop was the Lan Su Chinese Garden. A special event was soon to be taking place, and our time was limited, so the hostess offered us discounted passes to enjoy the lovely garden. While I would have loved to spend more time there, especially as the sun approached the horizon, it was incredibly considerate of the hostess to offer us the concession she did. The garden isn’t a large place, but it feels much larger when you’re inside.

You can almost imagine you’re somewhere far away from where you actually are, until you catch glimpses of the towering skyscrapers beyond the walls of the garden itself. Photos of the Lan Su Chinese Garden are below.

From there, we remained on foot. It was time to visit my favorite location in downtown Portland, Powell’s City of Books. It was 6:30PM when we arrived and we didn’t leave there until after 8 PM. There are few stores where I can lose track of time as effectively as within the mighty shelves of Powell’s. As one might reasonably suspect, I spent altogether too much money during that visit…we all did.

We had time to return to the Impala, where we deposited our purchases, before we made our way to the next destination.

From roughly 8:30 until 10:30 PM, we joined up with Portland Walking Tours for their late night ghost hunting experience. Naturally, there were no ghosts, but there was a lot of local history (mingled with a fair bit of mythology, I’m sure) and a fun experience to be had.

The first hour and a half of the tour involved wandering through a substantial chunk of downtown Portland. It was thoroughly enjoyable, less because I believe in ghosts than for the enthusiasm of the tour guide in his detailed assortment of tales and trivia items.

We returned to the starting point of the walking tour and made our way into the basement of the building, with only flashlights to provide us with illumination. Connecting, as it supposedly did, to the old tunnels beneath the city, there were tales aplenty that accompanied our descent into the dark underground. Of course, we did not summon a ghost nor did we witness any sort of evidence that there might be a ghost down there, but the atmosphere was quite excellent.

It was almost Midnight when we finally settled in at our hotel, after ordering takeout from a reasonably nice diner located near PDX and the Columbia River, Shari’s Cafe and Pies.

The Painted Hills and Columbia River Gorge

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It was shortly after 7:30 AM on Wednesday, June 19th of 2019, when we began our journey Southeast from Portland, OR. The drive toward central Oregon is beautiful in a wholly different way from the beauty of the region West of the Cascades. You emerge from the Cascade mountain range and arrive at a wide, flat plain as you follow the path of Highway 26. Gazing toward the horizon, you can see the most prominent snowcapped peaks of the Cascade Mountains stretching along their North/South axis.

A relatively short while later, you pass through a smaller set of mountains and hills, quite reminiscent of the Black Hills here in South Dakota, as you’re cutting along the Western edge of the Ochoco National Forest. From there, our destination isn’t far.

Shortly before Mitchell, OR we take a left on Bridge Creek Road. We’d previously visited the Painted Hills in 2017, and we wanted to spend a more substantial interval there this time.

Located in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, the Painted Hills are relatively similar to certain features of Badlands National Park.

Our first stop is the Painted Cove Trail, a leisurely boardwalk trail circling through and around a series of beautiful, red tinted mounds. This only takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to enjoy, but slowing down to take in the scenery is a must.

From there it’s only a short drive to reach the Red Hill Trail, nestled further into the park area. The hike to a viewpoint overlooking the region is a gravel and dirt path that doesn’t suffer from poor maintenance.

Photos are both above and below.

Before leaving the Painted Hills, we stopped at the Painted Hills Overlook we’d enjoyed a great deal during our previous visit. The day was sunny and it gets hot in the high elevation desert environment, so our visit was cut short just after 12:30 PM. Photos of that stop are below.

Returning to Highway 26, we continued East, finally cutting North in Mitchell, OR to take the Service Creek-Mitchell Highway North. Reaching Fossil, OR, we took Highway 218 West to the ghost town of Shaniko, OR. The drive, taking approximately two and a half hours, is a fantastic one. The roadways curve up and down hillsides and mountains, providing lovely views of high-elevation valleys and farmland. If we’d not had other places to go, I’d have loved to spend more time there, stopping for photos on an annoyingly consistent basis.

Arriving in Shaniko, we took advantage of an ice cream parlor serving the people who come to see the ghost town. Goldie’s Ice Cream Parlor had a decent variety of flavors and the folks operating the establishment were pleasant and friendly.

Walking the streets of Shaniko isn’t a time consuming endeavor, and it was only twenty minutes or so before we were back on the road.

Photos of Shaniko are below.

We took Highway 97 North to Biggs Junction, OR where we joined Interstate 84 and headed West along the Columbia River.

Arriving in Hood River, OR around 5 PM, we stopped for dinner at Solstice Wood Fire Pizza. I can’t say enough about the quality of the food and the overall environment of that restaurant. The patio area provides a nice view of the Columbia River as well. I wanted to try something different and ordered the siragusa pear pizza, a pizza with pears (as the name would imply), bleu cheese, and caramelized onions…it was amazing.

Leaving Hood River, our next stop was the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. There’s an artificial pond on site for white sturgeon, complete with an underwater viewing window. I’ve submerged one of my GoPro cameras in that pond each time we’ve visited, and captured some excellent video of the two sturgeon swimming. There are also smaller ponds where one can feed trout.

Continuing toward Portland, we stopped at both Horsetail Falls and Multnomah Falls between 7:45 and 8:30 PM.

Naturally, we had to make the climb up to the upper terrace of Multnomah Falls, as the view is always so spectacular. This late in the evening, the crowds weren’t as dense as they often had been before.

Our final stop on the way back to Portland was Vista House, which seemed like a magnificent place to witness the sunset. We were not disappointed. The views overlooking the Columbia River from that location are spectacular. I may have had to drop down from a fenced area to get to a certain location or two, but it was worth the minor bit of trespassing to see some of what I was able to see.

We continued along the Historic Columbia River Highway after dark, unable to truly enjoy the scenery, returning to our hotel shortly before 10:30 PM.

You Will Be Consumed Preorder

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There’s less than a month to go until my novella, You Will Be Consumed, is released by Madness Heart Press.

This bizarro/splatterpunk novella will serve as an introduction for many of you to a shared world for a handful of upcoming novels, novellas, and short stories…the world of The Hungering Void. Welcome to a world where gods are not what we’ve long believed them to be, where demons might not be the bad guys, and where the very fabric of reality appears to be deteriorating. Elements of cosmic horror and splatterpunk meld together to create a phantasmagoric tale of nightmare becoming our reality.

In this novella, you’ll be introduced to detectives Lauren (Ren) Thomas and Martin Garcia as they investigate a surge of strange homicides taking place in and around Denver, Colorado. You’ll also meet Stephen Lee, the medical examiner who unfortunately has to help them unravel the mystery surrounding these peculiar and gruesome murders. These flawed and all-too-human characters are faced with reality-defying crimes that might just push them beyond the edge of sanity.

The novella is presently available to preorder in Kindle format through Amazon. You can’t help but love that cover artwork designed by John Baltisberger of MHP. He did a fantastic job of designing not only the cover art, but also the interior layout.

You can also preorder either digital or paperback editions of the novella directly through the Madness Heart Press website linked below.

You Will Be Consumed

This will not be the end of the story. You can expect to see Ren and Martin in future releases as they continue what could be an impossible battle to restore some amount of sanity to the world they find themselves struggling to understand.

Additionally, my short story, Yeshua and Adonai is available in Kindle format, providing a different sort of introduction to the world of The Hungering Void.

Mount Saint Helens

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Leaving the hotel behind before 7 AM on Tuesday, June 18th of 2019, we made a first stop at Voodoo Doughnut downtown. The wait wasn’t long and we had a delicious, albeit unhealthy, breakfast to start our day.

From downtown Portland we headed North on Interstate 5, traveling to the exit just beyond Castle Rock, WA. Our first destination of the day was the Johnston Ridge Observatory at the opposite end of the Spirit Lake Highway. Stopping at various points along the route, we enjoyed the scenery, the highest elevations obscured by low cloud cover.

As one gets closer to the destination, the trees take on an almost digital appearance, something that’s difficult to adequately describe. The dense forests of mountain pine look sort of like trees in Minecraft, but more faithfully rendered. It’s an interesting thing, to say the least.

Photos from the trip East along Spirit Lake Highway are above.

It was 10 AM when we finally reached our destination. Upon arrival, I ventured off on my own, along the trail leading in the direction of Spirit Lake. The blasted volcano cone was still far too well-hidden behind cloud cover for me to get any worthwhile shots of Saint Helens itself, so I wandered for a couple of miles, hoping to capture some other stunning scenery.

I only started back, to meet up at the observatory when the morning clouds began burning away as the sun warmed the air.

Photos from that interval of hiking are below.

I was able to enjoy her apex being disrobed as the clouds dissipated, revealing her snow covered higher elevations near the cone. The return hike to the observatory was positively beautiful. We took a moment to stop at the Loowit Viewpoint on our way West, back along Spirit Lake Highway.

Photos as Saint Helens emerged from the clouds are below.

Returning to Interstate 5, we returned South, taking the exit at Woodland to follow the Lewis River Road Eastward. Our next stop was a good distance away and we didn’t arrive at Ape Cave until just before 3 PM. Lacking adequate light sources, our travel down the lava tube was trimmed down and my ability to take photos was limited to near the entrance. I’ve included a couple of those below.

Leaving Ape Cave, we decided to continue Northeast, hoping to find some captivating vistas approaching Muddy River and the Lava Canyon Trailhead. We were not disappointed. Approximately an hour after departing from Ape Cave, we experienced some positively stunning scenery.

The photos from that interval are below.

We returned to our hotel room in Portland roughly 11 hours after we’d started out that morning. It had been a long day, but an absolutely worthwhile one. It’s never a disappointment to experience the beauty emerging from devastation like that.

We’d previously visited Mt. Saint Helens in June of 2017, and I had been there in June of 2014 as well. When I was growing up, my mother had a glass jar filled with ash from the eruption that took place only a year and a half after I’d been born. That ash that had found its way as far as South Dakota and Minnesota fascinated me when I was young…and the volcano itself grew to fascinate me as I became an adult.

Active Kickstarter Campaigns I Support

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The first project I’ll recommend here is an upcoming comic/graphic novel from Madeleine Holly-Rosing. It’s a continuation of her Boston Metaphysical Society series of graphic novels.

You have until April 29th to support this project.

Next up is a no-brainer for those who know me. Joel Hodgson is working to bring fans of MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000, for the uninitiated) a 13th season. There was no way I could avoid supporting this project.

You have until May 7th to support this project.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k

And, finally, from Weird Little Worlds Press, we have the Humans Are the Problem horror anthology. Not only can you support this project, and help to make it the best anthology it can be, the publisher is also open for submissions through May 15th. I’m also including the link to their submission page below the link to the Kickstarter campaign, just in case I have any interested authors viewing my blog. I’ve been considering submitting something as well.

You have until May 8th to support this project.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wlw/humans-are-the-problem-a-monsters-anthology
https://weirdlittleworlds.com/submissions/

Additionally, there’s an Indiegogo campaign I’d like to see more horror fans supporting. I was the first one to back this project and I hope to see them reach their goal well ahead of the conclusion in 25 days.

I have been a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise since before I was technically allowed to watch the movies. These films, along with other slasher fare, had a profound influence on me as I was growing up. No, that doesn’t mean I slaughtered my way through dozens of scantily clad camp counselors…just that I developed a deep and lasting love for the slasher genre as a whole, in large part due to the Friday the 13th films.

This project is meant to provide a connection between the 8th and 9th installments of the Friday the 13th story. As many of you are aware, the film series, prior to Jason Goes To Hell, built from one installment to the next, often directly following the previous movie. That changed with the release of the ninth movie, to some extent because of issues with the rights to the Friday the 13th name vs. rights to the character of Jason Voorhees. This movie is intended to help smooth out that transition. Please find it in your heart to support Voorhees: Night Of the Beast.

The link follows:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/voorhees-night-of-the-beast-movie/x/26176655#/

Midsommar (2019)

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Ari Aster’s Midsommar doesn’t receive the credit it deserves within a lot of the horror communities I interact with. The same goes for his previous film, Hereditary.
To some extent, I think it’s simply a matter of taste…some people seem to have little patience for more atmospheric horror, and Midsommar relies heavily on atmosphere much as movies like It Follows and Session 9 previously did. Similarly, there are psychological and symbolic elements scattered throughout the narrative, both subtle and overt. This is very much a movie for those who enjoyed Hereditary’s relatively slow burn horror and drip-fed revelations.
In both movies, the overall focus is that of cult activity, albeit framed quite differently from Hereditary to Midsommar. In this one, the communal religious sect from Sweden is quite upfront about their existence and adherence to old rituals and practices. Speaking of those rituals and practices, Aster did a fair bit of research into mythical traditions as well as actual practices within the prehistoric Nordic cultures to cultivate a plausible framework for the cult’s beliefs and activities. Mingling that blend of fact and fiction with the supernatural allowed him to craft an unsettling, tense, and phantasmagorical experience with this movie.
Florence Pugh puts forth an excellent performance as the emotionally and psychologically fragile, Dani. Her breadth of expression and emotive display is stretched about as far as a single performance could manage. On the opposite side of the central relationship, we have Jack Reynor’s performance as Christian which, while no less impressive, leans more toward emotionally distant and confused throughout the tale. Watching the relationship deteriorate from the already well-eroded substrate at the beginning is both heartbreaking–as we feel sympathy for Dani–and satisfying–as we feel increasing contempt for Christian.
The rest of the cast is no less impressive in their respective roles, but they all take a backseat to the dominant spotlights of the movie…the crumbling relationship between Dani and Christian, and the increasingly disturbing unveiling of the nightmare the outsiders have wandered into as guests/sacrifices.
Comparisons with The Wicker Man (1973) are certainly appropriate. The same element of outsiders being manipulated into playing preordained parts in a larger, primitive ritual is present in both movies. The same sort of disquieting undercurrent runs beneath the surface in both movies, though it certainly seems to breach the surface far more frequently and earlier in the film in this case. In fact, if you took The Wicker Man and blended it with a splash of Believers (2007), a dash of Shrooms (2007), and just a touch of Rosemary’s Baby (1968), you would have something quite similar to Midsommar.
It’s best to sit down and just experience this movie as it all plays out before you. There’s certainly gore (though the movie doesn’t rely on it as the backbone of the story), nudity, and psychological aspects that might be disturbing for some viewers…but there’s also a compelling story taking place.

Second Leg of the Journey

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We left Helena, MT shortly after 7 AM on Sunday, June 16th of 2019. Our route took us West to meet Interstate 90 at the Garrison exit. The last time we’d taken this path out of Helena, in June of 2017, we’d narrowly avoided colliding with a doe as she’d ventured onto the highway from thick shrub growth on the right side of the road. This time, thankfully, there were no near misses.

We remained on I-90 for only a short while, taking the exit at Drummond as that was the recommendation of my GPS. I should have learned not to trust the GPS after a particularly awful set of directions in August of 2016, but shame on me because I was fooled twice. We started out on a simple frontage road running parallel with the interstate before connecting with a meandering gravel road. It wasn’t in perfect condition, but I’d taken my 2001 Chevy Impala down worse roads, for sure.

What initially appeared to be a rough patch of road, perhaps still rutted after late winter in the higher elevations, soon became only a taste of what was to come. If I’d been driving a Jeep, I’d have avoided this road if given the opportunity to do so. It kept getting worse rather than better, large stones protruding from the road’s surface (if one could really call it a road) at random points while giant ruts carved miniature ravines through the hard-packed dirt that made up the islands of discernible road.

Unfortunately, there was no choice but to continue forward. Attempting to reverse down the trail would have certainly led to disaster, while powering through the god awful, stressful ordeal was at least potentially going to lead us to a happy outcome.

The road cleared up just as we approached our destination. Garnet, a ghost town maintained by the Department of the Interior, was just ahead. We’d made it…and without tearing anything from the undercarriage of my car.

To add insult to injury, there was a much nicer, well-maintained gravel road up there as well. There had been a far less treacherous path to this destination. We could have avoided the hazards associated with taking my car up something barely suitable for four-wheel drive. Damn the GPS.

We remained there in Garnet for about an hour and a half, not departing until around 11 AM. Photos from our time in Garnet are featured above.

The route we followed leaving Garnet and making our way to Missoula, where we rejoined Interstate 90 was far less stressful than the one we’d experienced only a couple of hours earlier. Along the way, there was a fantastic view and a great place to stop and take it all in. I’ve included photos of that vista below.

Crossing the rest of the distance through Montana and the upper panhandle of Idaho, we entered Washington. At the recommendation from my cousin, Jeremy, we stopped at Viking Drive-Inn. This is a modest diner located Southwest of Spokane, in a small town known as Sprague. The burgers, while simple, were deliciously seasoned and precisely what we were hungry for at just after 2 PM.

We continued following I-90 until we reached Ritzville, WA, where we headed South, making our way to Palouse Falls State Park. We’d seen photos of the magnificent falls, but we’d never seen it in person. It did not disappoint.

Photos of Palouse Falls follow.

We left Palouse Falls at approximately 4:30 PM before continuing Southwest through Kennewick before crossing the border into Oregon. We connected with Interstate 84 and continued on to Portland, OR. We arrived at our hotel shortly before 9 PM.

Having built up an appetite again, we went to the nearest MOD Pizza. We’d fallen in love with that design-your-own pizza chain when we’d been in Seattle in June of 2017. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at a particularly seedy 7-Eleven, in what appeared to be a fairly run down area of Portland. Regardless of that, we continued returning to this same 7-Eleven during our week-long stay in Portland because they happened to have green apple Jones Soda in their fountain soda machine. It tastes even better as a fountain soda than in the bottles.

We settled back in at the hotel just before 10 PM.