rural randomness

so i've been traveling in eastern oregon since tuesday. i've been in john day, burns, christmas valley and am in lakeview tonight. randomness has happened already. i ran into an old friend, rhys, in john day at the grocery store. i knew rhys from moab, knew he moved to the valley and i ran over to the grocery store before the whole town closed at 9p.m. for a bit of leche and low and behold i walk past an isle where i see a man restocking shelves then walk backwards and both of us realized it was each other. WEIRD! i lost his number and was going to email him and say... hey i'm in your hometown, but we ended up catching up instead. crazy.

picture two is from a bathroom in a courthouse that we had a meeting. i guess there was a problem of air freshening stealing. the best part is that the can was positioned where i thought at first, it said do not move. luckily i realize you could move it and obviously use it but couldn't REMOVE it.

tonight i ate at a delicious diner called patty's (shoot i think). it was retro, it had picture/poster of an elk in a frame and ducks flying on the wall. the best part was that they had smash burgers. i promptly took my camera out and snapped a photo to send to my friend smash. the waitress questioned me why i did that and after a swift explanation of smash's love of retro and connection of her name, she gave me a menu to send to smash. so i snuck it to the truck and then she changed her mind and then decided just to give me pages inside. so i have the whole menu of love to send to smash love, lakeview oregon. now that's freaking customer service and i don't have gross fingerprints of others.

other rural fun that i've encountered is some shady men at breakfast gave me the 411 on how to drive where and when and told me i could get a 3 bedroom house at the same price i'm paying for my one bedroom in salem. i think they're trying to lure me into burns, oregon. i hate to break their hearts but that is NOT happening.

also i'm grateful that i still have a phone that is a tri-band.yes, my friends in the digital only world, i had analog ONLY in burns last night. thanks again analee for your phone! my phone is still possessed in this extended network area. it will get used to it. all i have to say is thank goodness for wireless! i'm even in a hotel that used to be a training center, then a rest home and now a hotel. if that ain't rural, i don't know what is... meth labs that are now homes to many in slc? hmmm.... CHANGE is good eh?