慈英欄

Because I had a big cleaning day, I finally finished the audiobook I was on.

* Blood Trail by Tanya Huff - Choices were made by the author. ( Spoilers )

* Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid - This is actually the second book in a series called Game Changers. I'd heard that it can be read as a standalone so I did, but then I found out that book 6 in the series continues their story. To understand book 6, you need to have read 2, 3 and 5 so... yeah, take stand-alone claims with a grain of salt. I expect that the show will include some of the plot of 6. Also, I want to be able to look at Heated Rivalry tags and fan spaces, and those will likely have talk of the pairing's full story. So yeah, should have stuck to my 'read series in order' policy.

You know how romantasy and some other romance books have such a rep for being just smut, and then when people try them they get confused that it is mostly plot? This is the opposite situation. How the hell are they going to adapt this? Most of the character arc progression happen during the sex scenes. Also, Ilya has trouble expressing himself in English so he mostly expresses himself, or tries to, by touch. There's not a ton of dialogue. I doubled checked like five times that this is the right book. Adapting this is going to have some challenges. That's part of why I suspect that the series will include material from other books like book 6.

The book was fantastic, and I'd never have touched this sub-genre if it wasn't for the upcoming show. ( Spoilers )

* Salt Magic, Skin Magic by Lee Welch - It was cute! I did not guess where it was going, but once it got there it made a lot of sense. And then thinking back on other details from the book, that all clicked. There are a few moments where I wasn't sure which POV that bit was in, but that's okay.

* I am soft-DNFing Per Sanguem by Ashlyn Drewek. I do want to get back to it, but I am drowning in books and series I am trying to finish and also want to be more on top of my bookclub reads. Part of why I've put it down is that some bits read like editorial notes were left in? (I don't think they are ChatGPT prompts, tho authors putting books with their prompts hanging out has been going around.)

I decided to be in the Gorge for a few days, explore, stay at a place that I could work from. This did not turn out to be a great plan. The historic hotel I stayed in looked cute and had WFH areas inside and out, but my room was terrible. There is no way it was one of the original rooms. This was a converted space with no charm, 6 overhead lights controlled by 4 light switches spread around the room, the desk area was cramped, the window didn't open and the panes were covered in a thick plastic for privacy. Since it's a very sloped area, my room in the back was partially underground. It also smelled like dog. I woke up my first morning there and was like 'wtf, what am I doing? Maybe I should grab a bus back to Portland'.

On my Welches trip I stayed in a tiny converted space that was way smaller and worse than every other room there, but I'd also chosen that room and paid a lower rate. I did no such thing here, this was a regular booking. So I have no idea what why I got put in that space.

But, I'd paid for it so I stayed and made the best of it. The weather was nice, the air clear and I was in the Gorge.

View stepping out of the hotel:



View from park:



I wound up going back to Hood River for a bit the day I changed to my final hotel:

I finished up the trilogy while I was away. My main take-away is that the plot:pages ratio is wild.

( No plot spoilers, but some plot structure talk )

Ending spoilers under the other type of cut

I had trouble vibing with the way the story resolved because Alina spent way more time homesick for the Little Palace or even the army tents than where they grew up. Them not feeling like they ever had a home was a recurring theme and even a plot point. Them going back and making it a home is a lovely idea, but it's kinda sad to me that they are mostly isolated from the other survivors and just have staff that think they are loony tunes.

Also, happy or tragic I wanted more resolution for poor Nicolai, who could only really be understood by Alina or maybe Mal. Even just as friends, I wish they where still in each other's lives and not just rare visits.

In certain ways the ending was beautiful and bittersweet, but I never got the impression that that's what Alina would want from anything in the previous pages of the series. Protect the kids and get away from positions of power? Sure, but actually run the orphanage herself? Have all the other adults, besides Mal, profoundly mis-understand her? I'm glad they are together and the place is under their control, but...idk maybe I'll feel differently if I read more of the books in the series or re-read them later.

* Found one of the Little Free Libaries with The Librarians swag and nabbed one of these coin thingies:





It took a good bit of walking because the first I went to didn't have any of the items. They are also supposed to have free Librarians books, but I haven't found one with those yet.

* Am back on my quest to do all the Portland stairs. I've done the Washington park ones before, and actually photographed these stairs before, but not since I started tracking my journey to conquer them all:



* Books With Pictures Con was today:







They really get a great line up of artists each year.

I did the Mt Hood Railroad. It doesn't go all the way to Mt Hood, but climbs into the foothills of it and gets to about 500 ft elevation. Get get let off between a fruit orchard and winery.

We also get views of Hood:



And Adams:



It was cute and I like being able to get out and do these excursion trains. They are so couples focused it used to be impossible to even buy a single ticket for a lot of them. That's part of why I've gone from never having done any to having done a bunch recently.

My assigned seat was at a booth with a couple and the conductor asked if he could re-seat me to spare me how awkward that was, but I'd booked an upgraded ticket for the bar car and didn't want to be moved to coach. Then he swung by later to 'just check on me'.

Also, the previous night at that beer patio, I only stayed so long because it was all couples. Hood River is vacation spot that caters heavily to queer travelers. The town's logo is a rainbow heart. A beer in a place like that after a hike, that should be as good as it gets for me, but also I'm just there alone, surrounded by couples. It gets pretty wearying.

I make to make the best of it and I'm doing real cool things, but being solo was just especially wearying on this trip. I opted out of doing the wine tasting out in the vineyard because that was just going to be like intensely coupley.

I woke up the next day to a few logistical problems:

One - I had three conflicting sources of info on what the bus schedule was, and if it was even running

Two - Official info was that the road I needed back to town was suddenly closed due to construction, which would turn my hike from a very do-able 7 miles, to a 'I can probably survive' 14 miles. Either way, there would be about 600 feet of elevation change.

Despite all the uncertainty, I headed out anyway. This was literally my fourth attempt at knocking out this leg of the through hike and a fourth failure would be insane. Also, the weather was great and the air was clear and perfect. Smoke hasn't hit yet, but projections are this is going to be a bad year. So I was like fukkit, it's the gorge, I probably can't get into trouble I can't get out of. I need to get while the gettin's good.

Spoilers: The day went pretty smoothly outside of some stress about whether I was doing a very do-able hike or setting myself up for hell.



Finally, the damn trail! The full trail through the gorge should be completed next year, right now I am doing the existing bits in chunks. I have also hiked out to some un-restored highway ruins in the past and need to see if they are still there when I get a chance.

The original highway was not only further inland than the current one, but it also tunneled through the rock in a few sections:







( Two more tunnely pics )

Finally out at the Mosier Twin Tunnels! This took so long! Finally being there was amazing, but I hit this early in the day and wasn't sure how things would pan out from there. But hey, at least I was there and not stranded in the middle of nowhere at a connecting bus stop.

The current highway below:




When it's fully complete it will be a way to hike or bike the length of the gorge. It's a massive infrastructure project to make the gorge more accessible, but the trail doesn't go to where the current cities and towns are and there's no shuttle buses. It's a bit of a paradox. When I do the next chunk I'll need to start in Mosier again, but head the other way. Mosier isn't even a regular bus stop. The only places to stay in Mosier are extremely expensive rentals meant for groups of 12 people. Trying to do this accessible trail to support car-free travel in the gorge is a bit of a nightmare without a car.





This tree, note the roots, it's just clinging to the rock. Just hanging out, trying to thrive in an insane situation:



Lunch spot:



The road back to town was open! And a bit spicy, very curvy and not much of a shoulder:



After I got back, had showered and everything, I went out to Fermentation's beer patio: