I forgot how crisp the autumn morning air is here east of the Cascade Range.

You would think this would be something I’d have remembered, spending the first 18 years of my life living on this side, but the points that I remember the most is the blazing hot temperatures in the summer, and the subzero temperatures in winter.

But I do remember October could be a strange month. I do remember some being insanely warm, hot even with temperatures pushing 90, and then I remember the years where we’d wake up on Halloween morning and see snow.

So, while I didn’t remember the crisp mornings themselves in detail, I was reminded of the shift in weather and the morning frost on the blades of grass, seeing your breath for the first time in months, and the way you’d start the day off bundled up, and by lunch, down to a t-shirt.

I guess another reason why the change in October just doesn’t stick out so much in my head is, where I grew up, still a bit SE of Wenatchee near Othello, there was not much of a visual fall indicator outside of the days getting shorter amongst the expanse of sagebrush, whereas here there is foliage that turns with the weather, in amazing tones of yellow, orange, and red.

It’s been now just over a month since I packed up a few changes of clothes, my bikes, and other odds and ends into my Xterra and headed to Wenatchee to embark on a new journey in this life of mine, and in this month, I have watched how the pieces of my future are slowly falling into place, and I can more clearly see my own path for the first time in several years, maybe even in over the last decade.

It’s difficult to explain completely, but the feeling I get up each day is not of urgency, it’s not the feeling of putting in to something that ultimately, you’ll get nothing out of.

Here, I get out what I put in, I feel a much deeper connection with what I do, and most importantly, I already feel a part of this community, even if new, even if the unknown.

It wasn’t difficult to do, whether from people stopping in to introduce themselves to me and welcome me to town, whether it was being called out at an event by the announcer, or whether it is just the way someone walks in, and recognizes the new pair of Carhartt pants you’re wearing, and shares in the excitement with you.

These seemingly simple actions are the things I thought were dead, was told was dead and just “weird”.

Here, I don’t feel weird, disconnected, or out of place.

I’m not saying this is some magical place, where everyone is this way, I’m not that ignorant and out of touch with modern society, but there definitely are more people that share my views of community and outreach, and right now I’m going to ride this new high I’m on as long as I can.

I hope that, it never runs out, that I continue to see this, feel this, and be a part of it, and I know that its like anything else in life, it also takes a lot of work.

Until Next Time

-Mic