Monday, June 22, 2026
45 Days to the Marigold’s Start Line!
Who is Marigold? And what is this trip about? The Marigold goes everywhere I do. She’s a butter-yellow 1970s VW bus with a temperament sunnier than her years should allow, and somewhere along the line she stopped being just a vehicle and became my good-luck charm. Every trip starts the same way, I load the field notebook and the camera, she turns over on the first try, and off we go. People always ask if I worry about an old bus leaving me stranded on some foggy stretch of coast, but the Marigold has never once let me down. She just keeps rolling, faithful as ever, carrying me to the next town, the next story, the next overlooked detail waiting to be noticed. I like to think she knows we’re chasing something good.
Favorite Coffee Shop
My House
I haven’t made it to Astoria yet. 45 days and counting!! Forty-five days. On paper that’s barely six weeks, but right now it feels like a year stretched out in front of me. I’ve got the route mapped, the stops pinned, the notebook waiting, and still my mind keeps running ahead to the fog rolling off the Columbia, to that first cup of coffee in Astoria, to the moment the Marigold’s tires finally hit the coast road. There’s so much to do before then, and somehow also so much time to fill with planning and re-planning and imagining. I keep telling myself the waiting is part of it, that anticipation is its own kind of fuel. But I won’t pretend I’m not counting the days, all forty-five of them, until Nora’s route stops being lines on a map and becomes the road right in front of me.
Where I'm Eating
Xyngular
For now, I’m doing my healthy thing with Xyngular. It’s actually a monthly subscription which saves me shopping time and worry free drinking, no alcohol of course. It’s probiotic/prebiotic, collagen, glp, fruit trimstix,
Historical Site
From the Manuscript
Premise
PREMISE A retired private investigator takes a quiet coastal road trip from Astoria to Jacksonville, Oregon, hoping to leave old cases, and a fresh divorce, behind. But when the same charming stranger appears at every stop, and travelers connected to the route begin dying in ways that look like accidents, she realizes she isn’t the only one following a trail. Somewhere between fogbound lighthouses, historic inns, and the shadowed streets of Jacksonville, she must uncover what ties the victims together before the killer discovers she has become the next loose end.