I just love cohousers

 I left Boise early this morning in the rain, anticipating a long, wet, stressful drive to Oregon. Fortunately about 1/2 way to Bend, on the high plains, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Once again, perfect driving weather. Bend is a pretty town, with a busy main street with lots of interesting shops. Once again, at the nicest art gallery in town, I found a huge display of Motawi tile. Its just fun to see these tiles, made 3 miles from my house, all over the country.
     I am spending the night at Higher Grounds Cohousing. The guest room was already booked but Carlos (who answers inquiries on their website) and his wife Gwen offered to host me in their home. I arrived early so I walked around, taking photos of their grounds and gardens, then watched the Super Bowl with some folks in the common house. The community consists of 29 individual houses and the common house, with a large playing field in one area, and large community garden in another. The houses all have attached garages so there are roads up to most of the homes. A very different layout than most of the communities I've visited. Gwen made a delicious dinner and the three of us sat and talked for a few hours. I showed them Gather online and the movie that was made about Ann Arbor cohousing last summer. I love showing Gather to others because its such an incredible program, created by my neighbors, and it really makes our lives run so much smoother. I think Carlos may come up to the COHO conference in May and wants to talk to Tom about how is could be used here.
     I just remembered my fortune for today from a fortune cookie I ate this morning. "You will meet an incredible person today." In fact, I met 2 incredible people — Carlos and Gwen.
What I learned today: 1. Costco in Bend has twice as many women's clothes for sale than ours does; and 2. My instincts to come to Bend and not drive straight to Portland so I could see Higher Ground and the town of Bend were totally right. Good to know I can trust my instincts.