Several years ago, when I was dating The Hubbin’, we took a little road trip. While the rest of the Spring Breakers headed south to tropical locations like Mexico and Florida, we took a decidedly different route and headed to Vancouver, BC.
After a brief stop-over in Portland to spend the night with family, we hit the road again. As we merged from NE Halsey onto NE Weidler a forrest green car pulled up along the passenger side and the driver began to urgently motion for me to roll down the window. My mind raced with all the possibilities that would cause the degree of urgency he was showing. I was 98.9% sure that there wasn’t a dog tied to our bumper as we hadn’t brought a dog (still, only 98.9% sure). I imagined some part of The Hubbin’s car must have fallen off and was now lying in the road. It was a relief when I rolled down the window and Oregon Dude, as he’s come to be known, waved and yelled, “Welcome to Oregon!”, before driving off. (Yeah, that’s not where we thought the story was going either!)
All these years later that one moment has stuck with me and has been passed on. To this day every time I see a car with an Oregon license plate I welcome them to Colorado–or New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Texas, anywhere really that I happen to be–with the same enthusiasm with which Oregon Dude welcomed us. And so, dear people, if you happen to be driving through (insert any state here, I travel for work so this could happen anywhere!) and some crazy lady, acting on behalf of (whichever state you happen to be in) just wave and keep in mind that she might just be passing on the love!