Video of the first month in USA

Today we ran through Lakeview, Oregon. You should have seen the beauty of this place! It is vast, with mesa tops on one side and endless desert on the other side, as well as hot springs and steam rising all around.

Besides the beauty of the land and the people of this town, one of the highlights for me was meeting Mayor Rick Watson. He was so kind and sweet to all of us when we met him at the local fairgrounds.

The Mayor of Lakeview offered us gifts from his personal collection of American Indian artifacts that he has uncovered over the years.

We were having a very interesting conversation about his hobbies and as it turns out one of the things he enjoys doing is going into the desert and searching for old Indian arrowheads and beads. As soon as he mentioned this my heart took me back to child hood memories of El Salvador and my father…yes he also had found a few arrowheads made of obsidian down in Central America. We had them at home and I always would ask him questions about his arrowheads; so when Mayor

Watson mentioned his collection of arrowheads and Indian beads I got very excited and asked him about them.

He told us a very interesting story about the beads. He said that originally the Indians would trade one pelt for one glass bead. Can you imagine? The beads came from Europe and there were some that were faceted that came from Russia and he even found some of these. He then asked us if we could wait for 10 minutes, the time it would take him to go home and bring his findings to show to us. When he returned he had two boxes with arrowheads, one box containing his desert walkabout finds and the other box containing some made by himself.

They were so beautiful. He had made some out of obsidian and some out of petrified wood and other stones. I could hardly believe this when he asked each of the runners to choose one of the ones he had found. He also took out his beads and asked me to pick some for myself and the other girls who were not there. I selected the Russian faceted ones, they are royal blue and really beautiful, we are all wearing them on our chains now…as if this were not enough he then offered some of us his beautiful self made arrow heads! I love these old pieces, not for the piece itself but for what it awakened in my imagination by them thinking of who wore these beads and who carved the arrowheads. Where and at what time? And I imagine Mayor Watson walking around the desert lifting some stones and looking very carefully at the ground. You should see the size of these tiny beads for him to be able to spot them in the desert sand! We are very grateful to Mayor Watson again for bringing these precious gifts and for bringing back this joyful imagination into my heart.

Sevati

Arriving in Lakeview meant a lot to us yesterday since we were hoping to stay again at the Hunter`s Hot Springs Motel. To dip our stiff muscles into the hot spring water was very relaxing and therapeutic after running through the prairie of Oregon. Thanks to Jeff and Cindy who kindly offered us to stay at their motel. And special thanks to their son Ted and his friend Zach who gave us a little `sight seeing tour` around the geyser and hot springs which were right next to the motel.

After a most relaxing night we headed off towards Klamath Falls which is about 100 miles west from Lakeview. In between there was not much to be found but countryside.

Not much, if one does not take a closer look. Running for harmony in the world is special and being inspired by harmony around oneself, especially in nature, can be a most beautiful experience during a lonely `prairie-run`. Realising that not even a single blade of grass is in the wrong spot, but in perfect harmony with its fellow grass blades, is quite uplifting and energizing.

There are beautiful flowers that sweetly grow along the side of the road, usually unnoticed by anyone, since no one would normally walk or run there. Nevertheless, they are there spreading all their fragrance, brightness, sweetness and harmony. All seemed to be guided, harmonious and joyful. Everything is there for a reason. A reason one can magically understand while running with a flaming Torch through the beautiful prairie and high desert of Oregon.

We would like to offer our gratitude to the Econo Lodge Klamath Falls & Motel 6 for putting a roof over our heads and soft beds under our weary bodies. Generosity like yours keeps our run on the road

Anja

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