After spending Monday night in Eugene, it was time to say goodbye to Eliz. Before she flew out, however, there was one more thing she wanted to see. Growing up in England, one of her favorite movies was Stand By Me because it gave her an idea of what it was like growing up in America. She somehow knew that it was filmed in Brownsville, OR, which is about a half hour from Eugene.

We left early in the morning so we could spend some time in Brownsville before Eliz’s flight out of Portland. We drove to Brownsville and spent some time driving on back country roads, into random driveways, and trespassing on private property in order to find places where certain scenes were filmed. When we came upon the field where the tree house was built in the movie (it’s no longer there, but the tree is) we found other men, Allen and Gabriel, taking pictures. You can imagine my surprise, as I figured Eliz was the only person on Earth who would come all the way to Brownsville just to see some old movie scene locations.

As it turns out, Brownsville is a pretty popular summer tourist location, according to Allen, who runs a Bed and Breakfast out of his home nearby. Allen invited us all back to his place for some apple juice and more Stand By Me talk. We spent about a half hour getting to know Allen, as well as the Gabriel and his family, who were road-tripping the West Coast as well.

After telling them a little bit about The Break Side, I asked Gabriel if I could give a disc to his daughter. I didn’t realize until recently that we have yet to give a disc away to a female, so it was about time! I let her pick from the three disc designs I had (Wind Chill, USAU Nationals, and SolZone). She decided she wanted the one with the sun on it, which I knew would make the donor, Paula Meyer, very  proud.

The entire Bozza family wanted to pose for the picture, which was a shot that I really liked. The girl’s name is Nevaeh (NA-Veh-Uh), a name given to her because it is the word Heaven spelled backwards. She was about the cutest kid ever and it just seemed so fitting that her disc would come courtesy of Paula and Inner Echoes.