My friend who pirouetted from intel to retirement in Bellingham Washington

Here's a unique video. It depicts my friend Mark Allyn pirouetting from Intel to retirement in Bellingham Washington. Also I've included my own description of this journey based on the stories he tells.

Mark worked for Intel Corporation in the Portland area. His retirement plan was to move to Bellingham.

While his Bellingham plans waited, he continued working not sure exactly when he was going to say goodby. Around the time when he learned that the rent on his Portland apartment was scheduled to go up, he decided to set the date. This, among other reasons was a good time to retire so he gave notice to both his landlord and his employer.

Part of his plan was to ride a bicycle from Portland to Bellingham. He had his processions shipped to his new home ahead of time.

As an avid bicyclist, he had been commuting from his apartment in Portland to work at Intel's Jones Farm campus which is out in the suburban city of Hillboro. The last commute to work was to be the first leg of his bike ride to retirement in Bellingham.

Looking forward to this adventure, he showed up for his last Monday on the job. It was the start of his final week. When he arrived that morning, he noticed a few buses parked in front of the campus. When Mark got inside, he quickly found out that Intel was in the middle of a massive employee layoff. All the conference rooms were booked processing layoffs. The buses were there because they were still hiring a few folks and there was no space for new employee orientation as the conference rooms were being used to process layoffs. On that day, new employee orientation must have been like, "welcome to the company." "Now Get on the bus, don't look." "We'll take you someplace else for the welcoming."

On that last week, Mark could have been the happiest person in the company as he was planning to retire anyway. Thus this video. Dressed in clear plastic he did pirouettes down the corporate hallways. People might have been envious, or maybe they were wondering what kind of fool was this? They may have thought it was something to lighten the somber moment during layoffs.

His last day of work was the first day of his trip to Bellingham. That day started with his normal commute, but he was leaving his apartment for the last time. No need to return to the apartment where rent was scheduled to go up. Ready to leave the job where the layoff was in progress. Looks like the work-a-day world, he was leaving behind, was starting to deteriorate.

After the goodbys, he bicycled toward Bellingham making it as far his first motel stop in Longview, WA. It was a dreary, rainy afternoon as he left Hillboro and headed up Oregon Highway 30 along the Columbia River. He entered Washington State via the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Longview. As he ceremoniously walked across that bridge, clouds parted and the sun came out. A large rainbow appeared. It was truly a "we're not in Kansas anymore" moment.

His ride to Bellingham took several more days which turned out to be beautiful and sunny.

Since then, he's enjoyed doing lots of creative things and volunteering at places like the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention.