Oregon Trip, Part One

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 602

93.0 miles

heating up, 90s

 

276 recordings of 46 type, 35% clear. I am halfway through season 3 of NCIS.

 

On the 10th of August I was weeding the zinnia bed and semi-tripped over my little wire fence. I didn't fall, thank goodness, but had (and still have) a doozy of a bruise.

 

Pharaoh was giving me trouble about coming in at night and I left him out about 40 minutes.

 

I went to Bernadette's and played with Padreic and helped clean out Gareth's room a bit. She told me the coming operation will take out the appendix, which makes sense.

 

My driver's license renewal came. Too late to get an appointment, especially with the medical issues.

 

I went to the pizza party for Sharing God's Bounty. I really pigged out. It's amazing how many people are involved in so many jobs... besides cooks and servers there's publicity and volunteer liasons... I sat next to Peter Mithin and Boyd Keenan. I felt a little silly saying why I was there, but as a founder, and hospitality early on, and as Rich's widow, I was OK. I said I didn't do much now but bring coffee and both Ann and Jim said I was also a generous donor.

 

My jaw hurt on the way home. I don't need a heart attack just now, TYVM.

 

I finished the jigsaw puzzle in 9 days. It has 5 pieces missing, but 31 pieces that didn't belong to this puzzle. I took it up to Niki.

 

August 11 was second Saturday breakfast. I spent some time looking for my Social Security card so I can get a Real ID driver's license. I stopped at Lazy-Boy on the way home and got some glasses. I took them up to Vince and Niki but they didn't want them.

 

August 12, Father had a LONG homily. He's very excited about the Mass and eager to share it. Then I went to Communion at the nursing home. It's been a long time, since before the disastrous Pittsburgh trip.

 

I ordered face masks for the smoke in Oregon.

 

August 13. I finally got my appointment to get the results... very disappointing. Basically Svetlana, who is a very nice lady but NOT the doctor, read me a black and white copy of the color report I got from the doctor. They're going to refer me to a surgeon. I was in tears when I left and went to Bernadette's. She was too wrapped up in her World Con plans to be sympathetic. I tried calling the doctor's office to find out the name of the surgeon, but of course it didn't work. So I don't know any more than I did before.

 

I walked over for a geocache, which I actually found.

 

August 14 I drove back out to the office to get the surgeon's name and phone number so if they call while I'm gone, as they did, in fact, I could call back for an appointment. It turned out there's no phone service at Crater Lake so I couldn't check in at home until Friday, and couldn't call the surgeon's office till Monday, but I got an appointment for Friday! I had to replace the bulb in the back hall.

 

There was a Pilgrim's pizza party, and this time I didn't pig out quite so much. I gave a little speech about Casa Leopoldo in Palas de Rei. I bought wine for the trip to Ashland and packed my Ashland glass, but couldn't find my beaded covers for the glasses!

 

And, finally, Wednesday the 15th, I could start my Oregon trip. I packed two duffel bags, one for Crater Lake and the other for Ashland. My sandwich was too big for a regular sandwich bag! Finally, I left the house at 7:47. I drove and drove (past a field of melons!) till 9:48, the Corning rest area. I needed to get out and stretch even more than I needed a potty break! What a nice rest area, where I've probably never stopped before. Look at all the olive trees! Is there a geocache here? (My pocket query assumed I was taking Highway 99 instead of I-5.)

 

 

At 11:39 I was at Castella, looking (unsuccessfully) for a cache. I had waved gaily at the rest area where I saw the eclipse last year. After the fruitless search I stopped at the RRPark resort to ask how they were doing with the smoke. I'd put on my mask at Redding because it was really bad there. There were "thank you" signs to firefighters on all the overpasses. My favorite was "thank you for kickin' ash."

 

 

 

I ate my sandwich at the resort and decided not to stop in Dunsmuir, maybe on the way back. (no.) I went on to Weed and couldn't find the cache at the totem pole, but fortunately stopped at the gas station for a potty break. I say "fortunately" because the rest area on hwy 97 was closed.

 

I didn't notice there was a cache in Dorris (and in a store, I really could have found it!) till I was just past the turn to it. And no real place to turn around. Oh, well. I did stop and take a good look at the second-highest flagpole in the world, which we had watched being built, back in the days when we would drive to Spokane on 97.

 

 

 

 

I stopped for gas in Klamath Falls, next to the Super 8 where I stayed when I went up alone to get Vince (when Rich bought the van!) Actually, leave them alone for 25 years and they change everything! Then when I took the turn for Crater Lake I started looking for geocaches, but only found one of the ones I had marked. I stopped at the overlook for Annie Falls, and finally got to Crater Lake about 4:30. I registered and got cabin D1.

 

Then I tried to call Vince, and discovered there was no phone service. So I left a note at the camping check-in, but decided, sensibly, not to trust that and sat on a log overlooking the parking lot while I read a book. Sure enough, I saw them, about 5:30, and told Niki just to register to see if they got the message... nope. They were camped about .4 miles away, further when I walked around the long way.

 

I sprang for dinner and had pork chops with mustard, cornbread and butter, and green beans. Yummy. And I bought A.J. his first stretched penny. I spent the rest of the time at Crater Lake looking for an album, but they finally managed to get one (and two more pennies) on the way home.