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August 18, 2006
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
We left last Thursday for the weekend steam meet in St. Helens, Oregon. As the crow flies, it is about 50 miles north of our place but the Coast Range is in the way, so we had to travel up to Astoria and then up the Columbia River, which ends up being about 150 miles. I followed Dave in the motorhome and he towed the boat with the Suburban and it took us about 3-1/2 hours to get there.
The main attraction at the meet was the sternwheeler PORTLAND. It is just at the end of a long refurbishing project and this was the first time out in nearly five years for the boat. It's over 200 feet long and it dwarfed the rest of us, but it was fun having it there. Dave's dad spent a little time at the wheel of the PORTLAND in the '50's and there is a memorial plaque onboard with his name on it. So it was special that we were able to get a picture with both the sternwheeler and the CAPTAIN BELL together. That's us on the left with the red and white fringe on the canopy. The weather was warm, but being on the river, the high winds and strong tides were a factor for unfavorable steaming conditions. One of our friends had some bad luck when the wind caught him on Friday and holed the SKOOKUM on some protruding 2x4, and then when we pulled out at St Helens on Sunday, the guide on his trailer holed him again. He went back home with TWO holes in the boat. He was philosophical, though. He said he might as well patch two holes as one!
After Dave and a couple of friends spent most of Friday replacing the feedwater pump and unclogging the line from the hotwell, we finally got up enough steam pressure to launch our boat on Saturday. The ramp was a crazy place to try to launch a boat and having a couple of "ding-ey" women just ahead of us trying to launch their boat didn't help. After they managed to get their boat into the water, they had forgotten to put the plug in and were drawing water. That was fun to watch the look of panic on their faces! You didn't want to say anything because the woman who seemed to be in charge looked like a pretty tough broad (cigar smoking and all) and I don't think she would have appreciated any comments that we had to offer. Finally, it was our turn to launch and we steamed over to the dock where we managed to find a place to tie up. The boat is running great for the first time in years! Unfortunately, we stayed tied to the dock much of the weekend because of the high winds and strong tides.
St. Helens enjoyed having us and on Friday night they put on a bbq chicken and corn-on-the-cob feed for us. They had an art fair going on most of Saturday too so there were a lot of people milling around. Some good friends of ours came by. Dan and Jean McLean live nearby and came down to see the boat. And our dear friend Kay Schlinkman was there visiting a mutual friend, so we got to see her too. One of Dave's old radio buddies and his wife were at the end of the dock in their cabin cruiser, so we spent some time with them too. Small world! But because of the wind, we were unable to give them any rides. Darn! They will just have to come to Wheeler where the steaming is perfect on Nehalem Bay. The wind was so strong at St Helens, that when we ran the quarter-mile down to the boat launch to pull out on Sunday, we were taking water over the bow! That was exciting!
We enjoyed visiting with all our steamer friends and by the end of the weekend, I was about all talked out! The space they gave us to park our motorhomes was right next to the park and marina, so it was easy to get back and forth. We left for home on Monday and that evening we got a call from the hospital letting us know that Leanna was ready to come home after her gallbladder surgery. So we turned around and drove into Tillamook to get her. I have been running back and forth to her place helping her out all week while she recovers from that.
Tuesday, the Park Committee had a work party to try to get the rest of the plantings done on the pocket park that we developed for one of the distinguished community leaders, Nancy Reinhart. She was badly injured in an accident a year ago and has been in a care facility ever since. The dedication was Thursday with a reception following and all of the Reinhart family members were there attending the dedication. We planted over 21 Myrtle and boxwood shrubs and my back was killing me by the time we got done. I didn't know that joining the Park Committee was going to be so labor intensive! But this little town is starting to look pretty spiffy with all the weed pulling and shrub planting that has been going on by our group and Wheeler business people all summer.
Today, I have to run back into Portland. I have a dentist appointment and I am getting my hair cut. I also need to get over and see my mother and run some errands for her. I will probably spend the night since I won't get out of there in time to miss the traffic plus there is a used-electronics drop-off that I want to take advantage of. We gathered up a bunch of old telephones, computer monitors, broken down TV's and VCR's we have had around here that we want to get rid of at a free drop-off in Portland. Dave will be taking some continuing education classes for his electrical license all weekend down in Lincoln City while I am doing that.
