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October 15, 2010

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

This last week has been spent riding in the car. We drove over 1,000 miles from Monday to Monday.

Friday afternoon we headed on the first leg of our journey to Dexter to spend the night with our dear friends, Ed and Diane Avila. They were kind enough to put us up for the night so we could leave the next day from their house for Redmond, Oregon to attend a wedding reception for some other friends, George and Margie Blackman. We had a real nice visit with Ed and Diane and it was fun getting caught up with the latest news. We have known Ed and Diane for about 45 years - we met in California when we were first married. Through the years and with our families all grown, we still try to get together at least once a year. After a scrumptious breakfast and being entertained by all their wildlife, we left Ed and Diane's and headed east over the Cascades for the three-hour drive to Redmond. It was a beautiful day and the fall colors in Willamette Pass made the drive very pleasant. Last week I mentioned that we had heard rumors of snow in the mountains, but was just the opposite - it really couldn't have been nicer!

We had our trip all planned out on our GPS in the car and we were making great time until we arrived in Bend. ODOT had closed off the Parkway that bypasses the business section of Bend so we had to detour through downtown along with every other car in central Oregon that day! That detour just about ate up what little time allowance we had to get to the Blackman's wedding! After meandering through that mess, we still managed to get to Redmond and were within a few minutes of our destination when we hit another detour! One of the streets that we had to use was closed for utility repairs and they had us directed around another way. We did make it to the wedding, but with just ten minutes to spare!

The Blackman reception was fantastic with lots of food and drink. It was held at their home that overlooks a bluff of Central Oregon. There was a threat of rain, but by the time the party got started the sun was trying to make an appearance. We didn't know at the time that George and Margie had already said their vows earlier that day and that this was just an "unofficial" wedding ceremony that was conducted by the guy who was going to sign the wedding license. As it turned out is was the shortest ceremony that I have ever heard. It was "I do" and "I do" and it was over!

We stayed at the reception for a couple of hours and then decided that we had better hit the road and get back to West Linn because Lara and family were expecting us to pick them up at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday from the airport. So off we headed for our next destination. We no sooner got out of Redmond when we came upon another traffic snag. There was a deadly accident on the main road that we were traveling and the cars were at a complete stop in both directions. We noticed that there was a parallel road up ahead and a few of cars were turning toward it, so we decided to try too. We had to inch around a barricade and through a fence alongside the road, but got on an old side road and we were able to bypass the accident. As it turns out traffic was held up for over two hours and if we had waited around it would have made our trip to West Linn very long.

After breakfast on Sunday, Dave picked up the kids at the airport while I did some shopping for some food. We were planning on staying in West Linn for another night as Dave had a Blazer broadcast. We headed home after the game Monday night and we finally got home around 12:30 a.m. I was suppose to get up bright and early the next day and go on a garden tour but I just didn't have any energy left and it felt so good just to be home again.

The rest of this week, I have been catching up on mail, newspapers, laundry and cleaning house. I also managed to get the lawn mowed and the ivy hedge trimmed.

We will be heading back into Portland on Saturday as Dave has another game and will be attending a birthday party for our first born, Lara. We will have a family get together on Sunday before we head back down to the coast.