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April 29, 2016
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
If you have been keeping up, you know that we have been on a road trip all week. We left last Wednesday and traveled as far as Eugene the first day where we had a delightful time visiting with our dear friends of over 50 years, Ed and Diane Avila. After dinner, we dragged out the Yahtzee game and played a few rounds. This is Diane and my favorite game and I think the guys just go along with us. It can get pretty cut-throat at times but we have a lot of fun.
The next morning, we headed for our next destination, Red Bluff, California. We had made reservations at the Best Western where we spent the night. As we drove over Mt. Shasta, it was good to see that Shasta Lake was nearly full. They have been in a severe drought for the past several years down there and it nearly drained the reservoir. They had a nice snow fall and a bunch of rain over the winter months and that really helped to fill the lake.
We made it to Oakland, California by afternoon the next day, thankful that we had the GPS to guide us through all the freeways. It was hectic and nerve-wracking for us country bumpkins - speeding down five lanes of freeway hoping that we didn't have to cross four lanes of traffic to take the right exit. The GPS is good at telling us to make an exit in less time that we can get over there to do it! We made it safe and sound to San Lorenzo and to the doorstep of a navy buddy who Dave hadn't seen for 50 years! We were a little nervous at first but Ray and Mary made us feel very comfortable in their beautiful home. One of the first things Mary showed us was a picture taken at their wedding and we're in it! We were embarrassed to admit that we did not remember attending their wedding. Still, there we were in the photo! They not only opened their house for us, but took us for a sightseeing tour of the area, including Alameda, where the guy's ship was stationed. We also went past the first apartment we had when we were first married.
The purpose of our trip down to the Bay area was to get reacquainted with some Navy buddies. They had been looking for Dave for years and only found him last year. One of the guys, Dan, had planned to come up to our place, but then had a stroke in February. Dave especially wanted to see him. On Saturday, after Rusty - another of their old shipmates - came over to see Dave and to go meet with Dan, they were all informed that Dan didn't feel up to seeing anyone. He has been pretty down lately and just wasn't up to it. The guys then sat around strategizing on a plan. What to do? We had driven so far to see him but we didn't want to go if he didn't feel like it. They came up with a devious plan, but it wasn't until Sunday that they could put it into action
Meanwhile, we had made plans to have lunch with a client of ours in San Francisco. (Dave likes to meet the people who are only voices on the phone. We make sure we buy lunch and talk business so we can write off part of the trip). We met up with Linda at the Olive Garden. She was nice enough to drive over to the East Bay so we didn't have to drive into San Francisco. We've "known" her by phone and email for 30 years, but it's only the second time we've actually met her in person. It was fun to talk to her about the "olden days" when we worked for the Trail Blazers. She is so busy with not only scheduling basketball games, but also baseball, hockey and football. There are lots of professional teams in the Bay Area. She also helps with a radio show twice a week and is on the board for the Grammy awards in the area so she is flying to New York and back. She is a very busy lady. It was really great to be able to get together with her again after all these years.
That day was also our hostess' birthday and so we planned on taking Mary and Ray to dinner that night. We found a nice place on the water in nearby Alameda and enjoyed a delightful meal. It was also nice, because we could literally see over to where the ship was docked when the guys were stationed there oh so many years ago. We were fortunate to be able to stay with Ray and Mary and we thoroughly enjoyed their company. Dave said that when we started talking, it was almost as though 50 years hadn't passed since we saw each other last.
On Sunday, the guys decided to "surprise" their friend who wasn't up to seeing them the day before. They figured they weren't going to give him a chance to say "no" again and were just going to barge in on him. They knew he has a weakness for chocolate milkshakes and so, with shakes in hand, they knocked on his door. They felt he couldn't refuse after that! Then - after all that planning - he wasn't home! They decided to wait him out and drank three of the milkshakes themselves while waiting at the curb. Sure enough, Dan got home just a couple of minutes later. It turned out he was glad to see everyone and after chatting for three hours about Navy stuff - or as Dave says - telling lies and sea stories, they returned home, mission accomplished! Dave is so happy we decided to go to see Dan and that the visit went so well. All of these guys will now stay in touch.
On Monday, we headed back north, this time taking Highway 101 home. We had a nice drive through the California wine country. We stopped in Ukiah for lunch and then stayed in Willits so we could visit with another old friend of ours, Bobbie Recio. She used to own a restaurant in Wheeler and more recently, she used to drive up every summer to stay with us while she renewed old friendships around our town. She has about 10 acres in the country out of Willits and it is so beautiful and peaceful there. She proudly showed us the indoor swimming pool that she had built for the entire community to use when they lost their pool. People from all over are welcome to use the pool. The only charge is a suggested donation to help defray operating expenses. That's the pool building in the background of one of the photos. We had an enjoyable few hours with her and later, she took us for Thai food which was delicious.
Leaving Willits - which they say is the Gateway to the Redwoods - we drove through miles and miles of huge giant Redwood trees and meadows with herds of elk before we crossed back into Oregon and reached our next destination at Bandon, on the southern Oregon coast. I had never been to Bandon before and it is quite the resort city catering to tourists. We stayed at a real nice Best Western which looked more like a resort than a hotel. The ocean views were beautiful and even though I see the ocean everyday where we live, it was so different. We're thinking we may have to go back some day and play tourist.
Let me back up a minute, Dave had a couple of "senior" moments on the trip. First of all, he had left his favorite "Steamboat Willie" wristwatch at our first stop at Ed & Diane's, so we had to made arrangements to meet them on our way back home to retrieve it. We met them for lunch in Eugene to do that. He was so glad to get it back as he had been looking at the white spot on the back of his wrist every time he wanted to check the time! Then somewhere along the way, he had lost his credit card! We were panicked as to what to do about that. It took a little detective work on our part but we finally traced it back to a restaurant in Ukiah. I gave them a call and they told us they had found our card and we made arrangements to have them mail it back to us. What a relief to know that there still are a few honest people in this world! I'll let you know if it actually arrives in the mail next week.
We made it back to West Linn late Wednesday afternoon just in time to catch a ball game our 8-year old granddaughter was in. She is about the only one that we haven't been able to watch in sports and activities, so she was excited to have us there. She plays on a softball team and they don't quite know much about the game but it is fun to watch them anyway. Their team ended up winning just the same and Jordyn got a hit and scored a run.
Thursday we got up early and after breakfast Dave had a doctor's appointment with his radiation oncologist. It was mainly to go over last week's PSA report which he was delighted to see. The numbers keep dropping so Dave doesn't have to see him until November. We then went into Hillsboro to meet with my classmates to our monthly luncheon. We had quite a turn out for that - about 18 people showed up, including some we hadn't seen for quite a while.
We are now back home which feels really, really good. The painters were just finishing up painting the outside of the house and so everything looks nice a clean again. They did a great job and though Dave and I have our differences of opinion as to the final color (he thinks it is off-white, I know it is driftwood gray), it really turned out nice.
We finished the trip with 1600 miles on Dave's Expedition. We like to stop at the library and check out audio books to help pass the time when we're on these road trips. Most of the time, we find entertaining books that we enjoy. This time, it was a bit different. The first two books we listened to were very "word-y" and we felt they could have told the story in half the time. We were yelling "get on with it!" at the car's speaker. The third book turned out to be part of a series called, "The Cat Who - " This one was "The Cat Who Went Bananas" and was about "a sleuthing journalist and his legendary sleuthing cats Koko and Yum Yum." Well written by Lilian Jackson Braun, it did a much better job of passing the time than the first two. Still, I think we'll take a bit more time selecting our "listening" material before the next trip.
