Trip with Pat and Mel - Day 2

We left Baker City early this morning. Another leisure day. We stopped at a place thinking it was a restroom. Since it had no facilities, Virigl and I went on down the road. We couldn't understand why so many people there. Later we found out that it was the attraction Multnomah

Waterfalls. We missed the whole thing.
The picture here came from the Columbia River Gorge Forest Service website. sigh

We are now in a campground near Portland - Portland Fairview RV park. It is very nice. I will try to be more attentive to my surroundings in the future.

We went to Doug and Jessica's tonight then to the Olive Garden. It was very nice to see Haille and visit with Doug and Jess.

On the way back to the campground, I was stopped by a policeman for driving while talking on the cell phone. He didn't give me a ticket. That part was nice. It is against the law to talk on a cellphone while driving in Oregon. sigh

Trip with Pat and Mel - Day 1, August 8, 2010

We left Ammon, Idaho at about 9:00 with our destination being Baker City, OR. Virgil and I followed Pat and Mel, stopping whenever anyone needed a rest or break. It was an uneventful casual trip. It is nice to be unhurried in a trip - quite a new concept for me. I seem to always be fighting the clock when I go anywhere, so this was nice.

The campground at which we stayed in Baker City was very nice. It was designed around an old west style, had nice restrooms and shower facilities and was very clean and tidy. We ate at the Sumter Station restaurant. It was cute with a train going around and around the outside walls.

Virgil and I began listening to Free Men and Dreamers audio book. We had listened to it before, but it was 3 years ago, so of course, I had forgotten the story. It took a while to get it all sorted out, but is not very interesting. The romance part is a very common theme though - boy loves girl, girl loves boy. Girl sends boy a letter professing her love, relatives prevent the letter from being delivered, boy finds letter and goes to find girl, girl has given up on boy and is engaged to another. Same ol' story. But it is written around historical events during the War of 1812 .

Backyard Family Fun

Oh my - I'm totally exhausted - but a good kind of exhausted. My sister Pat and her husband Melvin are here from Tennessee. We had a cookout tonight and had 46 people in our back yard - including me and Virgil. It was absolutely wonderful!

Some of the folks here were Robbins folks - leaves on the branches of our family tree. That was exciting to me. Eddie Robbins is 88 years old. He laid floors for a living. He said he spent a lot of time bending over but it didn't hurt him a bit. He then proceeded to bend over and touch his toes! He and Virgil hit it off very well. Turns out they had worked together 30 years ago. They each believe the other to be the best in the business - Eddie the best at laying floors and Virgil the best at sheetrock and finishing.

We had lots of food - and it was all delicious. We had baked and grilled salmon, grilled hot dogs and barbecue chicken wings as well as lots of other yummy stuff. . . from crab salad to watermelon.

When the folks started leaving the girls jumped in and cleaned the dishes/kitchen and the guys cleaned and folded tables and the E Z up. It was just done before I could blink almost. They kids can't even BEGIN to know how much I appreciate their work. I was so tired I just didn't know how I was going to get it done. Gosh, it was nice.

It was a wonderful day- spent most of it shopping and getting things ready with my sister and the evening was spent eating and visiting. The friends I invited didn't come - one did send me a message though to let me know she wasn't feeling well. That was a bit disappointing. I'll post a picture of my Robbins kin when Melanie sends it to me.

Virgil and I are getting ready to go with Pat and Mel and do some sightseeing through the Northwest. I'll post pictures (hopefully) and notes on our experiences as we go along.