Just under 1,000 miles

Last Saturday, Don and I got the news that his former boss had died of a heart attack. We knew that we needed to be at his wake on the 29th. After some quick thinking, I came up with a great plan to visit lots of family and friends, got to a wedding and the wake. The only down side was the trip was going to be just under 900 miles. This is when Don & I decided it would be much easier to do if we took an extra day for all of this traveling. This was extremely important since neither Sadie Jo nor Cash had traveled outside of the Tri-Cities (a 30 mile radius). So Friday morning, we packed the car and swayed the kids that it was time to go. Our first visit was with all of my grandparents in Central Oregon. We also stopped at Gibb’s Bakery to pickup a scrumptious cake fro our anniversary and some maple bars (long johns) for my Dad.

We headed out of Central Oregon and noticed that there were some nasty looking clouds hanging over the Cascades. So we knew that at some point driving through the mountain pass that we would have rain. Well, we got a little more than that...snow, rain/snow mix and sleet. We were greeted to the Westside of the state with a divine rainbow that was hovering above the reservoirs water surface. Shortly after that we arrived at my Dad & Sharon’s place.

Around mid-morning the next day, we headed north on I-5. Thank goodness for that since the southbound side was bumper to bumper traffic. At first we thought we had missed an accident scene until I saw some proud OSU (Oregon State University) Beavers waving their black and orange colors. OSU campus was just south of where we entered the interstate...Go Beavers!!!

The friends and family of Adolph had a lovely tribute to him. Lots of great stories were retold for all in attendance. Trudy was brought to tears when she saw that Don & I had made it to the wake. Don was able to visit with several of his old truck driving buddies. Adolph and Trudy were more than employers...they had accepted us into their family when Don started driving for them. We will truly miss Adolph...a man with vivid and twinkling blue eyes that could bring you to tears with a joke or one of his funny stories.

The day did not end there...we then headed west to a small and quaint town just in time for my second cousins wedding. Now there are three of the second cousins (Kevin, Mark and I) who all have the same wedding date, which was also my grandpa’s birthday. Since it was our anniversary, we meet my Dad & Sharon at their favorite Chinese Buffet. Once again we were thankful to be going the opposite direction of the game day traffic...bumper to bumper. After a filling dinner, the staff presented an exquisitely craved fruit and vegetable sculpture that their chef had prepared in honor of our anniversary and my birthday (9 days early).

We started our day at the crack of down for our return trip home. This also allowed us to make an unforeseen trip south to see my two brothers, future sister in law and our 9 ½ week old nephew, Wyatt. Don was the first to snatch Wyatt out of his bouncy seat and then handed
him off to his aunty. There was not very much time that was not holding him during our visit. Actually I only let him go to have something to eat, pictures and a little more time with his uncle. I think his uncle was promising him some future Lego time for the two of them. Years, ago Colt, Wyatt’s daddy, and Don used to spend numerous hours building different Lego buildings, equipment and whatever else came into their imaginations.



Somewhere around noon, we said our goodbyes. I got myself a couple more bear hugs from both of my “little” brothers. After a two hour drive north, we stopped at our friends place near Vancouver, WA. They took us to dinner at one of their favorite pizza places that had a lunch buffet. Then it was time to start heading west towards home. Don and I decided that we wanted to stay on the Washington side of the Columbia for our drive back home. I am glad that we took this path because we stopped at Beacon Rock State Park, which was just a short walk from where we used to live some 15 year before. It gave the dogs a chance to get out and run. We were amazed to see all the improvements and expansion that they had made to the park. As darkness fell, I took over the driving and got us safely home just before 10:30PM and the cars odometer was eleven miles short of 1,000 miles for our trip.