The Oregon Trail

8 March 2013

My body hasn’t adjusted to the time zone change so I was awake this morning at 5am, which was six, to my body.  I used the time wisely by shopping at Walmart.  Not only is it tax free, but they were clearing out all the winter clothes, so long sleeved sweatshirts and sweatpants were $2, long sleeved dress shirts and polo shirts were $3 and Wrangler jeans were $6.  I just had to buy Kaleb some clothes in the next size up and wait for him to grow into them.  It was a good start to the day and something I couldn’t have done previously because there’s no where to put anything in our RV, but knowing we only have today to step over the bags, I splurged.

By seven, we were heading west again along the Columbia River Gorge on our journey home.  Chris, the husband of my good friend, Dani, who lives near Fresno and who we saw on the beginning of this trip, is a camp host for Oregon State for a few months, so we wanted to stop in and visit him on our return voyage.

Chris (above) packs up his camping trailer and dog and heads out for months at a time.  He’s a very social guy and being a camp host is just the thing for him as he gets free living and all the people he wants to chat with.  He’s a retired cop, so to say that he keeps order in the camp is an understatement. 

I haven’t been in touch with him or Dani since we last saw them two months ago so I was curious how things worked out with the insurance company after the fire he had in his garage while we were down in his area.  He asked, “Were you there for the flood, too?”  So then he went on to tell about what happened when the repair guys, sent by the insurance company, came to replace all the sheetrock in his garage that was burned from the water heater being on fire.  They had to turn off the water, and Chris’ son, Quin, happened to stop by that day so one of the workers asked him to go in the house and relieve the pressure on the line by turning on the hot water in the bathroom.   Quin did this then left, without telling anyone, but figuring the repair guys would turn it off.  They didn’t.  Chris (who didn’t know the hot water handle had been turned on), set the box for a new toilet seat he was going to install, on the bathroom counter.  Part of the box was right under the faucet.  So when the water to the house got turned back on, no one was inside, and the hot water hit the box and ran onto the floor and flooded a good portion of his house before he came inside to see the damage.  There should be a show called “insurance nightmares.”  So they had to deal with that, too.

Then shortly thereafter, Chis ended up with four kidney stones that put him in the ER and had to be blasted out, so he was a week late leaving for his camp host job.  When he finally got the trailer hooked up to his truck, the dog loaded and said his goodbyes to Dani, he made it up to Eugene, Oregon and encountered a lot of road repairs, detours and diversions.  Somewhere in there, when he made a hard turn, the wiring harness attached to the back of his truck that controls the brakes on the trailer, got pinched.  The wires broke, which caused his back trailer brakes to lock up.  He gets through the construction zone and speeds up to 60mph with his back brakes locked, which can’t take the friction so they start to smoke.  Some guy on the freeway gets his attention and points to the smoke so Chris immediately pulls over thinking his trailer is on fire.  He’s on the side of the freeway and when he opens his door to go check on it he tells Abby, the dog, to “stay.”  She doesn’t.  She then bolts out into the middle of the freeway and a semi truck is heading right for her as Chris stands on the side of the road in absolutely shock, screaming at his dog to “come.”  She doesn’t.  The truck managed to swerve into the fast lane at the last minute, missing the dog by less than a foot.  Other cars are also coming at 70mph, but they too miss the dog.  Finally Abby gets out of the roadway and back in the truck and it’s only a miracle Chris didn’t have a heart attack through it all.  Whew.  He managed to get the trailer to the next exit where he parked it for a day and a half and did the needed repairs.  He said three people stopped to ask if he needed help and “That’s the difference between Oregon and California.  People in California only stop to rob you,” he said.  To say he’s had a string of bad luck is an understatement.  This last week he’s just been chillin’ and trying to enjoy the beauty of the Northwest while he calms down.

So we had quite the visit with him while Kaleb ran around with the dog.  It was a sunny day and we didn’t mind the break one little bit.   We then headed on up I-5 and when we hit traffic in Tacoma we detoured over to Auburn to visit my friend Cathy Wickizer (who I went to Greece with for my 50^th birthday).  Her husband Dave is struggling with cancer right now so it was good to see him while we can.  We stayed on through rush traffic and caught up on all the stress in their life and were just thankful things have been going so well for us.

Our last stop of the day was just north of Seattle to visit Grammy J.  We decided to spend the night in her driveway so we’d have a fresh start in the morning to go home and unpack and get back into life on the ridge.  It was so great to have relaxed time with Janet and hear what’s been going on with her since we’ve been gone and to hear Kaleb tell her his version of our trip and try to stump her with riddles he’s learned along the way.  He’s become quite the conversationalist and spent all day today giving me a lesson on the periodic table of elements as we were driving north.  He’s my little college professor who is more than anxious to get home.

“Louise,” our missionary friend in Bahamas, called today to report on an answer to prayer we prayed when we were with her.  She begged us again to come back next year.  She said she’d stand in the street corner with a boot to collect money if we didn’t have the money to buy the tickets.  She also said, “I know you have family and other priorities, but us missionaries need to be blessed too… we want you to come back!”  What a sweetie.  I guess that’s been one of the best things about this trip is to think that, while it seemed like it was a wonderful vacation for us, it was such a blessing to those who we stopped to help.  Now THAT feels good.