I apologize if this one runs over five hundred words. I've
had a heck of a day.
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| Goodbye ocean |
Got up in plenty of time to get car loaded up (with many complaints from
Mariah who actually had to help me this time) and leave the unit in a
respectable condition.
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| To the right |
I thought it would be nice to grab a few 'goodbye' shots for
the memory book and I was happy with the result. We pulled out an hour ahead of schedule. SCORE!
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| To the left |
Stopped and got a coffee for me, smoothie for Mariah, and
coffee grounds from home-Mountain Mike can roast some mean coffee! I heard some squeaking and it sounded like my
bottled water shaking on top of a plastic bin in the back so I didn't worry about it.
Made it down to Newport and turned toward Corvallis glad to be ahead of the traffic. All was chill and the scenery was nice. Traffic was a bit slow, but not enough to be a big deal.
About halfway to Corvallis came
the inevitable request for a rest stop. We stopped and about 3 cars' worth of kids ran for the loo.
We parents joked that it should be called a kid stop. I remembered the squeaking water and moved it
around a bit hoping it would solve the problem.
I continued to hear it, louder this time and just told Mariah
we'd have to deal with it until we unloaded the water at the hotel. Things were fine and we sang along to a CD I
had in...and SNAP-BAM.
I looked behind to see something fly off the back of my car's
roof and almost hit the car behind me. I
pulled over as soon as I could and behold: the overhead lip/top rear view brake light on my hatchback
snapped right off.
As in snapped off the bolts, there-is-not-enough-duct-tape-in-the-world-to-hold-it-in-place
snapped off. I was able to pull a quick turnaround, a short shot back and another turn around (high
way or not, there was no way I was going home without the darn thing) and I was
able to retrieve it and put it in the back.
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| Doesn't look so bad, right? |
I was worried about water being able to leak into the
hatchback, but the seal will hold it until I can get it into the shop when I
can afford it. I will figure it out when
I get home, but let me tell you, if it had someones windshield it could have
been really bad. My guardian angels put in some overtime
today.
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| Yeah, I guess it does look bad... |
I was lucky to have it land in basically one piece with no
sharp edges. I also got lucky that after it hit the road it bounced away from
the center line and ended up on the side of the road. I'm thinking I'd like to rig it into place
until I can actually fix it, which will cost a ridiculous amount of money that
I don't have. I will probably wrap the exposed bits with some duct tape. At least I remembered to bring some with me this trip.
At
least the *insert expletive* irritating squeaking stopped!.
Made it to my aunt's house in short order and had a quick
consultation on the car situation and my uncle confirmed that I would be safe from
water damage for now.
My aunt decided it was time for food (it
fixes everything) so we went to King Tin. Amazing Chinese food that uses little
to no MSG. We had garlic eggplant
(Mariah inhaled it), walnut shrimp, Chinese red ribs, and mixed vegetables.
(also a win with Mariah). Went to get a
few fresh edibles for later from a family owned vegetable stand. YUM.
A bit of background about my aunt.
She sends me boxes of treasures. All. The. Time. I've asked her to stop sending so many and
she has. She still sends them, though, and even if the boxes are small I don't
have room to put them away. Turns out
she's been saving everything she would have sent all spread out on her dining
room table for me to pick through.
(Awww)
We are back at our hotel and my aunt
talked me into staying an additional night so we are here until next Tuesday.
This will give us plenty of time to explore the places I want to see this
trip. Tomorrow is the day for
Brownsville-a pioneer stop on the Oregon Trail.
I will try to post the most interesting ones if I remember.
Oh-we were able to get a replacement
suit for Mariah much to her delight. I'm
posting this a bit later because we were at the pool. I also took a few neat
photos of the waves crashing in the surf this morning. (the waves get really
big the closer to the solstice that you get.)
So yeah-a day of adventure,
excitement, and a touch of omg.
Life is good-crazy sometimes, but so very good. We live to adventure another day!
Until next time,
Robyn
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| Last ocean shot |
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