Tucson Trip Part 2

This can't really be called a holiday or a vacation. It was more of just a quick trip.

Friday, October 5 we drive all day through California. An odd occurrence strikes us as northern Californians drive on the far left side and using the right lane as a "passing lane". We see lots of fruit & vegetable trucks as we travel Interstate 5. We stayed the night in the Motel 6 at Redding California. (which reminds me - I need to file a complaint) When we return from walking the dog, we find a young couple with a small child of about 3 sitting on the stair steps just outside our room. They are smoking cigarettes. The young woman is obviously 8 months pregnant. They barely move as we come up the stairs. Finally, my husband asks them to MOVE out of the way as the dog will try to eat their kid if they don't. (Isabelle has always disliked young children-don't ask me why. She has never encountered nor had a bad experience with one. She just growls & barks at them) I immediately go into our room to call the front desk and the manager comes out to ask them to move. We rented a non-smoking room. HOW can people be so rude as to smoke just outside the rooms. Obviously a vast lack of brain cells have been killed by their smoking. Or maybe they were just born stupid. We were rudely awoken at 2AM, when a bunch of oriental guys bang violently for 5 minutes on one of the doors next to us. We should have left at that time, but we were too tired. A drug deal going down? A prostitution ring? I dunno. It was a horrible night.

Saturday
We left the hotel at 5am and purchased the crappiest lattes in the world in Redding, California. I have never tasted coffee that was burnt so badly. We continue on our drive through northern California in the dark. The sunrise was beautiful and we saw lots of deer as we ascended into the mountains. We depart Interstate 5 and veer off to the west on Hwy 97. Oregon is beautiful country, but boring. Long periods of time between towns on this highway. We stop in a small town in northern Oregon that has the best museum that I have ever visited. Most of the items are brand new, still unused. Ration stamps from World War 1 & 2 unused in the book. Like uniforms from soldiers that have very little wear. Purple hearts & Gold Stars from soldiers that never returned from wars. Even two original oxen harness pulls from the original settlers to this area. Still with the oxen hair sticking out of them! All in this small little town. Even though we are pressed for time, we have to spend an hour here. I talked with the 2 women that were at the greeter's desk. They have lived here their whole lives and are able to give us an insight into some of the exhibits. I really enjoyed conversing with them and hated to leave.

We continued our drive past the mighty Columbia River and into Spoky-Jo late Saturday night. The puppy perked up as we drove in...she was totally familiar with that smell. We kept telling her we were almost home. She never laid back down once until we drove into the drive, whereupon she bounded out of the truck. Eager to be the first one into the house, she forced me to open the sliding glass door out onto the deck. Isabelle then retrieved a bone and brought it into the house, happily chomping on something she had hidden there before the trip!

It's great to be back. But the amount of cleaning, laundry & general things that had to be done was enormous. I spent the next week from the 7th through the 13 just working my butt off! Had we ever really left or was it all just an illusion of my mind?