We are home. Though only a ten-day trip, we certainly had a very good time and saw a lot of beautiful countryside and spent a lot of time with family and friends. That is what a vacation is all about - relaxing and enjoying yourself. The weather really cooperated while we were at the beach too - an Oregonian can't ask for much more.
I did not run today. What a complete loser. I simply could not. Much of last night was spent tossing and turning with that awful menopausal non-sleeping syndrome. Rare for me, but let's face it, Dear Reader, I am a middle-aged woman and sometimes we just do not sleep. It's horrid.
I finally dozed-off sometime around 6a and had a dream that Oregon Track Club Elite 800 meter runner Tyler Mulder had challenged a bunch of people to run 800 meters for charity. For some reason, he asked me (I have never met Tyler Mulder) and I ran the two laps in SIX MINUTES (Tyler Mulder runs two laps in ~1:45), and I was SO EXCITED because I just knew my time would be faster than Tyler's. So strange - I know a decent time for the 800m. Anyway, My Loving Husband woke me around 8a and I was so dopey - and obviously exhausted from my 800m race! I think I pulled a hammy!
We hitched-up the Honda and continued north up the coast, taking at right at Lincoln City and followed Highway 18 towards home... with me dozing on/off in a sleepy fog all morning.
For some reason, we decided to stop at Spirit Mountain Casino on Highway 18 - less than an hour from our house. Why, I cannot tell you, as the casino has been open since 1995 and we have never visited, though we have driven past it countless times.
RV parking at Spirit Mountain Casino
We learned Spirit Mountain Casino has tons of free RV parking and allows free over-night stays if you join their (free) "Players Club" and simply register with security. We walked to the casino and found it to be pretty nice - though there was a lot of cigarette smoke. We looked around at the restaurant menus for lunch and decided on the buffet! Yes - first time to this casino and first time to a casino buffet. Try to control your excitement. It was $9.95 for lunch and this included our sparkling waters and coffee! They had everything imaginable and even healthy fresh vegetables, salad bars and tons of fresh fruit. (In all honesty, they also had fried chicken and macaroni & cheese.) Grilled fish, poached fish, prime rib, roasted turkey and a massive dessert counter. I cannot imagine how they make money at this lunch buffet - they must make up for it in the casino?
On our way back to the RV after lunch, DT decided to drop $40 in a video poker machine. At $5 per hand, it did not take him five minutes to lose his cash. He then had a phone call and while waiting for him to finish the conversation, I put $20 on a hand of blackjack. I am dealt a 4. The dealer is showing 8. The first two players are given blackjacks! I am dealt a 7. I double-down with another $20, get a 10 and walk away with not only my $40, but DT's as well! As I walked away from my one-hand game, the dealer said: Well, she just doubled her money!
That was fun!
Spirit Mountain Casino
We continue to our RV storage unit, which sits about half-way between Portland and Salem. We put the address in our GPS and head-off into rural Oregon farming country. It is a beautiful day and we are enjoying gorgeous views of the Willamette Valley with the Cascade Mountains to the East... until we hear a huge crash and discover the sliding circular - glass - shower door has fallen off the tracks in the bathroom and has landed (thankfully, unbroken) inside the shower stall! How that thing did not break, I will never understand. We pulled over and placed the heavy glass door back on the track. Whew!
A few miles later, we met a huge manure truck - filled to the brim with slopping sloppy slop. The poop-hauler hits a bump and the front of our beautiful motorhome is douched with, well... $#%*. Brown, murky, thick, oozing $#%*.
Splat!
Isn't RVing fun? Dang - we should have stayed at the casino! Our luck has run out.
Continuing on, I am starting to recognize some of the landscape. I begin telling DT about how my family would come out here when I was a girl and visit my cousins who lived on a large farm. We would help them bale hay, feed chickens and all the cousins would sleep outside. Memories came flooding back. Picking wild blackberries. Swimming in the pond. Catching frogs. I told him how much fun we had and that to reach my cousins place, we had to cross the Willamette River on...
...$#%* ...a ferry.
Apparently our GPS needs some updating?According to the rules and regulations of the Wheatland Ferry, we were well-under the length and weight requirements, but My Driver did not want to be on the evening news. There was a huge turn-around at the ferry, so we stopped for a few minutes and enjoyed the pretty view - through our $#%!-stained wind screen - before turning around and continuing south to Salem to a real bridge to cross the Willamette River.
When we arrived at our storage unit, DT hosed-off the front of the Magna Peregrinus so she will rest comfortably in our absence. The motorhome was backed-into her garage. It may be a month or more (depending upon when we become Grandparents) until we see our RV again. We headed home, unpacked the Honda and I whipped-up a little something for dinner.
And then we went to bed.The End.
Until my next update, I remain, your lucky correspondent.