Truckin', I'm A Goin' Home - 3/11/15

Or - What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been . . . 

Truckin', got my chips cashed in. Keep truckin', like the do-dah man.
Together, more or less in line, jes keep truckin' on.

Muchas Gracias, Grateful Dead for some great songs and some equally good lyrics.

And what a long, strange trip this has been. And exhausting. I think I can safely say, moving is a young man's game. Definitely a young man's game.

But it's done. Thank goodness, it's done. There were times there that I thought it would never end . . . dark and terrible times they were. But it's over!!

Hallelujah!!

And with this blog, I will put paid to this particular adventure. With this blog I will attempt to, in a somewhat cogent and logical manner, detail all of all our escapades during this ordeal. This . . . adventure.

It's a long and semi-convuluted tale so I ask that you bear with me as we wend our way down this road together. Have patience. Hopefully at the end you will be rewarded for your diligence, your perseverance.

Oh, and I say up front that during this whole week-long crucible I had my camera with me but I didn't have the desire to take a lot of pictures. Hahahaha, OK, you can stop with your prayers of thanks and Hail Marys. I wanted to but it just wasn't there. So a lot of what you're going to see here was piece-meal on my part and you'll see a lot of them were taken by Carol and her trusty Cell Phone Camera.

Oh, and I can say that nothing went easily. Nope. Lots of drama for poor ol' Jackie.

First off was the hassle of getting the truck. I had a confirmation to pick-up my truck at the MLK U-Haul but when I went down to confirm this the friendly lady there told me it had been shifted to a location a few miles further away.  I was walking to get the truck and didn't particularly enjoy adding more distance. I drove on over to the other place just to make sure it would be there for me in the morning and met a genuinely friendly lady who worked it out that I could pick up the truck that afternoon.

That really helped. Oh, she got a truck off her lot, which was, as she admitted, getting too full. Plus, she hated to see me get up so early just to pick-up the truck. Me, too.

So I drove home, dropped off the mini and Carol and I headed back to pick up our truck.

There she is!! A 15-footer with more than enough room. Oh, and for those of you who play the game where you see a U-Haul truck coming towards you and you try and guess the State . . . this one was Kentucky!!

            CB

So some things did go my way. I was able to start loading it that evening and I got a really early start on loading in the morning. Hahahaha, old people and their silly sleeping habits. We were both up by 0500 and moving.

            CB

And there was, if I may say so, a load of stuff to, er, uh, load.

Good grief. I am beginning to become a fan of minimalism. Less would be more if only I could find the strength and resolve to downsize.

If only.

            CB

Wha . . . !?!?!

Seriously!?! I thought the garage was empty already.

            CB

Argh!! More and more.

            CB

Hahahaha, I was strongly considering just leaving all this crap and making a run for the border.

            CB

This is Sam's house. His wife was driving the car I hit making my hasty U-Turn a year ago. The result, other than the spike in my insurance rates, was a friend. We traded tomatoes and other fruit between us.

Sam saw Carol outside during the move and asked that we get a shot of his house for the blog before we left. Carol is a super softie and a woman who is good to her word. She said she would and here it is.

Happy, Sam?        

            CB

All good things must come to an end . . . even horrible experiences like this one. And we finally started seeing the end of the load.

By about 1030, this bad boy was pretty much full. And that bad boy you see leaning on the lady? His rear end was about two inches off the ground.

Criminently!! 

It was like I would get down near finished and 6 or 7 more loads would appear. It just seemed to never end. NEVER!!

We were both a couple of tired soldiers by 1100. And the neat thing was, as soon as we were finished loading this, we were going to go on a very loooooong drive . . . to Lincoln City. About 255 miles. Through Portland, Oregon. Which, without a doubt, has some of the worst traffic jams in the world.

Yay!!

Hahaha, but, like you in reading this never-ending blog, we persevered. And we got there right about the time the sun was setting.

First order of business . . . get a picture of the sunset. Hah!! We'll get around to moving all that crap later, Man, there's a sunset to enjoy.

            CB

Seriously, this was worth the drive.

            CB

Here she is, working her Phone Cam.

Just to Carol's right is the small stream that runs down to the beach.

Carol got this great shot of me taking the shot above. Not bad for a Cell Phone Camera.

             CB

            CB

We finally got to moving, met our new neighbor in the house behind us, got permission to use the driveway to unload and got to it.

Taking a break.

At least it went in easier than it came out. Unloading was pretty easy. I even got the Armoire and the Dresser moved by myself . . . well, me and the handcart.

But that doggone couch was way beyond the meager abilities that Carol and I possessed. The rascal!!

Everything was out but that doggone couch. It sat there like an open sore taunting me and reminding me every time I saw it that the job was . . . Not. Yet. Done.

Hahaha, I knew if I waited long enough Cory, the new neighbor, would be home and I was pretty sure I could impose on him to help me move that stupid couch.

And I did.

Hahahahaha, finally!! We did it!! We moved, lock, stock and barrel from Seattle to Lincoln City.

And this is our reward.

But the job wasn't done. The truck was unloaded but it was still sitting out in front of the house while the Mini and the VERY LAST LOAD were waiting for my return to Seattle.

I had considered hauling the Mini behind with a trailer but nixed that idea for several reasons. First was logistics and driving back and forth to get truck, load truck, load van, drive and repeat process in reverse.

Second, it was easier for me to get the truck and then return to clean the apartment and pick up the Mini.

And, finally, I wasn't all that keen on hauling the Mini on a trailer behind me while driving that truck.

And that's why you see me in the U-Haul at 0545 hours the next morning heading off to Salem to drop it off.

Part II of my brilliant plan was to drop off the truck at a U-Haul about a half-mile from the train station in Salem and then walk on over, catch a train to Seattle and then take the Link home to get the Mini.

Remember that part about not being an easy move? Hahahaha, here comes the real fun.

First off, the gas station where I'd planned on getting gas at was, inexplicably, closed. Oh, the store was open but they couldn't pump gas. OK, off to the next one 4 miles down the road in the wrong direction.

Got there and told the attendant to, "Fill'er up, Buddy!!" and handed him the Shell Gift Card For $100 that I hadn't used yet to cover the cost. He pumps and then I go to pay and . . . "Ahhh, your card doesn't have any money on it."

WHAT!?!?!

OK,  quick call to Shell and their system is down and so she tells me I can just wait an hour and use the card then. Hahahaha, gotta deadline and gas is already pumped. I paid and got on my way, a bit later than I had intended. And I had 50+ hard miles to get through from Lincoln City to Salem.

            CB

But I made it. I was five minutes late for turning in the truck but everything was copacetic.

Fun Facts: OK, some people think that word, copacetic, comes from Chinook Jargon, a trade language used in the Pacific Northwest to communicate between tribes and traders. The preposition kopa is very common in the language and Kopasetty may have been used to mean doing just fine.

I, however, like the alternative. I can't cite my source as I read this years ago but I had heard it originated with Hotel Detectives and Cops. Tec was slang for a detective. When things were calm and slow in the Hotel, the detective, or Tec, would cop a seat in the lobby to keep an eye on things. Get it? Cop a seat, Tec? See how that could morph into Copacetic? 

Hahaha, regardless of whether or not it is true, I like it and that's my origin for that term.

So things were good. The truck was taken in with no additional fees and I hoofed it on over to the train station in Salem.

Not impressive but nice.

Now, here was the snag, the little bump in my otherwise pretty doggone good plan.

I dropped the truck off at 0730 and the train to Seattle didn't leave until 1355.

I had a whole lotta time to kill and so I finally got into taking a couple of pictures while I wandered around Salem on what was turning out to be a pretty nice day.

Ah, Spring is coming!!

I ambled on over to the Sassy Onion for a so-so breakfast of Corned Beef Hash. After that, I meandered over towards the State Capitol.

Here's the Traveling Preacher statue. I shot this before many years ago on the 5th of July, 2007. We were driving back to Hell Paso from Seattle. We'd come north for Michelle and Matt's marriage in June.

I took this one waiting for the train.

Here's the shot I took in July of '07. When I took the new shot, I was thinking of this one and tried, with my faulty memory, to recreate this shot.

Definitely have a wider lens now.

Fun Facts: This statue is called The Circuit Rider. It's an impressive bronze sculpture by Alexander Phimister Proctor. According to the Springfield Museum, The Circuit Rider depicts "one of Oregon's pioneer circuit-riding Methodist ministers" and commemorates "The labors and achievements of the ministers of the Gospel, who as circuit riders became the friends, counselors and evangels to the pioneers on every American frontier.

The 3.5 ton statue was cast by Roman Bronze Works in New York and was gifted to Oregon in 1924. It was presented "in reverent and grateful remembrance of Robert Booth, pioneer minister of the Oregon Country" by his son, Robert Asbury Booth, a prominent businessman and Oregon State Highway Commissioner.

And I took this one way back in July of 2007.

And here's the Capitol. 

I can't help it. Every time I see this building I think of a LDS Temple. Right!?! Hahaha, that guy at the top looks like the Angel Moroni but, it isn't.

Fun Facts: Actually. he represents the Oregon Pioneer. It's an eight-and-a-half ton bronze sculpture with gold leaf and so he's also known as the Gold Man. Created by Ulric Ellerhusen, the statue is a 22 ft hollow sculpture, sorta like the big chocolate Easter Bunny I used to get when I was a kid. The gilded piece was installed atop the Capitol building in 1938 when the new Capitol Building was built after the old one burned down in 1935.

Here's the dome on the inside of the Capitol. 

It looks more like a capitol building on the inside than the outside. In each of the four corners of the foyer underneath the dome, they have murals depicting different stages of Oregon's history.

And, of course, the Great Seal of the State of Oregon. I walked around inside for awhile. 

Big thing I noted was that there were no guards at the entrances. No metal detectors either. I wandered around the halls and killed some time in the gift shop and only saw minimal security. 

Good for them.

Back outside with several long hours left to while away, I wandered around admiring the grounds.

Hahaha, this guy reminds me of William Penn. Can't get that idea out of my head that it's really Billy Penn.

Fun Facts: It's really a statue of Dr. John McLoughlin. He was the Superintendent of the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver from 1824 to 1845. He was later known as the Father of Oregon for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country. In the late 1840s, his general store in Oregon City was famous as the last stop on the Oregon Trail.

Whup!! There's the Circuit Rider, making another loop. 

FYI, I got this shot in 2015, not 2007.

And the local flora.

Having exhausted both my strength and my patience, I made my weary way back to the train station to wait on the train. They have benches there plus wi-fi. 

So I'm sitting there relishing the thought that this is almost allllll over. Oh, joy!!

Then I get a buzz from my cell . . . the train is delayed because of a problem with the track. Gonna be a couple hours late.

^&*##!^*+%   #!)^*%$!!!!

Seriously?

So I go up and talk with the agent and, really nice guy, he tells me I can take an earlier bus, run by AmTrak, to the Portland Train Station and catch a train there and get into Seattle an hour earlier than I had originally planned. 

Oh, man!! I seriously wanted to avoid having anything to do with busses. But in this instance, I just had to. An hour earlier would be a real bonus and so . . . I agreed.

I thought I'd be on a Greyhound Bus but, no, this was a bus run by AmTrak!! I didn't know they had their own bus system. But it was on time. Oh, and the agent told me he waived the EXTRA cost because the delay was not my fault!! Extra cost? For riding the bus? 

I made it to Portland and walked into this mess. 

What the . . . !?!?! I thought AmTrak was suppose to be going under because nobody was riding the doggone thing!! Looked mighty busy to me.

So I had to get in the line on the left to get a ticket and then get into the line next to it on the right to wait for boarding.

Ahhhhhh, Karma!! Lighten up, Man!!

This train was a wee bit late, too but I finally got on.

And Karma kept on pushing it. I got the first seat into the car . . . the one without a window. 

Figures.

If I stood up and leaned over, I could see through one of the windows. Here's the sun setting on the Puget Sound just outside Tacoma.

And we made it to Seattle. 

Here's the train I rode on. The last time Carol and I went to Portland, we were on a train with double decker cars and had great seats way up high.

Geez, still busy. Now I'm seriously wondering why AmTrack is always losing so much money.

Walking on over to the Link station at International/ChinaTown. 

Ah, Seattle. 

Amy brought the whole family up for the weekend in Seattle. A friend was graduating from a Culinary School plus she wanted to take a look at the apartment. Oh, and she was showing the apartment to prospective renters, too.

She moves fast, that one.

I was pretty tired by now and between cleaning the apartment and loading the Mini, I didn't feel much like doing anything else. My long way round of saying that I didn't take a lot of pictures.

I got a couple the last day when we went to lunch. Here's Max, my latest Grandchild. This was the first time I got to meet him.

Hahahaha, I enjoyed seeing all the kids. And, yes, they're all just as cute as this guy is.

Right after lunch, I hopped into my loaded Mini and headed back to Lincoln City. Hahaha, you'd think it would all be over, wouldn't you. 

You'd be wrong.

Now comes the unpacking and all the fun that goes with that. 

Oh, happy day!!

While I was in Seattle, Carol was unpacking in Lincoln City and she took a minute away from her busy schedule to send me a little note.

I know.

It was time to get out and so we decided we needed to make a run to Walmart. The nearest one is in Newport, about 25 miles south of us. I decided, just for the heck of it, to take a round-about route to Newport and so we drove SR 229. 

That road parallels the Siletz River and is called, interestingly enough, the Siletz Highway. There were a couple parks along the highway and we stopped at this one, Strome County Park. They have a boat launch there and we figure that, once we get some experience with our kayaks, we can do some river kayaking.

Here's the boat launch. That's Carol waaaaaayyyy down there, by the river.

This one doesn't run too fast, like the Cedar River. It looks doable with a kayak. I figure we'll launch here, paddle up-river and then, once were exhausted paddling against the current, we can let the river current bring us back to our launch point.

Hahaha, crazy like a fox!!

We made it to Walmart and drove back along U.S. 101 and stopped at Siletz Bay Park. Taft is the southern most of the cities that joined together in '65 to form Lincoln City.

And they have a small arm of sand where the harbor seals come to laze about and soak up the sun. 

And we got to see them. 

Hahaha, these lardos know how to enjoy life!!

One young pup was busy playing in the sand.

There he is in the water. He was having a grand time being rolled about by the waves.

Looking north up the beach. They have a lot of driftwood and they do allow bonfires on the beach. I wonder how much longer that will last until the PC - Eco Nazis crush all the fun out of this old tradition.

There's Carol using her cell phone camera. She's getting better at using it.

The tide was out so you could get a good view of the wharf.

Carol had several days here while I was in Seattle. She had several opportunities to get out and walk on the beach. Here's the pictures she took.

You'll see how good she's getting at taking pictures with the camera in her cell phone.

            CB

            CB

            CB

            CB

See!?! She's gonna give me a run for my money. 

Although, to be honest, that isn't too far to run.

            CB

We even saw a couple out flying their kite.

            CB

            CB

Bemused Jackie.

            CB

Some beach scenes. You're gonna see sooooo many seagulls. 

Hahahahahaha!!!!

Looking north up the beach towards the Cascade Head Scenic Research Area.

Here's my version of the kite fliers . . . minus the kites.

We're already planning on getting our kite. In a while.

Seagull!!

I saw this guy sorta wafting up the jetty we were on and quick grabbed this shot. 

Hahaha, because I like it, that's why.

Back home there was still plenty of time for a walk along the beach.

I was feeling a bit salty so I broke out my Skipper hat. 

Hahahaha, and, yes, I do have a blue one, too.

You'll see.

Beach detail.

You'll see a lot in this vein, too. 

Lucky you!!

Making use of our Selfie Stick. 

It were cold . . . and windy.

There's Cascade Head again. From our beach.

The wind was blowing so hard, the sand was being skimmed along the beach.

And the sea, she was mad.

Ah, the life of a couple of beach bums.

Once we get things unpacked, we'll be ready for the summer.

Well, there it is. Our first blog from LCO. 

(Did you forget already? Alright, it stands for Lincoln City, OR)

There's going to be plenty more. Hahaha, we'll be riding the 101 a lot and then there's the inland. And I'm gonna try and find out why they call it the Cascade Head Scenic Research Area.

Lots to do, lots to see.

Life is good.

     Hooah!!