Four and Out
Jul. 10th, 2012 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeLisa and I had a vast number of errands to complete on Monday. In retrospect, not only am I very relieved that we started in the Lake Oswego area rather than backtracking from Stayton/Sublimity, but I rather wish we might have stayed a little further north the night before, possibly at the HIX in the NW Industrial Area of Portland.
After checking out of the room this morning, we started to head south to get the trailer, but remembered that we wanted to check the Whole Foods in Tualatin to see if they carried the cookies Lisa likes and that aren't carried by Whole Foods in Reno. So we backtracked slightly, and indeed the cookies were there. Then Lisa remembered that we needed to pick up one of her VCRs that had been sitting with Professional Video & Tape in Beaverton for months now (they'd been unable to fix it), so we had to backtrack even further. Only after that was done could we go to Wilsonville and get the U-Haul trailer.
I eased my way out of the U-Haul rental place and carefully drove the half-mile or so down to Camping World. They found the RV refrigerator that we'd ordered a month ago and loaded it into the front of the trailer, which will help keep the desired 60% forward weight distribution in the thing during the trip. Lisa tied it down using some of the rope that Eric Larson loaned us a while back during the Fremont-to-Fernley Moving Daze. We also bought a new toilet and water pump for the trailer. Lisa replaced the water pump not long ago but feels more confident having a spare, and it looks like the toilet is going to need to be replaced as soon as we get the plumbing working inside of Fernley House.
Then it was over to Fry's, where we didn't really spend a huge amount of money, as our computer needs are mostly met at the moment. I did, however, buy a new electric razor because my old rechargeable shave-in-the-shower razor had given up the ghost a few weeks ago. Lisa also bought three USB thumb drives that cost about $30 each and have more capacity than the entire hard drive in most of her laptops.
On to Salem, with a stop at the Pilot truck stop to top off the fuel on the van. I've been getting a consistent 20-21 MPG on this trip so far, but I expect that to drop now that I'm hauling the U-Haul trailer. In Salem, we first went to buy Lisa a whole bunch of t-shirts from a store that sells many inexpensive plain shirts. Besides the pink t-shirts you've often seen her wearing, this was where we bought the shirts we gave out as the premiums for the Tonopah Westercon. And continuing on the clothing theme but not so inexpensive, our next stop was Shoe Mill in Lancaster Mall, where a week ago we put in a request for one pair each of our favorite SAS shoes. We are both very happy that SAS doesn't change their shoe styles every ten minutes, so that we can buy the same style and color every year or two, and we're further pleased that they're still making shoes in the USA. The folks at the Shoe Mill remembered Lisa, and in particular remembered![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
travelswithkuma. We told them that if SAS keeps making those shoes and if our travels take us through the area again in a year or two, they can expect us to make the same purchase again then.
Finally, around 4 PM, we got to Submlimity, where we checked in to the hotel. We didn't unpack, however, but simply confirmed that we had the hotel room, turned up the air conditioning because we knew we were going to need it later, and headed on to Mehama.
Having had no lunch, our first stop in Mehama was the Gingerbread House, where we tore into a brace of elkburgers and curly fries. We stopped in at the local hardware store, where Walt, the owner, greeted Lisa warmly and where we bought a new box fan because we know we're going to need it when we get back to Fernley, where the temperatures are in the Celsius 40s this week.
It's a good thing the days are long at this time of the year, because it wasn't until after 5 or so that we got the U-Haul trailer backed up to the cargo container and we started moving things from the latter to the former. Fortunately, this didn't take as long as I feared it would. I had to pull weeds from the approach to the cargo container to clear the path, but after that it went fairly smoothly, and as Lisa predicted, the remaining contents of the cargo container pretty much filled up the 12-foot U-Haul. I'm glad we didn't get the shorter trailer, because it would have been much more difficult to pack it had we done so. This is the fourth and we hope final load of Lisa's things from Mehama: a large Ryder truck, and small Ryder truck, Lisa's van pulling her open utility trailer, and now the U-Haul trailer behind my van.
We buttoned up both the trailer and container and walked over to Lisa's father's house, where Lisa's sister awaited. Lisa wanted to get the fancy Mickey Thompson aluminum valve covers off an older engine from her van (the rest of the engine can be scrapped, she says) and to pick up a small number of things of hers that were stored in the rafters of the garage. She also got to speak to her father briefly, but it did seem to us that her sister was hovering close by whenever Lisa wanted to have much contact with her father. The whole experience was pretty stressful for Lisa and by extension, me, too.
Less stressful was the return to the hotel in Sublimity. We went over to Roth's market, ordered a pizza from the Figaro's next door and did a small amount of grocery shopping from Roth's, which has been completely remodeled since we were here last a year ago. By the time we had our groceries in the van, the pizza was done. We took the food back to the hotel, took off our shoes, and very gratefully relaxed for most of the rest of the evening.
I took a whole lot of photos of Mehama, and will try to take more on Tuesday on our way out, but there isn't enough bandwidth on the wi-fi here for me to want to try to upload them all. Maybe if we have a better connection at Klamath Falls Tuesday night, I'll get the photos online at Flickr.
Due to roadwork over OR-58, we've decided to take the slightly longer-and-slower (nine miles according to Google Maps) route over OR-22/US-20 through Bend. This will, however, make it possible for Lisa to possibly have a better chat with her father if her sister will allow it.
After checking out of the room this morning, we started to head south to get the trailer, but remembered that we wanted to check the Whole Foods in Tualatin to see if they carried the cookies Lisa likes and that aren't carried by Whole Foods in Reno. So we backtracked slightly, and indeed the cookies were there. Then Lisa remembered that we needed to pick up one of her VCRs that had been sitting with Professional Video & Tape in Beaverton for months now (they'd been unable to fix it), so we had to backtrack even further. Only after that was done could we go to Wilsonville and get the U-Haul trailer.
I eased my way out of the U-Haul rental place and carefully drove the half-mile or so down to Camping World. They found the RV refrigerator that we'd ordered a month ago and loaded it into the front of the trailer, which will help keep the desired 60% forward weight distribution in the thing during the trip. Lisa tied it down using some of the rope that Eric Larson loaned us a while back during the Fremont-to-Fernley Moving Daze. We also bought a new toilet and water pump for the trailer. Lisa replaced the water pump not long ago but feels more confident having a spare, and it looks like the toilet is going to need to be replaced as soon as we get the plumbing working inside of Fernley House.
Then it was over to Fry's, where we didn't really spend a huge amount of money, as our computer needs are mostly met at the moment. I did, however, buy a new electric razor because my old rechargeable shave-in-the-shower razor had given up the ghost a few weeks ago. Lisa also bought three USB thumb drives that cost about $30 each and have more capacity than the entire hard drive in most of her laptops.
On to Salem, with a stop at the Pilot truck stop to top off the fuel on the van. I've been getting a consistent 20-21 MPG on this trip so far, but I expect that to drop now that I'm hauling the U-Haul trailer. In Salem, we first went to buy Lisa a whole bunch of t-shirts from a store that sells many inexpensive plain shirts. Besides the pink t-shirts you've often seen her wearing, this was where we bought the shirts we gave out as the premiums for the Tonopah Westercon. And continuing on the clothing theme but not so inexpensive, our next stop was Shoe Mill in Lancaster Mall, where a week ago we put in a request for one pair each of our favorite SAS shoes. We are both very happy that SAS doesn't change their shoe styles every ten minutes, so that we can buy the same style and color every year or two, and we're further pleased that they're still making shoes in the USA. The folks at the Shoe Mill remembered Lisa, and in particular remembered
travelswithkuma. We told them that if SAS keeps making those shoes and if our travels take us through the area again in a year or two, they can expect us to make the same purchase again then.Finally, around 4 PM, we got to Submlimity, where we checked in to the hotel. We didn't unpack, however, but simply confirmed that we had the hotel room, turned up the air conditioning because we knew we were going to need it later, and headed on to Mehama.
Having had no lunch, our first stop in Mehama was the Gingerbread House, where we tore into a brace of elkburgers and curly fries. We stopped in at the local hardware store, where Walt, the owner, greeted Lisa warmly and where we bought a new box fan because we know we're going to need it when we get back to Fernley, where the temperatures are in the Celsius 40s this week.
It's a good thing the days are long at this time of the year, because it wasn't until after 5 or so that we got the U-Haul trailer backed up to the cargo container and we started moving things from the latter to the former. Fortunately, this didn't take as long as I feared it would. I had to pull weeds from the approach to the cargo container to clear the path, but after that it went fairly smoothly, and as Lisa predicted, the remaining contents of the cargo container pretty much filled up the 12-foot U-Haul. I'm glad we didn't get the shorter trailer, because it would have been much more difficult to pack it had we done so. This is the fourth and we hope final load of Lisa's things from Mehama: a large Ryder truck, and small Ryder truck, Lisa's van pulling her open utility trailer, and now the U-Haul trailer behind my van.
We buttoned up both the trailer and container and walked over to Lisa's father's house, where Lisa's sister awaited. Lisa wanted to get the fancy Mickey Thompson aluminum valve covers off an older engine from her van (the rest of the engine can be scrapped, she says) and to pick up a small number of things of hers that were stored in the rafters of the garage. She also got to speak to her father briefly, but it did seem to us that her sister was hovering close by whenever Lisa wanted to have much contact with her father. The whole experience was pretty stressful for Lisa and by extension, me, too.
Less stressful was the return to the hotel in Sublimity. We went over to Roth's market, ordered a pizza from the Figaro's next door and did a small amount of grocery shopping from Roth's, which has been completely remodeled since we were here last a year ago. By the time we had our groceries in the van, the pizza was done. We took the food back to the hotel, took off our shoes, and very gratefully relaxed for most of the rest of the evening.
I took a whole lot of photos of Mehama, and will try to take more on Tuesday on our way out, but there isn't enough bandwidth on the wi-fi here for me to want to try to upload them all. Maybe if we have a better connection at Klamath Falls Tuesday night, I'll get the photos online at Flickr.
Due to roadwork over OR-58, we've decided to take the slightly longer-and-slower (nine miles according to Google Maps) route over OR-22/US-20 through Bend. This will, however, make it possible for Lisa to possibly have a better chat with her father if her sister will allow it.
