Waiting in the Gate

After sleeping in until about 2 PM today as part of the internal-clock-resetting project, Lisa and I did our final packing, weighed our bags to make sure none of them were overweight (nothing more than 45 pounds, as it happens), and then we closed down operations in Mehama, carefully going down a check-list Lisa had prepared (de-pressurize water system, shut down 117V inverter, that sort of thing). We then rolled off and headed north to Portland, where we ran into slow traffic that appeared to stretch from just north of Salem clear up to Wilsonville. We got off the freeway and stopped for lunch at the TA truck stop at Donald, then played pinball for a while before getting back on the road. Eventually we got to the hotel sometime around 8 PM. After moving our bags into the room, I drove over to Vancouver, where my co-worker will let me park it during the trip. I remembered to leave a set of keys with him, and he drove me back to the hotel.

With our flight so early, we have a booking on the 4:30 AM hotel shuttle, so I don't see us getting much sleep. It is, after all, only 3 PM in Japan as I write this, and we need to be thinking Japanese. We'll probably go have dinner (lunch) in a little while by walking down to the Sharri's 24-hour restaurant, then come back to the hotel and keep ourselves awake until it's time to go to down to the lobby for the shuttle. The bed is unlikely to be slept in save for maybe a light nap. The housekeeper will be scratching her head over it, I reckon.

Oh, and the winning Powerball ticket was sold in Indiana. We won $9 on the $40 worth of tickets we bought, but won't have time to cash them until we get back.