Back in February my friend Robert Jones, founder and CEO of Tren*, told me that he had an event to attend in San Diego, CA on June 12. He wanted to know if I would drive down with him, as he didn't want to drive the whole way by himself. His son, Philip, would accompany us but he doesn't drive. I began to make arrangements to take time off from work, which was fun (not). I had to make arrangements for someone to cover for me, which involves moving people around a bit since I am the only paid employee at the bookstore. I took Friday off to do laundry, pick up a few things I still needed for the trip and pick up some things for Ruth Ann. We had run out of dog food for Sith and I filled up the car. I took my change that I had been accumulating since I returned from my reading vacation** last year. I am not accumulating as much change since I stopped drinking Coca-Cola on April 25+. I took it in to the local US Bank and had them count it and deposit in my account, $142.62. Robert and I went out to Tigard Friday afternoon to pick up the Chevy Captiva we would be driving. We live in Northeast Portland and I asked Robert why we were going all the way to Tigard to pick up the car. We saved $100 in taxes by going outside of Multnomah County, the trip was worth in my estimation. I got almost everything packed and ready to go by the front door, left the computer out till this morning and didn't load up the cooler until this morning. Robert and Phil showed up right at 8AM and we loaded up the Captiva, we were on the road by 8:30 and didn't stop until Eugene, we went to the Best Buy, because we needed to pick up a memory card. Then we got on the road and I gave Robert a history lesson on World War, interspersed with other bits of trivia. Like as we crossed the Willamette River in Eugene on I5 I pointed to the hill where Steve Prefontaine met his end. We drove on to Grants Pass where we stopped to gas up and have lunch. We ate at the Subway in downtown Grants Pass in the shadow of the Caveman Statue. From Grants Pass we continued south on the Redwood Highway, just before crossing into California we passed the Great Cats World Park and the Tiger Preservation Center outside of Cave Junction. We crossed over into California just before two pm. We came down 101 and saw two herds of elk just along the road, more elk in one day than Richard Smouse has seen in all the times he has been hunting. Drove through Crescent City looking for the anchor that had been tossed into town in the 1964 tsunami, but didn't see it. I noticed that the ocean seemed to have a saltier smell than the water off the Oregon Coast. We crossed the Klamath River bridge which has two golden bears at each end. We stopped at Trees of Mystery, I remember going past the giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe when we would drive up 101 from California to Medford to visit Grandparents, Aunts, Uncle and Cousins. It was a beautiful drive through some awesome redwoods, some so close to the road that it was if the repeated passage of vehicles had shaved it to the side of the road. One of the both entertaining was as we went over the Little River we were listening to Little River Band sing Night Owl. We arrived in Eureka about 4:30 and checked into our room and then went to dinner at Applebees and watched the OSU Beavers and K State Super Regional College World Series game. When left the restaurant the score was 2-1 OSU. We came back to the room and watched K State score something like 5 straight runs and win in 10 innings. We then proceeded to utilize almost every outlet in the room to charge two computers, three phones, a camera, an ipad and an ipod. I read the story of Barrington Bunny to Robert and Phil, Robert read a poem about Mt. Tamalpais to us. Phil is watching youtube, Robert is sleeping and I am finishing this up. I will read a little of Robopocalypse and go to sleep.
*Theological Research Network/**I go to my cousin Johns' place every year and spend a week reading/+My friend Diana challenged me to drink less soda, so I stopped drinking soda on April 25, it hasn't been as hard as I thought.
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