Sunday, August 1, 2010

Double, double, toil and trouble...

Here's an update on our star-crossed vacation. On July 22nd, we got Sadie ready for the return trip (150 miles) to Portland, where we planned to spend the night at Mom's house and meet the next day with Julie from Russellville Park retirement community.

My brother, Charlie, delivered Mom to the RV park while I was busy airing up tires and doing final checks for the road trip. Jill was walking Pogo. Charlie's daughter Laura needed to use the bathroom at the park, but we had a little trouble with the code for the lock on the door. And of course there was a little concern about getting 94 year-old Mom aboard, given Sadie's tall entry steps. Finally, we got underway a little after 1 PM.

We stopped at the Scatter Creek rest area, about 10 miles north of Centralia, WA. While we were having our lunch, it occurred to me that I had never seen anyone load Mom's luggage aboard the coach. Indeed, it was not present. Nor was it in Daisy Mae.

I tried to call Charlie, but he wasn't answering his cell phone. I was able to reach his wife, Bev, and we decided that if we couldn't get hold of Charlie, who had the luggage in the trunk of his car, we would go on home and Bev would mail Mom's stuff to her. Finally, Charlie called and confirmed the plan.

Just as we pulled out onto the interstate, Charlie called again and said, "Turn around. I will meet you at the rest stop and bring the gear." There is no place to "turn around" between the rest area and Centralia, so we agreed to meet in Centralia at the outlet mall.

It took Charlie about an hour and ten minutes to catch up to us. The transfer was made, and we continued on home, arriving about 7:15 PM. I called Bev to let her know we were home, and she said Charlie hadn't returned yet. He probably was caught in rush-hour traffic in Olympia.

This was one vacation that left us happy to be home.

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