A Day Out

We went out today. Not only did we go out, we stayed out as long as possible. Galen ordered us to come with him and Carol to visit some sites for our Oswald family reunion in 2008, so we complied. We looked at Aldersgate and Canby Grove, and our plan was to also head out to the coast to check out some places for people who wanted to go there after the reunion. As we were passing through Newburg, we thought it would be a good place to have lunch, but no restaurants were visible as we drove through town.

Will asked who we knew that would be familiar with Newburg. I said Dave and Judy, of course, their son was in college here for the past four years. I memorized their phone number many years ago, and I rattled it off to him. Will dialed it, a man answered and Will got right to the point, "Hi, this is Will. We're in Newburg and we'd like you to give us directions to a good place to have lunch." The response was, "Hi, Will, who are you?" Oops, I was just one little number off on the phone number. Unfortunately, the stranger he had called was not familiar with Newburg. Right about then we came across an Izzy's so we pulled in there.

By the time lunch was over, we realized it was too late in the day for the long drive in the rain to the coast. We happened by an RV dealership so we stopped and drooled over some fantastic fifth wheels. As we left, we commented on how good the sales guy was. Very low key, didn't ask a lot of questions or try too hard. We sought out another RV lot, much harder to find, long story that involved a call to Nick to get on the computer to look up the place. In the mean time, we came to to the Evergreen Avation Museum and decided to stop and see the Spruce Goose. We enjoyed browsing the gift shop and seeing that enormous plane from the second story gift shop. Galen and Carol spotted a brochure for the RV place we were trying to find and thought they then knew how to get there. Unfortunately, they left the brochure there and it wasn't as easy as it seemed. We managed to find it anyway. We stepped into a 5th wheel to check it out and a salesman hurried on over. His first comment to Will was, "Wow, you're a big one." Then he started asking us questions. I immediately made it clear that we were just looking, and he told us where to find the rest of the fifth wheels and wisely went back inside out of the rain.

As we were driving through all the wine country, for some reason it made us think of our brother Mark who lives in Alabama. So we called and chatted with him a bit. He was busy buffing the muffler on his motorcycle. He had a little incident on it and managed to burn his riding pants on the muffler, leaving a nasty black mark. Fortunately he nearly had it removed. It was fun talking to him. Cell phones are great.

We were having such a good time that we just weren't ready to come home. We stopped at a Starbucks in Salem for coffee where we all agreed that Aldersgate would be the best place for the reunion. Then we got our free piece of bread from Great Grains next door to it. Wow, great bread. Nex we drove across Salem to the state fairgounds where Carol had heard there was a backyard show. Once again we didn't manage to take the most direct route there, but pretty close. It turned out to be hot tubs and backyard kitchens. Interesting, I think Will is going to build me one of those outdoor kitchens very soon now.

Then it was our privilege to introduce Galen and Carol to the Sportman's Warehouse. It was the least Will could do when he learned they had never been there. I tried to talk Galen into posing for my camera in front of the elk sculpture in front of the building but he declined. So it's his fault that I don't have a picture to liven this up.

As we approached Albany, we decided it would be fun to rent a movie. We joined the rest of the wild weekend party people at Blockbuster, found a movie, stood in the long line, and made our way home. Popcorn and a funny movie was a great way to end the day. We are so proud, we all stayed awake for the whole thing, even though it was after 10:00 when it ended!