With a sad heart

As many of you know, our brother-in-law (Brent) has been battling cancer for the past year. When I called from Seattle yesterday to provide my daily check-in with my mom, she told me Brent had taken a bad turn and things did not look good. So I cancelled the remaining days of the trip, got on I90 and started East. 

Brent passed away this evening while at home with Rhoda and one of his daughters. I don't know any specifics at this point. I've covered 1,650 miles since yesterday and I'm 550 miles from South Bend and will be there in the tomorrow. From there, I'll be heading to MI.

Many of you have been following this blog and were wondering where the recent updates were. I'm sorry to have to deliver such sad news. I've so enjoyed sharing this trip with all of you and reading your comments. For now, I think this will be the last post to this blog. My only request is that you you keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. I'd like to share one of my favorite pictures of Brent as I close out this blog. 

Meeting "the Reggie!"

As most of you know, Charm and I love to watch "Diner, Drive-ins, &
Dives." Portland has been visited a number of times and I took this
chance to stop by Pine State Biscuits. "The Reggie" is their signature
item and I had to try it.

Pause for eating....

Holy cow this thing is GOOD. You should only eat one of these every
few months but they are yummy. A perfect homemade biscuit topped to
fried chicken, bacon, and sausage gravy!!!!!!!

Sinful goodness.

Change of plans...

The plan for today was to head to ID, but as luck would have it, I reconnected with a dear friend for my Univ. of AZ days and am going to head to Seattle for the night to visit Dana and Jim. I'm so excited to see them. It's been years and we have a lot to catch up about. Plus, I've never been to Seattle, so that's an added bonus. 

So it's time to clean up, pack up, and get some breakfast. Then I can pick up the bikes and get on the road.

Some comic relief

I figured this blog hasn't made enough people laugh so I thought I'd add a post that would crack some of you up. I had a great night at the White Eagle last night, slept really well and woke up rested and ready for another fun-filled day. 

As with most people do, I needed to visit the restroom, which is down the hall (no I didn't walk out in the hall naked!). I got to the bath room and needed to do something with my keycard, so I placed it on the window sill. While I was in there, the keycard blew out of the window and into a little courtyard that can only be accessed from windows of 3 rooms: my room, the restroom (little tiny window), and the window of a stranger. For a brief moment, I thought I might fit out the window, but the reality of the situation was, I was locked out of my room and didn't have a lot of options. I'm staying at a bar, not a hotel, there isn't a front desk to go to and get a new key!

I knew the bar opened at 11, so I figured the worst case would be I would take a nice long morning walk, but as fate would have it, the coffee fairy was delivering coffee to the end of the hall and she was able to get me into the bar where a new key could be made. 

Moral of the story...wear shorts with pockets so you don't have to put your keycard on the window sill. I know, I could have put it on the floor, but seriously, a public restroom floor?

I made it to Portland!

While it was hard to say goodbye to Jim and Caren (just love those two!), I was excited to get to Portland. It is a town I used to visit a lot for work, and I just really like it. So I started out on the short drive and took the scenic route. It was great. I drove though vineyards and farm land. Very relaxing. Then I got to Portland. Until today, I'd never driven in Portland. i had always flown in and taken the trains everywhere. Now I know why I did that. It was crazy. Thank goodness for my GPS. I would never find anything!

In any case, I've stopped and met Dan and Eric from Portland Design Works. They are friends of a friend and make great bike accessories! They were nice enough to store the bikes in their warehouse while I stayed the night in town. It just seemed like a safer idea than leaving them locked to the back of my car. 

So I'm staying at the White Eagle Saloon & Hotel! It's a micro brewery/restaurant/hotel. They have live music every night and I'll be heading down there for some dinner and music in a little bit. I'm staying in the "Bunk Room," which has a set of bunk beds and a sink in the corner. There are showers and rest rooms down the hall. 

It should be a fun night. They even distill their own whiskey. I'm not driving, so I'm going to try some adult beverages!

For tomorrow, I'm not sure where I'm headed. There is a chance I'll be heading to Seattle. If Seattle doesn't pan out, I'm headed to Idaho. So I guess we'll see what tomorrow bring. For now, I'm going to get a little rest, grab some food and listen to some live music!

Corvallis & OSU

Jim gave me a tour of campus at Oregon State and of Corvallis. What a nice campus. Tall beautiful old trees line the roads adding to the classic college campus feel. OSU seems like a neat place with a great line of "college" stores, bars, and eateries along the edge of campus.

Not far from campus is the downtown next to the river. It's just got a nice vibe. Funky little shops, etc.

Then I got to meet Jim & Caren's neighbors (Keri & Jepson...sorry if I spelled those wrong). There is a nice little trail between the houses. It's like taking a little hike inthe woods to go see your neighbors They have this amazing fountain that Jepson made. It's really more
like a 20' waterfall. Jepson creates some wonderful art using old barn wood. It's absolutey wondrous. It's a type of marketree (again not really sure how to spell that). It really is wonderful stuff. We're lucky to own a piece he gave Charmelle on her last visit.

Then there are the gardens! Keri has done some amazing things in their yard. Beautiful flowers all growing on the hill sides. I was just blown away. I'll try to post some pictures shortly. I've just had too much fun visiting with Jim & Caren to take my laptop out of its bag.

Day one of the return trip

OK, so heading north and west isn't really what most would consider
returning to Sourh Bend from Tahoe. However, for my trip home, the
first stop is Corvallis, OR.

Our wonderful friends, Caren & Jim, live here now and it's my first
opportunity to visit them and see their AMAZING house. Such fun!!!!!!!

Of course today started prettry early. We got up at 4 am and got
Charmelle to the airport for her flight back home. Then I headed
north. I've always read about Bend, OR being a great place to live so
I wanted to swing through there on my way to Corvallis.

The drive to Bend was pretty cool. Huge highland meadows and mountains
along the drive. Photos are coming soon. Bend itself is a pretty cool
feeling town in the middle of great outdoor adventures. All the basic
things are there even some extras like REI & Trader Joes!

The drive on US20 from Bend to Corvallis is beautiful. I followed a
ridge line up the mountain while looking at Mt Bachelor and Mt
Wasington. Once I was over the summitt I had 11 mile of a 6% grade and
lots of curves as I followed a river down the mountain. It was a
really pretty drive through national forests, more pine trees than you
can imagine and beautiful mountain scenes.

Two interesting things about OR though. 1. You are, by law, not
allowed to pump your own gas. There is no self-serve option here. 2.
Many OR roads have 55 mph speed limits. Roads that would have been 65
elsewhere are 55 here. Just something I haven't seems in a long time.
It sure boasted my mileage!