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79 People in 18 Days
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The Trip We Have Decided Never To Do Again Even Though We Loved Seeing You All Very Much
Now that Bernadette is feeling a little more able to leave the house and see people (the Amtrak adventure in February helped with that) we decided to make a road trip to California. Bernadette especially wanted to attend an engagement party for a young friend because she knew she would not be able to make it to the wedding. We also wanted to see some friends and family we have not seen since the pandemic shut down in 2020, and some even longer. Here is an accounting of that trip.
Saturday, May 11, 2024 – Departure
We had a comedy of errors trying to get out of town this morning. Everything was going wrong in terms of last-minute preparations and fitting stuff into the car. I took out the compost and lost my grip on it, spilling it in the garden and had to pick it up. Better there than on the kitchen floor, I guess. Setting out the plants in the kitchen sink for the neighbor to water while we are gone got in the way of trying to eat up the last few things in the fridge and then rinse the dishes. We thought we were going to leave in the morning and get to Ashland around 3 PM. We finally made it out of the house around 1:30, and then had a couple of errands to run to the post office and the library (of course the library).
We Finally hit the road around 2 PM. We were further delayed by some traffic getting out of Portland. At last, we were on the open freeway headed south. We made a couple of stops for gas and stretches. It was a hot drive. Not only the hottest part of the day, but also unusually hot for May. Bernadette had bought me a couple of cooling cloths for my trip to Kenya coming up in July, and I brought one along to try it out in California. It worked nicely, wetting it down and then putting it around my neck kept me comfortable. It also helped that the AC in the car was working fine.
We finally rolled in to our hotel in Ashland about 8 PM. We unloaded stuff in the room and went off to the Co-op, which was only open for another hour, to get some food at their hot bar and pick up a couple other groceries for on the road tomorrow.
Sunday, May 12, 2024 – Sacramento
We got up at 7:30 so we could go next-door for breakfast at the Morning Glory Café at 8:00 when they opened. We wanted to get on the road as early as possible to avoid the afternoon heat. There were a few people waiting outside, but we all got in and got seated. We sat at a booth inside toward the back near the restrooms, which had amusing labels on the doors: “Humans” and “Whatever, just wash your hands.”
When we headed out, we pulled into the gas station near the freeway, but decided not to fill up at that price (close to five dollars… little did we know…). So we hit the road. We drove for a while and when the gas tank got down to a quarter, we stopped. We had been watching gas prices and it looked like four-ninety-something was indeed the going rate so we filled up. Then, of course a few minutes later down the road, we saw a sign for $4.69. Oh well.
The day was quite hot and we kept the air conditioner on. I used my neck cooler. We stopped several times to have a snack and stretch. At the Weed (named for the nearby town) rest area I took pictures of Mount Shasta. It is so good to see it covered with snow. In the past I have seen it naked and Shasta lake empty.
We made it to Sacramento around 4:45pm and found Jessica‘s house just fine. We had met Jessica in Chicago when we visited her Mom, Liz H., in Chicago in February, and she had invited us to stay with her on this road trip. She gave us beverages and we visited for a little while and then her ex who is still a good friend, Jamie, came over and we all went to dinner at Thai House. I had my favorite: Pad See Ew. Yum.
Back at the house, Jamie said good-night and headed home. Jessica, Bernadette and I, and Jack the dog, sat out on the back patio for a while and enjoyed the lovely evening. Jessica plugged in a little string of lights. Her daughter, Kelsey, arrived from Reno. (She had been driving to get here.)
Monday, May 13, 2004 – Sacramento
We went over to Barbara and Michael’s house which was only about 10 minutes from Jessica’s. Barbara is an old roommate of Bernadette’s from Mills College. They fixed us a lovely brunch: scrambled eggs, potatoes, gluten-free toast.
We spent the day visiting, sitting on their shaded patio for a while, then back inside when it got too hot. They have a dog almost exactly like Jessica‘s dog, Jack. We were startled when we first arrived to see almost the same dog here that we had just left at Jessica’s. This dog’s name is Sarah. Barbara and Michael also have two cats: Diego and Frida.
Michael and I got talking about music and he allowed me to share a couple of the videos I have posted on YouTube. Then he talked me through connecting my phone to his stereo via Bluetooth so I could play the recording of “Prayer” for them. It sounded really great on their system! The time slipped by and we didn’t return to Jessica’s house until about 10pm. Fortunately she had given us a key so we were able to let ourselves in.
Tuesday, May 14, 2004 – to Santa Rosa
Bernadette had arranged to have brunch with her old law school friend, Drew, at Bella Blue Café, which she could walk to. I stayed at the house and visited with Jessica in the kitchen.
We were eating an orange and I felt what I thought at first was the juice from the orange squirting on me. I quickly realized it was too much to be just the orange squirting and glanced up. Oddly, water was dripping from the overhead light fixture. We sprang into action and moved stuff out of the away. Jessica grabbed a bowl to put under the drip and ran upstairs to turn off the valve to the toilet. She apparently had had a similar plumbing experience some years ago in which a chunk of the kitchen ceiling had fallen.
With the valve off, the dripping slowed and stopped. In the meantime, Jessica called her plumber who promised to be there shortly. Of course, “shortly” to some people means something different than it might to me.
Bernadette came back about 10am. We packed up, wished Jessica good luck with the leak, and headed to Santa Rosa, about a 2-hour drive. Steve and Lori met us at the house and we immediately started chatting before we even unloaded stuff from the car. Lori is my former sister-in-law, and still very much family to us. Steve and I migrated to the sofa and Bernadette and Lori sat at the kitchen bar.
Eventually we unloaded our stuff from the car and then walked downtown (10 minutes) to a Puerto Rican restaurant for dinner. I had an interesting meal of fried plantains, black beans, Spanish rice, and avocado. It was delicious.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 – Santa Rosa
We spent the morning with Lori and Steve at the house, then headed off to lunch at Sea Thai with Tim and Lisa. Tim is another old friend of Bernadette’s from law school. When we told Steve where we were going for lunch he said, “Oh, my son Paul who has the new baby works there! Ask for him and introduce yourselves.”
When we arrived at Sea Thai, we found Tim and Lisa at a table on the patio and joined them. During the conversation we mentioned we wanted to find Paul. Lisa’s jaw dropped and she said, “You know Paul?? Paul with the baby??” We laughed and explained our connection to Paul. We asked our waiter if Paul was working today, he said yes, and a while later Paul did come out to say hello. Apparently, Lisa has eaten there a few times and has an acquaintance with Paul-the-waiter, who will forever now be known as Paul-with-the-baby.
We took a little down time in the afternoon back at the house, then walked to dinner across the near-by park to Spinster Sisters Café with Matt and Laura, more old friends of Bernadette’s. We sat in a lovely outdoor space; the evening was perfect. We found some food we could eat, including a delicious chocolate nondairy ice cream with blackberry caramel.
Thursday, May 16, 2024 – Santa Rosa to Oakland
We spent the morning at the house doing laundry and visiting with Steve and Lori. Finally we packed up, said our goodbyes and headed out. As we were packing the car, I noticed that the right rear tire was low. So we stopped at the gas station right by the freeway and pumped it up. There was no gauge on the air hose so I just filled it until it kind of look like the other tires.
We made a quick stop near San Rafael to see Georgie (the mom of Bernadette’s Mills classmate, Adrienne) whom Bernadette has visited in the past. We had phoned ahead so her caretaker knew to expect us. We were a little later than we had hoped and she was ready for her nap so we just stayed long enough to say hello and be remembered.
We made it into Oakland despite crowded freeways and crazy drivers. One crazy driver zoomed up behind us really fast and scared the sh** out of us. We thought he was going to hit us but then at the last minute he swerved around to our right, thought about cutting in front of us, then swerved around the car in front of us as well.
During our time driving around the East Bay, we noticed that there seemed to be a preponderance of Teslas among the crazy drivers, the ones who zoom in and out of lanes as though they own the road. And then I though… hm… maybe they DO own the road…
We found our way to Laurie and Allen’s house. They have a wonderful arrangement of three houses in a row. They are in one, her mom is in the next one, and their daughter is in the third one. We’re staying in a little “cottage” (converted garage) behind the middle house.
We had dinner plans with my niece Sylvie and family, and Laurie and Allen had their own dinner plans, so we sat and visited with them in their kitchen while they prepped for their dinner. Then we headed off to Alameda for dinner with Sylvie, Eric, and their baby, William.
William is one year old and on the verge of walking. He is full of energy and curiosity. He has recently figured out how to hop on his knees, so is becoming more mobile day by day. Rather than bundle him up and go out, we decided to get some food to bring in and eat at the house.
We had a great visit and lost track of the time, so ended up driving back to Lori and Allen‘s place after dark which was a little scary, due to traffic and unfamiliar roads. We’re going to try not to be out after dark anymore.
Friday, May 17, 2024 – Oakland
Got up this morning and dressed. Did my daily word puzzles. Bernadette emailed a tsunami map to Sylvie and Eric, showing where they could go in the event of an earthquake. Alameda is low county, but they happen to live near the high spot, the only part of Alameda that wouldn’t be inundated.
Bernadette had a zoom appointment this morning so my plan was to head out and find some breakfast and bring it back. I got in the car and drove a couple blocks and realize the right rear tire did not feel good. I pulled over and looked at it and it was flat again. So I decided, OK, we got to take care of this, and looked on my phone for a nearby garage. Luckily there was one literally a block away. I had to drive slowly around the block to get there and pulled in. They said, sure no problem they could fix it in about an hour. It would cost me maybe 50 bucks. So I left the car and started walking, getting some steps, and headed for Mariposa bakery.
I found some egg patties at Mariposa bakery, a loaf of gluten-free bread, and a couple of little treats. But no real breakfast I could bring Bernadette. So I walked back to Rockridge Café and got some scrambled eggs and potatoes to go.
The garage called and said the inside of the tire was all chewed up from having driven on it at low pressure. It needed a new tire so he ordered one, to be delivered in the afternoon. Not the same brand, but exact same size and weight so it would be OK.
We had lunch with Sal, one of Bernadette’s friends from childhood, at Monkey Thai in Alameda. Sal grew up around the corner from Bernadette and they attended K-12 together. When we told him about the car, he said he would just come pick us up. That was very nice because then we didn’t have to navigate any public transit. The food was delicious. I ate too much again. We brought home most of Bernadette’s.
We had time for a short nap, then the garage called about 4:00. I walked over and picked up the car. He showed me the old tire. Yup, it was full of little rubber bits on the inside, all chewed up. He had not only given us the new tire, he also checked air in the other tires and the oil level. What a treat to find a decent honest mechanic. It might be worth moving to Oakland for that alone.
About 6:15 we went up to the big house to regroup for dinner with our hosts. We walked over to a restaurant called Saffron, which is right next to the garage where the car was, just a couple of minutes’ walk. We had a delicious dinner; mine was grilled salmon and shrimp and rice.
Afterwards, we went to Nana‘s (Laurie’s mom) house right in front of our cottage and sat at the table with grapes and sweet cherries. I shared some of my YouTube videos. Nana used to play piano just like my Mom. She had a book of Chopin sitting on the piano; it looked so much like home. She’s also still playing tennis, keeping quite active at 93.
Saturday, May 18, 2024 – Oakland
We ate at the Crepevine restaurant for breakfast and again for lunch today. I would have been happy to eat there again for dinner if we hadn’t had other plans. Breakfast was with Bernadette’s brother, Francois, and niece, also named Bernadette. Lunch was with Bernadette’s old law school friends, Ed and Monica.
After lunch, Bernadette and our host Laurie went for a walk while I stayed at our little cottage for a nap. Honestly, eating out all the time and napping every day sounds like a great life. Too bad it comes with a price, which I discovered when I stepped on the scale after we were back home in Portland.
Our evening plan was an engagement party for Katie, the daughter of Claire W, another law school friend of Bernadette’s. This was originally the whole reason we were making the trip. Bernadette had told them she would not be able to attend the wedding in November in Cancun (logistical details I won’t go into here), so they invited us to the engagement party instead. It was to be held at the daughter’s father’s house (Claire’s ex) in Point Richmond.
Claire came to our little cottage about 3:30. We visited for a while then ordered a Lyft to take us to the party. They had told us parking would be tight, so we decided not to bring our own car. It turned out “tight” was an understatement. More like non-existent. The house was down down down at the end of a windy road, directly overlooking the water. The driver dropped us off and we left him to maneuver turning around while we made our way down down down the steps and walkway, through a lovely landscaped front yard, to the door.
The party was a pleasant chit-chatty event with little nibbles and beverages. I didn’t know anyone there, so I pretended to be gregarious for a while, saying hello and introducing myself to a few people. Then I burned out and sat down next to Claire and Bernadette and just enjoyed the view of the water and the sunset.
Later when we were ready to go, we caught a ride with a couple of guys we had been talking with. They also lived in Oakland and it was not too much out of their way. They very kindly dropped us off right where we were staying. Claire, who is an adept Lyfter, had ordered her own ride back to her hotel.
Sunday, May 19, 2024 – Oakland – Mills Potluck
Our second “big event” for this trip was a potluck with 18 women, all Mills College alumnae, all of whom had been in Orchard Meadow dorm with Bernadette. Liz V. graciously offered her home in Oakland for the event. After a little breakfast of left-overs in our cottage, Bernadette and I headed over to Liz’s house to assist with a little prep. We moved some furniture around and did a little cleaning up, and then people started arriving. They came from Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Fremont, Orinda, Turlock and other locations, as well as from closer-by. Everyone who had said they would come showed up. In all there were 18 attendees. I started trying to remember names by creating little memory tricks (the woman named Anna kind of reminded me of a younger version of my grandmother, who’s middle name was Anna), but after a while I gave up. There were just too many.
And there was so much food! There were people sitting around the sofa with munchies and a sushi tray. There were people standing around the dining room with other munchies and the desserts laid out on the buffet. Along with all the healthy stuff (fresh fruit, salads, etc) there were THREE cakes and a fruit tart, all gluten-free especially for us, so of course we had to eat some of all of them. Susan is a pastry chef and made a cake she called a hummingbird cake with cream cheese frosting. Patricia‘s daughter made a two-layer cake with glazed fruit on top. Someone else made a gingerbread cake with applesauce.
I sort of hovered for a while, meeting people and munching on things and then retreated to a quiet corner. It was a marvelous event. Everyone seemed to really enjoy seeing each other and catching up. Things finally wound down late in the afternoon. We helped with some cleanup and then made our way back to our little cottage around five.
We had offered to get takeout for dinner for Laurie and Allen and Norma (Nana). Laurie texted me their order so we stopped at Barney’s on College Avenue and ordered food. Bernadette and I were not very hungry so we split a beyond burger. We took the food back to Laurie and Allan‘s kitchen and enjoyed our final evening with them.
Monday, May 20, 2024 – Clare L, to Mill Valley
We did the bulk of the packing up on Sunday evening, so Monday morning we were able to get up, shower, and load up the car pretty early. We said our goodbyes to Laurie and Allan and headed off to Clare L’s house in Berkeley for breakfast. We spent a lovely morning with Clare. Her partner Shayna made a brief appearance between online meetings. We had eggs and toast and ate up a few things from our cooler.
About 11:15 we headed out to Mill Valley to meet up with our next host, Cindy, another friend from Mills College days. She had texted to meet her at the Depot Plaza in downtown Mill Valley for lunch with her and her daughter, Erin. We found the Plaza, found them, found a table in the shade, and some food we could eat from the adjacent café. After a while the shade got too cold so we moved to a sunnier table.
After lunch, we followed Cindy up the winding roads (and I mean UP) to her house on Mt. Tam and unpacked. The roads here are very narrow and twisty and finding a place to park is a bit of a challenge. Our car is about 100 yards further up around the next bend.
A while later, we drove over to Cindy’s son Bryan’s house in the same neighborhood just five minutes away. Cindy’s granddaughter Ella was there with her babysitter. We went for a little stroll up the street and back with Ella pushing the little pink stroller with her baby dolls in it. Bryan came out from his home office and his wife Meg, a Morrison Foerster lawyer, arrived home from her job. Cindy’s husband, John, came over with some takeout Indian food. We enjoyed a delicious feast.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024 – Mill Valley
We had kind of a day off today, hanging out at Cindy’s house with her grandson Cormack (daughter Erin’s baby). Later in the day, Erin and Devon joined us and we all had dinner together.
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 – Claire W, then back to Oakland
Today we had arranged to have a day with Claire W in Mill Valley. Bernadette did a lot of the packing the night before to facilitate an earlier start in the morning. We got up and made our eggs and finished packing up the car. Cindy drove her car and we followed her down to where Claire was staying near downtown. We walked around a little, saw the library where they had an interesting display from the Prison Arts Project. We also saw the nearby park where Erin had had her wedding, and we found a cute shop with funny cards and mugs. (“Mill Valley. Where Democrats live like Republicans.”)
We had lunch at the Old Mill Center across the street from where Claire was staying. This is an outdoor mall with little shops and eateries. We got food at one place, and nearby there was a crêpe shop that had gluten-free buckwheat crêpes. I got one with apples and pear for dessert. I had first had buckwheat crêpes in Paris some years ago.
Cindy left us after lunch. Claire and Bernadette and I went back to Claire‘s place for a pit stop, then walked around the rest of the afternoon. A couple times I walked back (a few blocks) to where the car was parked by Claire’s B&B in order to move it because the parking was only for two hours between nine and six.
At about 5 o’clock we went back to the main plaza and found Erin and Devon by chance. We joined them in the shade and Cindy also showed up and we all hung out for a little while. After they left, Claire and Bernadette and I went over to the market and got some dinner to go from the hot and cold bar. We walked back to Claire’s place to eat. After dinner we said our goodbyes and headed for Oakland about 7 PM. Traffic was light on the freeway and we found our way to Louisa’s without a problem.
Thursday, May 23, 2024 – Oakland
We enjoyed visiting with our hosts and long-time friends Louisa and Peter in the morning. For lunch, we met Bernadette’s high school friends, Jeanne and Kathy, at a restaurant in San Leandro called Paradiso.
After a little down time in the afternoon, Louisa and Peter took us to dinner at an Israeli restaurant in Piedmont called Pomella where we had some yummy middle eastern food.
After dinner we enjoyed Louisa and Peter’s hot tub in their beautiful back yard. They even provided us with complimentary slippers and robes for getting to and from the tub.
Friday, May 24, 2024 – Bonnie – Susie and Steve and family
We had breakfast at the house and spent the morning visiting with Louisa and Peter. When it was time for lunch, we picked up Bonnie at her house, not far from where we were, and took her to lunch. When Bernadette was a young child, she lived with her parents in a small house behind “the big house.” Bonnie was a teenager in the big house. Bernadette credits Bonnie and her mother, Hattie, with inspiring her to read books and survive.
We were happy to take Bonnie to Paradiso for lunch since we had scoped it out the day before. We enjoyed another wonderful meal, then went with Bonnie back to her house which was only a few blocks from the restaurant. We continued our visit around her kitchen table. I pulled up some of my music videos on YouTube for her, which she really enjoyed. Bonnie said her late husband, Kenneth, had played the flute and would have enjoyed the music. When Bernadette was four years old, she had been the flower girl in Bonnie and Ken’s wedding.
Finally saying our goodbyes, we went back to Louisa and Peter’s around 4PM, only to head out again around 5PM for dinner with Susie and Steve and family. Susie is Sal’s sister (whom we had seen earlier). Sal, Susie, Steve, and Bernadette all grew up together in the same neighborhood and attended O’Dowd High School in Oakland together, so these friendships go WAY back.
We went to their house and visited with them and their daughter Sophia for a bit, then headed off to the restaurant. Their other daughter Josie and her husband Alex met us there. We had a wonderful time, sharing pictures and catching up. The restaurant finally had to kick us out when they were closing up at 9PM.
We went back to Steve and Susie‘s house and said our goodbyes. We drove home and visited with Louisa and Peter at the table and decided not to get in the hot tub this evening. Their dog, Pipita, was not feeling well, which was cause for concern. (We later learned she was doing much better.)
Saturday, May 25, 2024 — Oakland – Paul, Becky
We had a quiet morning at the house with Louisa and Peter, breakfast “at home”. We had some time for visiting and then we packed up and said our goodbyes.
We met Bernadette’s long-time friend from Oakland, Paul, for lunch at Burma Superstar. Paul is a priest who hired Bernadette to work at St Benedict’s Rectory when she was a sophomore in high school. He and the other priest, Father Bill (now deceased), were major parental influences in her life. They remained in contact after Bernadette stopped working for the church when she graduated from Mills College and they have remained close. We had a nice outdoor space on the street, on a covered deck in what used to be the parking lane. Bernadette got a bowl of broccoli with some tofu. I had vegetables in a red curry.
We lingered for a few hours over lunch, visiting with Paul, and then headed a short distance away to Christ Episcopal Church at 3:15 for Becky‘s choir concert. Becky is another high school friend from Oakland who had recently visited us in Portland. The program was Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and other pieces.
We rendezvoused with Becky after the concert. She had invited us to come to a dinner event that evening for their retiring choir conductor at the clubhouse at a golf course. So we joined the party and met some new friends. We were pleased to find several things we could eat on the buffet: salmon, rice, vegetables. Then we followed Becky to her place for the night.
Sunday, May 26, 2024 – Georgie, and Santa Rosa
We went out to breakfast with Becky at a place called Elio’s Café (a “Denny’s” sort of place). After that we made a quick stop at Safeway to pick up some flowers for our next visit, Georgie. We had hugs and goodbyes in the parking lot and went our separate ways.
We headed north to San Rafael for another quick stop at Georgie’s. We had stopped briefly on our way down and wanted to see her one more time. She is over 90 now and we knew she would not be up for a long visit, just long enough to say hi and drop off the flowers.
Then on to Adrian’s brother Mark’s house in Penngrove. Mark and Annie have a lovely large home with a bit of land around it. All three of his adult children were there to see us: Sylvie, Jim, and Ellie. Per family custom, there was a large jigsaw puzzle in progress on the main dining table. It was a picture of cats in all kinds of “yoga” positions. At some point someone ordered some take-out food for lunch. The puzzle was finally done late in the day.
We left around nine and made a quick stop at Amy‘s Drive-Thru in Rohnert Park for a special late dinner: gluten-free veggie burger and dairy free shake. Then on up to Santa Rosa, back to Lori and Steve’s house, where we figured we’d be further north for starting the long drive home to Oregon
Monday, May 27, 2024 – Memorial Day – Santa Rosa – Julia, Lori & Steve
It was hot in California in May. Bernadette had a small jar of coconut oil which she uses on her hair. Normally it is solid at room temperature but in the car in the heat, it was completely liquid. It escaped the jar and stained the blue bag we had packed it in. I tried to wash it but completely failed. Bernadette had asked me to use dish soap but I thought liquid soaps were all the same. So last night when I was scrounging in the laundry room to find a bucket to soak it in, I just used the liquid laundry detergent. This morning, I tried to rinse it and hang it up in the shower to dry. I should have put it out on the deck where it would have dried in 10 minutes.
We spent the morning at the house, then went across town to meet our last-but-not-least friend we wanted to see on this trip, Julia. Bernadette met Julia when she worked at the prosecutor’s office in Anchorage. Julia returned to CA and worked for the Santa Rosa DA’s Office until she decided to become a self-employed criminal appellate attorney. We’d stayed with Julia before, but it had been a long time since we’d last visited her. We enjoyed looking at her remodeled kitchen and other home improvements. We walked for about an hour around her neighborhood and through a graveyard. Then over to Goji Kitchen for lunch. We had a lovely shaded table on the patio.
Back to Lori and Steve’s for a quiet afternoon. We walked to dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Haku. They have a sushi roll on the menu called “What She’s Having.” I laughed out loud and had to tell the young waitress about the scene in the movie “When Harry met Sally”.
After dinner we walked around the corner to an ice cream shop where we got a delicious dairy free chocolate scoop which we shared. Back at the house, Bernadette helped Lori address postcards for her upcoming art show. Lori retired from a career in tech to pursue her artistic talents. As an artist she is having a wonderful fulfilling second chapter.
I had forgotten about the blue bag.
Tuesday, May 28, 2024 – Heading Home – Ashland
Our intention was to get up early and hit the road promptly. You know how intentions are.
In the morning, I remembered that the blue bag was still hanging in the shower. It wasn’t really clean, so I decided to put it in the washing machine, which was having a problem and not working very well. When I took it out of the machine, I realized some kind of invisible inner lining, like a spray-on protectant, got all destroyed in the washing machine. Lovely. It was a mess and soaking wet, so I decided to put it in the dryer but figured I’d better not use any heat lest I destroy it further. When I finally took it out of the dryer, mostly dry, the inside was all white flaky stuff, coming off, and all over the dryer. I knew Bernadette was going to kill me.
So when it was time to wake Bernadette, I took the bag up to her and sheepishly explained what had happened. Of course she was upset, and of course I felt guilty. But it led to a great conversation with our couples counselor later.
We stopped over at my nephew Jim’s cottage, around the corner from his Mom, Lori, from whom he rents. He’s also in tech and works remotely from home, but had enough time to give us the nickel tour of his cozy place. After that, we walked down the street to the Luther Burbank Gardens gift shop to pick up a couple gifts. Then we finally hit the road.
We decided to head north out of town and take the winding road up across the hills. We had come into town that way once many years ago, but it seemed more treacherous than we remembered and made for a very anxious ride for Bernadette. We decided never to do that again. Finally, we made it across the hills, and out into the valley and got out to I-5 at Williams and headed north. We managed to stay mostly cool with some use the AC. Not quite as hot as on the way down.
We came into Ashland, Oregon from the south exit, checked into the motel, and ordered some food at Sawaddee Asian restaurant which I picked up. We split a Pad See Ew and fresh rolls, and finally fell into bed after a long day.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 – Seven Feathers incident – Home At Last
We planned to get up at 7:30 get dressed and go next-door to Morning Glory Cafe for breakfast at eight and be on the road by nine, but when we arrived next-door we found they were closed. The sign on their door says “Open Thursday through Sunday”. So, Plan B, we packed up everything and loaded up the car, and drove out to the Wild Goose Café near the freeway. A place more frequent by the passing truck drivers than the local progressives, I think, but they still had gluten-free bread and nondairy creamer. We had a lovely simple breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, and toast, and then hit the freeway.
Everything was fine until we got to Seven Feathers rest stop where we have often stopped for gas and a stretch. Bernadette was headed into the gift shop while I got the gas. When the car at the pump in front of me pulled away I could see Bernadette sitting on the sidewalk in front of the store. I thought, “uh, oh, this doesn’t look good.” She was just sitting there kind of dazed.
I hurried over and asked if she was OK. She explained she had tripped over the curb and hit the pavement. The fall had chipped a tooth, injured her hand, and scraped her knee. I was relieved a moment later when two uniformed security people appeared. They were quite helpful and were also paramedics so they could provide some medical support. We walked Bernadette slowly inside and found her a chair. They checked her out while I moved the car away from the pumps and into a real parking spot.
Back inside, they were filling out a medical incident report and I could see Bernadette was in good hands. So we spent a little time there for rest and recovery from the shock. We were able to call our dentist and, miracle of miracles, get Bernadette an appointment for the next morning.
Continuing on, we reached home a little after 4:00. Bernadette had previously scheduled an appointment with her acupuncturist for 5:30, so we were still in good time for that. I unloaded the car, telling her to take it easy.
Happy Ending: In the morning, the dentist had her tooth all fixed up good as new in less than an hour.
* THE END *
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Adrian Dee, flutist, composer 