Road trip to Portland

King City, OR:

Sunday morning is the day I decided to drive to Portland as the weather looked the best for the upcoming week. Got the car loaded up, kissed Bob good-bye and headed out the door. I guess Bowie thought he was coming with me. He slipped out the door as I was heading out. He's an indoor cat and the only time he had ever been outside was on my shoulder.

First place he headed was under the trailer, then ran under Bob's truck. I was trying to nab him, but he wasn't having any of that. Next stop, under my car

NOTE: Last night I typed a very long blog which I thought was automatically saving. When I was done and turned off the computer a message came up in red saying there was an error saving. The internet had gone down. The blog start above was all that remained. Bummer! I will do my best to remember what I wrote last night.

[Picking up where I left off] Next stop, under my car. I know enough about cats not to get too upset because the cat will pick up on the stress. I asked Bob to get out the cat toy (a length of twine with crumpled up waxed paper tied to the end of it). I dangled the wax paper where Bowie could see it, then dragged it around the wheel where he could only hear it. He "hunted" it and came out from under the car. I was able to snag him and got him back in the 5er.

Once again, I said good-bye to Bob, hopped in the car, and put a CD in the player for later when I was out of range of radio stations. It was 10:00 a.m. 

On the road heading north on US 395 in California, the wind picked up and there were some heavy-duty gusts that shook the car and blew lots of dust. As I turned northwest toward Susanville, I could see that it was snowing in the mountains; however, as the road climbed, it was obvious that the biggest snow shower was to the south of my location. Whew!

The road rapidly climbed up to 4,000' and there was a bit of light rain. The scenery changed from high desert to ponderosa and juniper forests. The drive through the mountains was uneventful and from time-to-time the clouds lifted and the sun came out for a few minutes. Up on the more exposed areas, wind whipped the branches on the trees. In one place it was obvious that a tree had been removed from the road earlier.

There was snow in the forest in some places but none on the road. I had pretty views of mountains (all the way from Weed, CA up through Eugene, OR) with snow above a certain elevation. The trees looked like powdered sugar had been sprinkled on them.

Shastina (cinder cone near Mt. Shasta)

Reminders of why I love springtime in the Pacific Northwest abounded: vibrant green fields, cherry and plum trees blossoming pink and white, new leaves budding out on the trees, daffodils popping up along the freeway and sheep with their new lambs out in the pastures. I felt very lucky to make it north between storms. Along I-5 on Sunday there was very little rain, mostly sun.

When I got to Mom's house, we watched "60 Minutes" and "Amazing Race."  I have classy accommodations--Mom put a Hershey's Kiss on my pillow!

Monday afternoon, we walked around Washington Square Mall for 1/2 hour. Best place to walk when it's rainy, cold and windy is in the mall. We ended up taking our coats off because we got too warm. 

At 2:00 p.m., we went to Barnes & Noble. Mom's friends are getting her a Nook for her birthday, so we went for a tutorial on how to use it. Jason spent about 1/2 hour showing us the features and answering our questions.

After Barnes & Noble, we went to see "The Artist." Both of us enjoyed the show. Although I admit, with no dialogue and lots of music, I slept through part of it.

Today, we went to see "The Vow." I had seen it before but thought Mom would enjoy it. (With my Regal Rewards Card, I received a free movie ticket when we went yesterday, so I used that today.) We both enjoyed the movie. It's very romantic and based on a true story.

After the movie, our friends Kimmie and Ky took us to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes for Mom's birthday. They are wonderful friends. (Mom met Kimmie when they both worked at the same place.)

When my old computer hard drive died, I bought a new laptop. Because I had no need for my old monitor, tower, speakers, and keyboard, we took those to my son, Michael, and he can do with them what he wants.

From Michael's  place, we visited my nephew, Scott, and his family for a few minutes. Then it was off to Barnes & Noble again. Mom took in her new Nook and they upgraded the software to the latest version. She bought a screen protector, which they installed, and she got a nice cover for it. They helped her set up her account as well. Tomorrow we will hook her Nook up to the computer and she can start downloading books to it.

About our weather...this morning around 11:00 a.m., the snow was coming down in big wet flakes, but it was quite windy so the snow was blowing horizontally across the golf course. Very beautiful watching it out the living room window. It was too warm for it to stick.

The Oregon Coast (Lincoln City) had eight inches of snow down to sea level--a record in the 100 years records have been kept!

Tonight I talked to Bob on the phone. He said it was so windy in Sparks last night, it kept him awake all night. Tonight, he closed two of our slide outs because of the wind...it was causing the awnings to flap very loudly.

Isn't it spring next week? I guess winter is going out with a roar.

For St. Patrick's Day, we thought about going out to an Irish Pub for corned beef  and cabbage dinner; however, we could not get reservations. My sister, Janyce, is going to cook a corned beef dinner and have us over on Saturday night. Yummy! I'll get to meet her boyfriend, Charlie. She first told us about him when we visited in October. She's crazy about him.

As far as my return trip to Sparks, I'm keeping an eye on the weather. Looks like maybe Monday or Tuesday next week. I bet there will be a lot more snow over the passes on my way home, but hopefully not on the roads!