Oregon

One Month In

We arrived in Klamath Falls a month ago today.

We are still stuck in that awkward time between agreeing on a price and actually taking possession of the house and the big hold up is the bank’s appraisal, there is a 4 week backlog. At this rate we will have to get lucky to get into the house by Christmas. We have agreed to extend our stay in the AirBnB until 12/21. The Host wrote back saying she was going to block off the place until the 5th of January, just in case we need longer.

Both the rental car and the Mini were returned to their respective homes this afternoon. On further troubleshooting it was determined that both the #2 and #4 cylinders were reading bad. Because we had the coil pack on #1 replaced in May and now #2 & #4 were acting up, we agreed to go ahead and change the coil pack on #3 because sure enough in a couple weeks that probably would have started acting up as well. Add in the cast of the rental car for a week and are out over $600.

Over the weekend I developed some pain in the upper left of my mouth. It really didn’t feel too bad, until this morning when the pain increased to about a 3 of 10. I though maybe it was time to see a dentist. There were 10 listed that were in our dental insurance network. Several were a little too far away so I eliminated them. There were two practically next door to each other, not far from our favorite grocery store, so I called one of them hoping I could get to see the doctor this week. The receptionist said, “We just had a cancellation for 4:00 PM. Would that do?” I said, “See you then.” They took x-rays. After the dentist took a look them, she then poked and scraped and prodded around the two bad teeth. She said’ “I don’t see anything obvious, maybe it is just a sinus infection.” She prescribed an antibiotic and said if it doesn’t clear up in a week, call me. Then she added, “And call me if it does work.”

We have had a fairly mild November so far here, but things are about to get real with highs in the 40’s and lows in the upper teens to low 20s. And next week leading up to Thanksgiving there is a good chance of a bit of the white stuff.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #2

Started in one state (Alabama), crossed a whole second state (Mississippi) and ended in the third state (Louisiana.) Today’s drive was entirely Interstate free, we did cross over or under a couple though. Through out Alabama and Mississippi the state and county roads were mostly nicely maintained and smooth. As soon as we got to Louisiana we were greeted by the thud, thud, thud, of roads made from concrete segments. This annoying, constant, repetitive bumping is especially prevalent here because the soft underground allows the 100′ x 12′ segments to slowly over time shift up and down in comparison to it’s neighbors. So while Interstates in general suck, those in the Pelican State suck more.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #1

I set my phone’s alarm for 5:00 AM, to get an early start. I woke up at 4:45 on my own, so we just got going. All the stuff we are carrying seemed like an awful lot while it was sitting on the floor inside the AirBnB. It seemed like a lot when making 5 trips from room to car too. But with the back seats folded down flat the Mini swallowed it right up.

I don’t know it was just one of those days or was it because the both of us are so frazzled from the whirlwind last two weeks, but we had a very eventful day. Here are the Top Five:

  1. On one of the trips back into the AirBnB from the car I walked into the glass of the sliding door. Fortunately I was moving slow enough that no damage was done to me or it.
  2. During final cargo arrangement inside the car I accidentally bumped the horn button with my butt. Fortunately it was a short duration contact so that it didn’t disturb the pre-dawn neighborhood quiet.
  3. We were too early getting to the south side Dunkin’ Donuts, they don’t open until 6:00 on Saturday’s. There is another Dunkin’ on the other side of town, basically on the way, so that became our next stop. We were still too early. But only by a few minutes, so we waited.
  4. We were meeting a friend at the Cracker Barrel in Augusta for breakfast on our way west. We didn’t see her car and we didn’t see her in the dining room when we got there, so we sat on a couple of rocking chairs to wait. After a few minutes we realized that she is not a late arrival person, Donna was about to text her to see where she was when her phone buzzed with a text from Carol, “I’m inside.” We forgot to check the store part…
  5. Spurred by a conversation at a farewell gathering about road trips, I thought it would be cool to take a photo of the “Welcome To” sign of each state we pass through, naturally I remembered well after we were already deep into Georgia to get one. I rationalized that crossing the Georgia border didn’t really count as it no major milestone because it is only 15 miles into the journey. We managed to traverse nearly all of the Peach State on two lane back roads before having to get on the dreaded Interstate. This worked out perfectly for me to get the Alabama sign in the Welcome Center. I cruised slowly through looking, but unfortunately there wasn’t one. Dang it, the only opportunity was a mile or so back on the side of the Interstate.

To the best of my guessing ability, either late today or maybe early tomorrow the Mini reached the 35,000 mile plateau.