On Wednesday, June 25, the flight from Burlington to Phoenix was delayed, but that has been my experience lately. The flight coming into Burlington from Chicago was 90 minutes late, so our departure from the gate was 90 minutes late. But then as we taxied to the end of the runway, we stopped and they turned the engines off because of an air traffic delay in Chicago. We sat on the ground for more than an hour and finally took off. We landed and then taxied to near the gate - but had to sit and wait for about 20 minutes for gate C-5 to open for us. It was past the time for the departure of my connecting to Phoenix and when I checked the flight departures it was already listed as closed. I still decided to walk to gate C-29 where the flight was leaving from, but did not rush since the flight was listed as closed. Much to my surprise, they flight was still there and the doors were still open - I was the last person to board. The flight to Phoenix was fine.
The next morning, when I finally opened all three suitcases, I found one with the TSA notice that the suitcase had been opened and searched by them. I had triple bagged a quart of Vermont maple syrup and placed it in the suitcase that was searched. The syrup had leaked out on to several items and onto the suitcase - I threw it away, as it was an old suitcase. I think the TSA may have messed with it to make sure it was liquid, and did not put the cap back on securely, and reclose the three bags securely - but I am probably just being paranoid.
Over the four days I was in Phoenix, Patty and I continued to sort through things and tried to clean out the condo in anticipation of replacing the carpet with laminated wood flooring and painting some of the rooms. As before, I took multiple loads of donations to Goodwill. And Habitat ReStore took a truck load of stuff as well.
We continued the routine of walking Mr. Shadow early in the morning and after dark in the evening, both times from the condo and around the blocks where our condo is. We also would take daily afternoon walks in Steele Indian Park.
On Sunday afternoon, after Shadow's walk, we loaded up the Subaru in preparation for my trip to Portland. Every inch was full of stuff for Ben and Martha in Portland and for Megan and Jon in Ketchikan. In addition to all the stuff inside the car, there were also two bikes for Megan and Jon on the bike rack.
Shadow and I set out on Monday morning. I stopped regularly, but only got Shadow out of the car once or twice during the day because to do so, I had to take the bikes off the bike rack each time, then take Shadow out, then put him back in, the return the bikes to the bike rack. That said, Shadow did get his time out of the car. I would always find a shady place to do so.
Monday, we stopped at the Best Western Valencia Inn in Santa Clarita, CA. I found a shaded spot to park the car, put the bikes in the room and then walked Mr. Shadow around the hotel.
Of course, Mr. Shadow did not sleep far from my bed.
Tuesday, it was a comfortable 60 degrees when we set out at 6:30 a.m. By the time I got to Redding CA it was 108 degrees at 4:30 p.m. There were amazing changes of geography along the way. First, you leave the Los Angeles metro area and climb up, over and down through some pretty rugged mountains in the Los Padres National Forest. The area was very rugged and almost moon like in appearance. Once out of the mountains, you are in an amazingly flat area that is desert like to the west but because of the California Aqueduct on the east side, there is irrigation and lush green farms. After a while, you get to Stockton, CA. When you look at a map, you see it is about 50 - 60 miles away from the Pacific Ocean. Much to my surprise, there were large ocean going vessels just to the west of I-5 at the port of Stockton. I started watching the signs more closely and noted that they included the elevation for the towns and cities on I-5, and this area was less than 50 feet above sea level. I later looked at the map again and can see how ships can get in to Stockton and Sacramento. I passed through the area where I had some past experience. From 1995 to 1998, I did my Air Force Reserve duty at Beale AFB which is about an hour north east of Sacramento - thus, place names like Yuba City were familiar. Shadow and I had a quiet night in Redding.
On Wednesday, we headed north out of the flat interior and climbed through mountains past Lake Shasta and Shasta National Forest. I stopped at one of the vistas and took a picture of one of the signs which gives a good view of Mt. Shasta. I then took a photo of Mount Shasta. It is barely visible in my photo, but appears much larger in real life and really commands the surrounding area.
Shadow and I stopped in Canyonville, CA, to stretch. I would have smelled the roses, but there were only wild flowers at the rest stop there.
We got to Ben and Martha's apartment in Portland around 4:00 and Mr. Shadow got to see his new home. He was fine using both the carpeted stairs up and down to the third floor, as well as with using the elevator. We locked the bikes in the bike storage area in the basement - Portland is noted for using a lot of bikes, and their apartment building has at least a hundred hooks to hang and lock your bikes. We were able to get two next to Martha and Ben's bikes. We unloaded the car of Ben and Martha's things. Martha and I walked to the local growler refill store - the one down the street has 48 taps where they rotate through locally produced beers. Even the Safeway across the street has 8 taps and the cafe downstairs in their apartment block has 10 taps. We also walked to the local Grand Central Bakery for fresh demi-baguettes, and to Krugers (not the chain store Krogers, but a local store with nothing but fresh local farm produce) for salad fixings for dinner and fruit for breakfast. Ben had worked until 5:30, then came home and went for a run. Then we all went upstairs to the common area outside patio where we had soup, baguettes, salad and fresh beer for dinner. And we got to see a beautiful sunset.
Thursday, Martha and I went to the Tin Shed for delightful breakfast with Julie Rickman. Julie took a nice photo of Martha and me.
Julie worked for Vaughan Town for seven years and I had met her several times in Spain. She came home to Portland in December to care for her ailing mom (her mom died this year). Vaughan did not renew Julie's contract, so she has stayed in Portland. Julie and Martha exchanged contacts on their phones and Julie gave Martha some suggested apps and invited Martha to join in the "slow run" Julie has organized in September to honor Julie's mom.
Afterwards, Martha and I ran numerous errands during the day, including bringing socks to Ben at PPMC (he forgot to take them to work), going to Salvage Works LLC where Martha got an estimate for a custom built table ($1,250 - this blew both of us away), picked up a previously ordered pillow for Ben, and then to Ikea where we found several items that Martha wanted for the apartment. We took the list of desired Ikea items with their measurements back to the apartment to make sure they would fit in the apartment. Ben got out of work early, so we emptied Megan and Jon's stuff from the car into the apartment, and the three of us went to Podnah's Pit Barbeque for lunch.
Then the three of us went back to Ikea. We spent several hours there and they bought two tables, one stand for the TV, one six drawer cabinet for Martha's jewelry supplies, and two glass top end tables for the living room. We loaded the Subaru and had just enough space for the new furniture and the three of us. Back at the apartment, we unloaded the furniture. After two large meals out, I was not hungry. Ben had leftovers and Martha put together the piece of furniture upon which the TV now sits. It has two rows of four cubbies, each about sixteen inches in all three dimensions. Martha also got four baskets that fit perfectly in the cubbyholes.
Friday, as usual, Ben left for work around 5:30 (his scheduled days while I was there started at 6:00 each morning). Martha and I focused on getting all of the furniture assembled, hanging two lights in their bedroom and hanging a drape over the doorway to their bedroom. Martha and I then went to several used furniture places and ended up getting four matching chairs, two other unmatched chairs, a folding table to be used as a night stand and a floor lamp. All of this helps make their apartment more usable. My hope is that it will allow Martha to get her jewelry making business going as she wishes. Friday afternoon, we took a break and had popcorn and frogs on logs (raisins on cream cheese on stalks of celery), cleaned up and then went to the beer garden at the local growler refill store. They had live music for entertainment. It was not particularly good music and it was terribly loud music, so after one beer and a shared cheese plate, we left and headed back towards the apartment. We stopped at Tarboush, a Lebanese restaurant and had an excellent dinner.
Saturday, Ben and I said good bye at 5:30. I got my stuff together, did some stuff online, and walked Shadow. Martha and I then went to the Grand Central Bakery for breakfast. Martha had a monkey muffin and coffee, I had a breakfast sandwich on a bolo roll with grapefruit juice and coffee. Then we went back and loaded all of Megan and Jon's stuff in the Subaru, took the seats and front tires off the bikes and loaded them in as well, and then said goodbye. I stopped by the hostel down the street (within easy walking distance of Ben and Martha's apartment) and made a reservation for a private room for Sunday August 10 - it was the only night they had a private room available during Patty's and my upcoming visit.
I then headed north and arrived at Gari of Sushi restaurant in Tacoma just before noon where I met Steve and Linda Kalinowski for lunch. We caught up on all of our plans. Since retiring, Linda's plan was to clean and fix their home in Gig Harbor before trying to sell it - but that has been stymied by some problems with her left shoulder and her physicians directive to not try to paint the interior (especially not the ceilings) of their home. Otherwise, they both seemed in good spirits, we had a delightful lunch (they treated again - I definitely owe them lunch) and then I continued north.
I got to the Bellingham ferry terminal at 3:30, assuming that I had to be there at 4:00 - but I was supposed to check in at 3:00. They had started loading, but as I soon found out it is a slow process. All of the ferries I have used, both those in Vermont and the one between Sweden and Denmark, all had vehicles drive on from one end, then drive off from the other end - but not this one. First, all vehicles had be loaded in reverse order of the ports of call. This meant that the Ketchikan vehicles were loaded last. All vehicles with trailers had to be backed onto the ship and all other vehicles had to drive on, turn around and then back into place. Around 5:30, I was the second to the last vehicle to get on the ferry.
The ferry terminal is quite nice and very busy. There was a wedding reception going on upstairs, a band concert outside on the ground level and many other ships, trains, buses, cars and pedestrians coming and going.
I took a taxi to the Baymont Inn and Suites, checked into my room and then walked a block to get a pizza and a 24 ounce cold beer to have back in the room. I then had a relaxing evening and a good night's sleep.
Sunday morning, I packed and had breakfast of yogurt, a muffin, guava juice and coffee, then took the hotel shuttle to the Bellingham International Airport. Once there, I liked the way they organized their recycling. They thank people for recycling - a very nice way to treat people.
At 8:45, the Bellair Shuttle arrived - it is a very comfortable bus with ample leg room for tall people. It was a pleasant ride south to SEATAC airport. As we came into Seattle, there were excellent views of Mount Rainier. I got quickly through security (the TSA Precheck line was negligible) and am now in the United Airlines Club writing this blog and waiting for my flights back to Phoenix later today.
