Day 26 Sunday 10 July Portland, OR
Another beautiful, sunny day in Portland and I start wondering when the rapture is coming because this is clearly a sign that this is the end of days. Today’s my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday and most of the day is caught up with getting ready for the party that is being held at my brother-in-laws house. My brother in law has a very nice house with a HUGE backyard, which is good as there are a LOT of friends and family at the party and the backyard is full. The party is really nice and culminates with people telling their favorite stories about my Mother-in-Law, as a relatively recent arrival to the family most of the in-jokes fly WAY over my head, but the affection with which the stories are told is palpable. My Father-in-Law tells the story of how they met and then says something along the lines of it’s been a great life. There’s this really great evening light streaming into the backyard and everyone has a contented and reflective moment, it’s the perfect ending……..until someone decides it’s time to tell another story, and then another, and then another…………
Day 27 Monday July 11 Portland, OR to Sun River, OR
It’s my birthday and I am spending it doing two of the things I love most in the world; packing and driving long distances. Packing isn’t too bad because we have to have the backseat of the van up so we can transport our nieces, who are staying with their grandparents this week, out to Sun River with us and thus I have to pack most of the bags in my Father-in-Law’s truck which has a camper shell on a large bed and therefore room. Once again, I luck out by getting to drive with my father-in-law while Megan has the car full of kids, for those of you wondering how I pulled off this Jedi mind-trick I’ll just say right now I have no idea and I hope it stays that way, knowledge may ruin the magic.
Day 28 Tuesday July 12 Sun River, OR
Today is a high Holy day in the nerd church. It’s the day that the fifth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series comes out!!!!!!! I finagle an early morning trip into Bend so I can get into town the moment the bookstore opens in order to buy a book I’ve been waiting eleven years for. To offer a quick critique, the book is good(much more satisfying than the fourth book in the series) and there are some interesting plot twists that come up, but too many character’s chapters end on a cliffhanger(something he was really good at in earlier books was transitioning characters to a new phase without cliffhangers and it seems he’s lost the gift with the fourth and fifth books, it’s a bit like watching how the TV show LOST kept writing itself into corners). I spend the rest of the day in a kind of contented nerdvana and enjoy my book. Because we couldn’t go out the day before, Megan and I go out to celebrate my birthday. We eat dinner at McMenamin’s pub in the downtown Bend area(We wanted to go to Deschutes brewery but they had a LONG wait and frankly us two party animals had a movie to catch). While working through my grilled tuna sandwich with the WORLD’S THICKEST BUN(if that’s not the official title it should be as it’s more informative than whatever bullshit was on the printed menu), I see something very cool. Some company in Bend has basically made these giant bicycles and converted them into traveling bars/tour bikes, basically think of a giant bar on wheels that people are pedaling around and you’ve got the concept. We go to see Horrible Bosses, which was a lot of fun and made me laugh even if I’m trying to avoid giving Jason Bateman money because he was in Arrested Development, the show that gave birth to Douchey McDouchenstein(Michael Cera)’s career.
Day 29 Wednesday July 13 in Sun River, OR
River Rafting Day! One of the beauties of Bend/Sun River is that one of the area rafting companies has recognized the money machine that parents seeking to distract their kids and have “Meaningful Family Experiences” can be and has a two hour raft trip featuring a mild stretch of rapids called “Big Eddie”. Logan’s a little too young, so Megan, my father-in-law and I take the three nieces(a 14 year old and 9 year old twins) out on the water. It’s a fun little trip, we get through the rapids just fine and Megan and my 14 year old niece ride on the very front of the raft through a section of mild rapids, which I’m sure was fun for them, seeing as how that left my father-in-law and I as the only paddlers except for the guide I didn’t enjoy it as much. I made sure I got my revenge by teaching my niece the “Hey what’s on the bottom of your shoe trick” used to get people out of the raft and into the river, I do this by performing a practical demonstration with her as the subject. The raft trip is over almost too quickly, but given we had two nine year olds it went about as long as it could.
Day 30(HOLY SHIT!) Thursday July 14 in Sun River, OR.
Nice, easy day with a short hike in order to get the kids out of the house. Not much to say about the hike except for this one little thing. When you have kids of your own, once they get a little older one very powerful revelation will hit you and that is that you are very happy your parents didn’t kill you and the joy you will take from watching your own kids going through this crap will be astronomical.
Day 31 Friday July 15 Travel Day from Sun River, OR to Reno, NV
The day starts out early and I get the car packed somehow. I still marvel at the fact that whenever we go on a trip back home our bags seem to mate and have lots of little baby bags that also need to get packed. That or I’m just getting tired of packing. Anyway, we get the dogs and kids in the van, say good bye to my in-laws and hit the road, we drive through the central part of Southern Oregon and the area is pretty, but sparsely populated. On the way we drive through Klamath Falls, a place I only knew about through hearing some friends who flew F-15’s bitch about it. Klamath Falls is one of two F-15 training bases with the other being in Florida(noticing a problem yet?)The area is beautiful with as HUGE lake and I start to question my buddies sanity, UNTIL we come up on the city of Klamath Falls itself, it’s tiny and I doubt there’s much going on. It’s also a good distance from any larger cities and isolation is really the word of the day. I decide it’s all part of the Air Force’s continuing marketing joke on its young male officers, join the Air Force in the prime of your youth, fly babe magnets, do exciting things that make you interesting and in return we will send you places where there are NO WOMEN WHATSOEVER. This is usually where Navy buddies crow about their base locations, to which I reply yes, but at least I didn’t have to be stuck on a boat, in the middle of nowhere, with five thousand other men. The rest of the drive is fine and we get into Reno without any drama and check into our rooms at the Grand Sierra Resort, which thankfully is right by the highway and well away from downtown Reno.
We end the day at a Mexican restaurant with a group of Megan’s sorority sisters. They’re all really nice but they’re not here for me and so I sit and enjoy my beer and distract Elizabeth by walking her to the different wall hangings when she gets fussy at the end of the night. Logan gets shown the game Angry Birds, which is great for distracting him, but he now wants to play it about once a day meaning I lose my phone for an hour when the time comes. Probably a good thing all things considered.
Day 32 Saturday 16 July Reno, NV
Enjoyable day with lots of hanging out at the hotel and taking Logan to the pool, the dogs do okay as well, even though they’re pretty well confined to the hotel room. I meet up with Phil Tousignant for dinner and an Aces game. Phil cooks up some steaks at his house and we enjoy sitting out in the backyard, talking, drinking beer, and eating steak. It’s always fun to sit around and talk with a great friend who you haven’t seen for awhile. While there’s a lot of ground to cover everything feels natural and easy and the conversation can go forever. I had an absolute ball and am almost disappointed to leave and go to the ballpark. That disappointment quickly fades when I see the Aces ballpark. It’s awesome, it’s right on the banks of the Truckee River, close to downtown, nice sightlines all over and a clearly enthusiastic fanbase. In my opinion this is the kind of thing Reno has been begging for, some sort of thing to do that doesn’t require long travel or going to the casinos. The game is fun and what’s even more fun is to look at the batting averages of the players. Everyone on the team has a plus .300 average, which shows the advantage of playing a majority of your games at high altitudes. Between Reno, Colorado Springs, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, and other places I really have no idea how GM’s evaluate Pacific Coast League Players. Another great thing about the park is there is a large bar complex attached with a stage for a band and a row of boards with people playing bags. We go up there for beers twice during the game and then after the game as well. After the game is over the area actually turns into quite a gathering place for people looking for a night out. It’s easy to see why, live band, open air on a beautiful night, and decent bars. Fun place, fun night.
The fun isn't over yet, the last installment will cover time in Elko, NV(my hometown) and the drive back to Michigan and our misadventure's with the mortgage company.
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