Traveling

Whew. What a long day this was. Or maybe it just felt like it. I'm not sure. I'm tired, though, that is for sure. Mel put on a couple sermons today by Azurdia, from John 17, having to do with heaven. We had some nice discussion about it in eastern Oregon at 70 mph traveling down the interstate. I think about heaven a lot already. In fact, he may have chosen this series simply because I do talk about heaven so much! :-)

This photo was taken at a rest area somewhere before we got to La Grande. When we got to La Grande, we stopped at a Safeway and bought some food from the deli, some coffee for Mel and a decaf mocha for me. Then we took off away from the interstate and headed north toward Elgin. In Elgin we turned left and went toward the Columbia River, over a wilderness area.

I really liked Elgin and that area - older homes, small town America. I don't know what it's like to really live there, but it looked 'comfy' as we drove through.

The road over the pass and through the wilderness area was amazing. I can't believe how tall the trees are here in the Pacific Northwest! Even in the eastern part of Oregon. I told Mel that people from here must go to Colorado and look at our pines and spruce and think they are midget trees. He responded that maybe they just think the forests are young. :-)

The snow was really deep. Up toward the top of the pass the snow along the road was somewhere between 3 and 4 feet deep with drifts much deeper. It had been plowed and then cut with a snowblower type plow so the edges were crisp and clean cut, like with a sharp knife, and the snow was layered like a Ukrainian torte. I told Mel we should keep our eyes open for Sasquatch. He responded, "What?" :-)

Then on the other side of the pass, at 50 mph, in the total dark, we ran into fog. I practically lost it. My foot kept hitting the brakes and I wasn't even driving. Finally, as we came around some corners that looked like it was a long way down on my side, I just closed my eyes and covered my face with my hands. Went the rest of the way down to the road that goes between Pendleton and Walla Walla that way. Finally opened my eyes when we turned on to that highway. Whew! We turned the wrong way and ended up in Pendleton instead of Walla Walla.

I called John tonight from Pendleton because Kara didn't answer her phone and no one answered the phone upstairs. My father is in the hospital with a blood clot in his lung. While there they also found he has a "calcified gallbladder". Sure enough, they were ALL at the hospital, giving my dad a hard time. ha ha! John handed the phone to Dad and we talked for a few minutes. He sounded as ornery as usual. Told me the dr.s found 7 things wrong with him. I then talked with Kara and she told me that apparently he is going home tomorrow, but will have to go back for more testing next week and possibly surgery on the gallbladder. She had no idea what the other 5 things were (blood clot, gallbladder and ??). Kara then gave the phone to Stirling and he thought he was talking to his Opa. Opa!!!??? hahahahahahaha I could hear Kara saying, "No! That's Grandma Cindie!" and he kept insisting that I was his Opa. Finally he got it through his little head that I was really Grandma Cindie and he asked me where I was. I said I was traveling. He asked, "Are you trav - el - ing to my house?" And I said, "No, we are traveling to the ocean." And he just handed the phone back to Kara. I guess he was not happy with that answer. :) :) :)

So, now we are in Yakima. Have been through Yakima several times but have never stayed overnight here before. The good news is that we will go over Snowqualmi Pass tomorrow in the daylight. The bad new is we will go over under a "winter storm watch". I guess that's better than two of the other times I've gone over it. The first time was about 35 years ago, with me driving, at about 3:00 AM in a car that belonged to my roommate, Ann. I was totally, completely terrified. By the time we got to the bottom I was shaking. The traffic was heavy enough that I had to do the speed limit or close to it, even at that hour. The last time we went down it from this side, it was Mel and me, in the dark, rain and snow, heavy traffic, full speed down the mountain to the sea. Both of us were shaking by the time we got down. And we are used to driving mountain passes!!

I look forward to the drive tomorrow. :-) I look forward to smelling the ocean again. I look forward to taking the ferry over Puget Sound. I don't look forward to driving through Seattle...glad Mel is doing the actual driving, not me.