Lighthouses and other strange stuff

Oh hi kid, or as they say on the Oregon coast, hi, May I pump your gas?

Well, that is where we went this week, kind of on a last minute whim of your mothers. We got a good start on Monday, made it to Ontario Oregon just past the Idaho boarder. All I can say about that is that the beds there were deceptively uncomfortable. Super soft at first, then the most unbearable pressure points ever. I don’t think I got to sleep till 4 am, jacob had a tough time sleeping too. I always have anxiety at the start of the trip.

The next day we drove the rest of the way in. I bought a cheap brake controller for moms car three years ago when we bought it, I installed it before the trip. Let’s just say that it would have been better without it. It was ok on the road, just kinda jerky, but in town it made the trailer brakes lock-up and drag constantly. It was way beyond annoying, but not exactly dangerous. We smelled like burnt rubber every town we went through. Other drivers even flagged waived us down to see if we we okay. Finally I had had it and after a gas stop in Bend I pulled apart mom’s lower dash and unplugged it. I was worried about the brake as we had a couple of big passes yet to cross, but it was a thousand times better than it had been. After I was able to get some confidence in it, it was fine. In fact, moms car rocked it, it towed great and was super comfortable the whole trip. 

That night we got to our campsite and set up. I did the full on set up with the potty tent and everything. It was a beach campsite, but not right-on the beach. It was crowded, but as mom pointed out, super quiet for an established campsite. The weather was cool, mid 50s and 60s, some fog, no rain, mix of sun and rain. It was so great to be back in the little trailer again, I slept so soundly all three nights. We only got it out once last year because of the job situation. Mom seems to like it too. When she comes, we eat like kings.

The next two days were a mix of exploring lighthouses, beaches and tourist attractions. You can see the pictures, though they don’t do it much justice.

On the way home, I made one of those dad decisions to make just one more stop. So we swung by Crater Lake. I say that casually, but it was a bit more out of the way than maybe I led your mother and brothers to believe. After running low on gas, stopping by the side of the road so Joey, and myself, could pee, we made it. It was spectacular, but only the main view up was opened. After a out 15 minutes, we were all done, really done. Remember when we went to the Devils Tower then we had to make our way back through Wyoming? Well, the trip back through Oregon was like that. But weirder. It was neat as it went over two passes, from rain forest to arid forest to the high desert of eastern Oregon. That part of Oregon is WAY more remote than Wyoming was, or even the part of Nevada we crossed on the way home from Death Valley. We saw some weird s stuff alongside the road. Several squatters homesteads. They struck me as strange as the people seemed to live in dilapidated old RVs and junk, a lot of crap. The funny thing is, they don’t even seem to bother parking or leveling their campers. Saw one guy walking around the junk in a bath towel. Also saw a really fixed up chopped Harley just on the side of the road too, miles from anything.

We drove into the night and I must have been getting tired because I saw some weird stuff. Twice a car caught up with us. I could only see the lights in the dark. As it came up behind the trailer I slowed down to let them pass. They didn’t pass either time. Its possible they turned off it slowed down, but it was so dark out that I wondered if I wouldn’t have seen them.  Then, later on, I thought it was coming up to a crossing road because I saw I white light going across the horizon fast, at ground level. The funny thing was, there was no cross road. I watched the light until I passed it up. I guess it could have been a dirt bike or something, but I only saw a break in the fence on one side of the road and the light was a constant white, no transition to a red brake as it was going away from me. Then there was the last weird thing I saw. I know my eyes we’re getting tired at this point. I had been driving for like 16 hours, so I don’t have a lot of trust in what I thought I saw. But by this time it was dark, with practically no traffic. I was scanning both sides of the road pretty vigorously as I’m extra cautious about animals that time of night. Have you ever thought that you’d seen something out of the corner of your eye, only for it not to be there when you focused? Well this was like that, only I it was there when I focused, but only for a flash. As I passed on of the road reflector posts I thought I saw a young woman lit up by my headlights in front of a post. She was just a little taller than the post, light hair, pink top and light blue pants. But as I refocused, it was just the post, no girl or anything. Up to that point I was considering driving all night to get home. After that I decided to make it the last two hours back to Ontario, bad mattress or not.

We did get home early afternoon on Saturday. Got everything put away and cleaned, except the trailer, I need to pull the gear out and vacuum up the sand. Our gear is holding up well, though I want to tweak a few things on the trailer. 

Last night there were government sponsored fireworks that bluffdale launched from mom’s school. We could see the high ones from the back porch. Mom doesn’t agree when I call it socialism.

Today was our first day back to church. It was good, and weird. I understand that we had the biggest of the four sessions of our ward...maybe about 50 people. It was weird seeing everyone in masks, and awkward not knowing how to interact. I guess there are two cases of Covid now in the ward, Parker’s uncle Kevin, and Nelson’s brother (can never remember that kids name). 

Well Benjamin, that’s probably more than you wanted to hear from your old pops, and a darn waste of precious p-day time. I wonder what news you received this week, I look forward to hearing about it.

Love,

Pops

P.s. we watched the movie Castaway tonight, I always think of that when I’m near the ocean.

P.p.s. I liked the salad Mixin you guys made. Was the “elbow incident real?