Yes, this is a trip since it has has a beginning and an end rather than a journey which has no end.
Our traveling party this summer includes not only us, Gary, Betty and Jorden, but also Dylan (my sister Micki’s grandson.) He rode up from Ventura on the the Starlite train.
Jorden had a “tattoo verification”(it passed inspection) appointment in Fremont with the U.S. Air Force recruiters so our first travel day was very short: about an hour and a half from Monterey to the Alameda Fairgrounds RV Park. We didn’t mind since Kelle & Joe live in the area so we visited and had a great Italian dinner at Strizzi’s in the cute town of Pleasanton.
Next morning when we got on the road Jorden and Dylan very quickly designated the back seat area they share as the “Man Cave.” Pillows, blankets, drinks, snacks, IPods and, of course, cell phones to do a lot of texting!
So here we are…enjoying the the views of the snow on Mt Shasta thankful that we have AC ‘cause the temperature is topping over 100 degrees when kaabaam!! a blowout on one of our fifth wheel tires! We have roadside service but decide that we can change the tire…we DO have two strong teens…so the boys under Gary’s supervision pretty quickly change the tire and we’re back on the road. Of course they manage to text message our adventure out to the world in the midst of the tire change!
Three nights in Portland and we all agree that we LOVE Portland EXCEPT for the horrendous traffic backups everytime/everywhere we go…but by our last day we have figured out some side street routes to avoid the crowded freeways.
The Saturday Market was fun…so much to look at!
The Portland Trailblazer’s arena Rose Garden was a must-see for my three male companions---darn, the store isn’t open and the security guard says we can’t even look at the court where the Trailblazer’s play! Gary tells him that “We came all the way from California and this tall young man plays basketball.” He says “follow me” and gives us a peak of the court! Yahoo! (They’re also doing casting call auditions for the TV show “Biggest Loser” but we don’t get into that line.)
The jetboat tour of the Willamette River was an absolute kick! I didn’t take the “not responsible for water damages to cameras, cell phones etc.” sign seriously---after all we are just going on a little boat tour. My oh my, this large jetboat maneuvered and did spins in the river as fast as our jet ski boat (second boat photo!) Yes, we got very very wet when our driver did 360 degree spins! But we all raised our hands when he asked who wanted to do more spins!
Our jetboat tour took us up the Willamette Falls locks and…
we saw wildlife osprey and
Portland has many bridges…
Jorden and Dylan were even wetter than they look! (So were we but I didn’t get a photo!)
More to follow about our second week. . .
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