Heading back down to California this coming weekend

I just wanted to be sure you Guys knew ahead of time. Linda and are going to do our usual in that we'll leave here Thursday night, and we'll be back home Monday night. I won't have internet during that time. One of these days we're going to invest in wireless laptops so we can carry the web with us.

An iPod Touch or an Amazon Kindle works well for that too, as would any smart phone, and they're a lot cheaper. I took my brother's old iPod Touch when I went to Chicago over the summer. It worked out really well because our hotel had free wifi, as do a lot of restaurants and cafes. The Kindle runs off some cell phone company's network (I forget which), and service is free, so you can use it anywhere. I've heard they're harder to use for that than the Touch, and the screen is in black and white.

Sweet! Have a great weekend, man! Any big plans?

It's to see my son, and to take him to a couple of places. Just spending quality time with my boy.

Sweet! Safe travels.

Have fun man !

Back home!

Linda and I had a great visit with my son. It's always great to spend time with my boy.

We did have one close call on the way down. While coming down I-5 about ten miles north of Seattle in the far-left lane, we watched in slow-motion terror as a silver sports car in the next lane over try to change lanes to the right just as an SUV was passing him. They both did this over-correction to avoid hitting each other. The SUV got control, but the sports car did not. It went into a fishtail, and spun out and slammed into the center concrete divider five car lengths in front of us, leaving three-quarters of the front end of the car now sitting in our lane. I literally had about a quarter of a second to glance to my right and move over narrowly avoiding running right into the car. This all happened within about ten seconds, and at 65 MPH. It took both Linda and I about an hour to recover from the adrenalin rush.

Thankfully, there wasn't anyone next to us on the right, since it would have become a split-second choice of either hitting whomever was to our right, or slamming into the front end of the sports car ahead of us.

Welcome back!

That's scary stuff. Glad you're alright. Just enough time to recover from that to brave the roads of Oregon, eh?

split second stuff like that pumps adrenaline into my system ... then i feel sick for about 2 hours ... yuk.

good karma ....

and superior driving skills there eric!

yes sir, glad you were not a lot closer to the wreck that you would have been involved and posting pics of the disaster.....

madmike wrote:

split second stuff like that pumps adrenaline into my system ... then i feel sick for about 2 hours ... yuk.

good karma ....

and superior driving skills there eric!

Yeah no ****, man.

Thanks Guys!

It was something right out of a movie. Your mind almost can't believe what it is seeing. And what I described all happened literally within seconds, and believe me, I had NO time to think. Only to react, and Linda and I are both grateful that there wasn't anyone to the right of us. The Universe must have been looking out for us, because the traffic going into Seattle around 6:30 PM wasn't heavier than it could have been.

And yes, Martin. It was indeed a joy and delight to once again brave the highways and byways of Oregon.

On the way down, we tried to pull into a gas station, and had to drive all the way around to the back to find the entrance driveway.

There were, of course, the dozen-or-so areas of I-5 where they are re-working the highway. So we yet again did the little dance of going 55 to 65 to 50 to 45 to 55 to 50 to 55, etc., etc., etc.

And on the way back up, we stopped at a Love's truck stop, and there was only one attendant for eight pumps, although, to his credit, he was able to help us right away. Remember, Oregon does not permit drivers to pump their own gas, since we obviously can't be trusted to keep from blowing ourselves up.

EricHaven wrote:

Thanks Guys!

It was something right out of a movie. Your mind almost can't believe what it is seeing. And what I described all happened literally within seconds, and believe me, I had NO time to think. Only to react, and Linda and I are both grateful that there wasn't anyone to the right of us. The Universe must have been looking out for us, because the traffic going into Seattle around 6:30 PM wasn't heavier than it could have been.

And yes, Martin. It was indeed a joy and delight to once again brave the highways and byways of Oregon.

On the way down, we tried to pull into a gas station, and had to drive all the way around to the back to find the entrance driveway.

There were, of course, the dozen-or-so areas of I-5 where they are re-working the highway. So we yet again did the little dance of going 55 to 65 to 50 to 45 to 55 to 50 to 55, etc., etc., etc.

And on the way back up, we stopped at a Love's truck stop, and there was only one attendant for eight pumps, although, to his credit, he was able to help us right away. Remember, Oregon does not permit drivers to pump their own gas, since we obviously can't be trusted to keep from blowing ourselves up.

I've been there. Everything speeds up and slows down in an eternity.

Sounds like you encountered just about every type of pitfall there is to come across. Here's to a better trip next time!