Trip Log - Days 7 & 8

7/7/07
7:30 AM – We decided to get a shower before breakfast this morning. It is so nice to be able to get a shower first thing in the morning. We walked back over to D. J.’s Restaurant for breakfast. Dinner had been so good we were sure that breakfast would be.

10:00 AM – Breakfast was delicious. We both ordered French toast with eggs. Carl picked sausage and I picked bacon for meat. They brought out maple and berry syrup with four thick pieces of French toast with powdered sugar sprinkled on them. The bacon was cooked perfectly and tasted wonderful too. There was so much food I wasn’t able to eat it all.

We are on our way to Portland, OR. Plan to spend the night there since we deliver just a few miles from there in Vancouver, WA on Monday morning. We have all day Sunday to do whatever we want to…that will be a change. Carl said Jubitz truck stop is big and has good food and showers so we plan to stay there. One of his fellow Advisory Board members, Joe Boyd, called and said he is going to be there too, so they will get a chance to talk.

1:30 PM – Just made it down to the bottom of Cabbage Mountain in Oregon. It has a 6% downgrade, over 6 miles long. It snaked around four or five times before we got to the bottom and had two very long run away ramps along the way. I was surprised there was only two since the big downgrade in Wyoming had four.

2:00 PM – Stopped in Pendleton, OR and went into the Wal-Mart Carl had been into before. He had bought a grill and some hamburgers to cook-out over Memorial Day weekend since he would be stuck out over the holiday. As you come into Pendleton they have a really neat area with statues that look just like cows and cowboys on a trail ride.




Later – Drove along the Columbia River and could see Washington state on the other side for about 150 miles of our trip today. It was just teasing me since I won’t get to Washington until Monday. There were people out playing on the river; fishing, swimming, wind surfing and parachute skiing. I had to take most of the pictures as we drove down the road at 55 mph because there was no place to pull over with the truck. We finally stopped at a rest area that looked over the river and I was able to take a few pictures while standing still. Carl and I were taking pictures of each other and a lady traveling with her daughter came up and asks us if we wanted her to take a picture of the two of us together. Of course we said yes.


4:00 PM – We can see a very large snowcapped mountain in the distance while driving along the Columbia River on I-84. We thought it must be Mt. Hood, so I checked the Atlas and determined it was.

7:00 PM – We have arrived in Portland, OR. After a little driving around in circles Carl was able to find the Jubitz truck stop. He had only been here a couple of times and just turned one road too soon. First thing he did was pull in for fuel so we would have a shower coupon for in the morning. After we got fuel we lucked up and were able to park in the first park, so we will be closer to the building. We went inside and looked around. There is a Post Office, Barber/Beauty Shop, Full-sized Movie Theatre, Restaurant, Chapel, Shoe Repair shop, Chiropractor, Emergency Medical Clinic, Motel, Convenience store, Deli, Bar with dance and live entertainment on Saturday night, Garage/Fuel Island/Deli, Conference room, and Clothing & Gift Shop. This is the truck stop where they shot the Television series “Moving On.” We decided if we only wanted a sandwich we could fix that in the truck, so we went into the restaurant. Carl called Joe to see if he was here yet and he met us for dinner. I ordered Fettuccini Alfredo and Carl decided on Spaghetti and Meatballs. After dinner we walked over to the gift shop found cute hats for the Grandchildren and a couple of t-shirts on a $2.99 sale rack. The first shirt is black with a big white eagle head on the front. At the top is says, “I am smiling.” Carl said I always tell him to smile when I’m taking his picture and that is what he wants to say. Of course when I show him the picture he realizes he just thought he was smiling. There is a funny story with the second t-shirt we found. Carl pulled it out and said that it would be perfect for Joe. It had a cowboy up on a horse passed out with his dog in front of him guiding the horse. Under the picture it said, “Designated driver.” A couple of days ago I was walking around in a store and saw a metal sign with this same picture and thought it would be perfect for Joe. Of course after I told Carl that he had to get it for Joe. We called him to see if he was still in the truck stop so we could give it to him and he was. After we told him why we had bought it for him, he said he guessed he needed to change his reputation. But he must have really liked it because he told us he planned to wear it tomorrow.
9:00 PM – It is so cool here that we were able to shut off the generator, crack a couple of windows and sleep without the truck running. Nice change from the last couple of nights.

7/8/07
8:00 AM – Up and ready for a shower. Carl took Phoenix for a walk while I got my things together for a shower. When at a truck stop you only take inside what you will need. I have my case with shampoo, soap, deodorant, etc. and then put my clean clothes on top so I only have to carry in one bag. Two mornings in a row with a shower, I won’t know how to act. We are planning on meeting Joe for Sunday brunch. They serve from 9 AM – 2 PM Pacific Time, so we will go over about 11:00 AM our time.

12:15 PM – Just got back to the truck from eating lunch. We grazed for over an hour and are so stuffed now we could go back to sleep. I was impressed with the food they served. Lots of variety and everything tasted so good too. After lunch we looked around the gift shop for a couple minutes and then Carl checked his lottery ticket to see if he had won last night. Of course he didn’t, so he bought another one that draws on Wednesday. It is still so cool outside we just have the windows open and the truck and generator turned off.

Later – By 2 PM it was so hot the generator wasn’t even enough to cool things off. Carl had walked up to the Freightliner dealer with Joe while I stayed at the truck and checked my e-mail. Phoenix and I were getting really hot, so I figured out how to crank up the generator. When Carl got back we took Phoenix for a walk and tried to give her a chance to play a minute. She was just too hot to enjoy it so we came back to the truck. Carl went inside for a minute and when he got back I told him we were so hot he needed to crank the truck for a few minutes to cool things off. After it cooled off we closed up the sleeper with the generator going for Phoenix, turned off the truck and went inside with our computer to sit were it was cool. We played on the computers until the batteries were getting low and then plugged them in so we could continue. They served ice cream right outside the movie theater so Carl went over and got us a scope of ice cream in a waffle cone. It looked like it was a little cooler outside so we came back to the truck to watch a movie. We decided on Pirates of the Caribbean – Curse of the Black Pearl.

9:00 PM – We haven’t finished the movie yet, but decided to take a watermelon break. We picked one up when we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Pendleton Saturday. We knew Joe really liked watermelon too, so told him this morning at brunch we would call when we cut it. It has cooled off a lot and since it is just 7 PM here it is still daylight. We took the melon out to the trailer, cut it and stood beside the trailer to eat it. We ended up with watermelon seeds on the bottoms of our shoes. There was ¼ of the melon left so we cut it off the rind, put it in plastic bags and put it in the refrigerator. When Joe showed up to eat watermelon with us he was wearing his shirt we gave him. He said he had been showing it off in the truck stop all afternoon. I took a picture of him and Carl with their new shirts on…they looked like a couple of boys standing out beside the truck talking and eating watermelon.