Bring It On Home


It has become rather evident that Ol’ Ran is just not going to have the time to keep the Roost updated like he would prefer. The computer biz is blossoming and keeping him as busy as a dog with a fresh batch of fleas. Soooo…the plan is to just wrap up things up in a nice long post that covers the end of the November trip and as much of the trip in January as is feasible. Here we go……

To make a long story longer, we ate our way through SOCAL while visiting some of Connie’s friends in the Riverside area. We had stuffed ourselves with turkey but these nice folks filled us up with pizza (pizza is good).

No trip to Riverside was going to be complete without making the pilgrimage to Flabob Airport. That’s where we were found the next morning while looking for a biscuit. This is also the place about which I am supposed to write about three pages on aircraft we saw and the historical significance of this tidy smallish airport nestled up against the hills. For instance, I would be talking about how this is the birthplace of the Experimental Aircraft Association and where Ray Stits (basically the father of the homebuilt movement in America) is based and such. I would sharing about how we toured the DC-3 based there that used to be the personal transport used by Winston Churchill during WW2. And, of course, I would make known my joy at finally making it to the place I had only read about since about 1960. But, I certainly don’t have the time to do that. Heheh. It was a super time and that includes the awesome café there.

We finally headed north and on back to familiar territory. There was no particular hurry yet the time seemed to have flown by. In almost no time we were home.

We made it home none the worse for wear other than the fact that we could hardly move….or think….or feel. We were “trip spun” in a bad way. It took awhile for our aging airframes (with some “AD’s” not performed) to return to airworthiness. It was a great trip.

We had hardly recovered from the trip in November when it was again time to cram the Camry full of stuff for the trip to the great, green, gorgeous state of Washington. Connie’s son, Tracey, was getting hitched so we wanted to be there for that event. Plus, my super duper son, Michael, and his super sweet wife, Roxanne, live right on the way in Longview, WA! How’s that for convenience?!

It’s (only) 15 hours from Hooterville to Longview. Yours truly has made that haul on no few occasions so the terrain was most familiar. As you can imagine, the Minolta DiMage 7 Hi was being used in overdrive. We ended up with a ton of nice pictures. Amazingly, the weather was compliant to our wishes (read “prayers”) and was not much less than perfect for such a winter season!

We rolled in and set up camp then found my son and his wife. It was neck hugging time and Mike and Roxanne met us with much love. It really didn’t take us all that long to end up at the “Red Lobster” where Mike “just happened” to be working at the time. All the good folks their acknowledged Mike and how he was a top notch worker. The food there was also "A-1".

Mike is not only a top notch worker, he just happens to be a top notch drummer. When he and Roxanne came down a few years ago, he got to sit in on the drums with the Charlie Gail Band (yours truly was the bass man). Mike did a bang up job (pun intended) while Roxanne taped the gig with their video camera. His rock solid timing is greatly appreciated.

We did as much visiting and such as we could but, the next day, we had to boogey out for parts further north. After more hugs all around, we once again boarded the Toyota bus cleverly disguised as a Camry (well…actually, it was hauling almost as much as a bus) and departed for Mount Vernon about three more hours away.

I have seen a lot of places across this great nation. I’ve even lived in the nation’s highest incorporated city (that would be Leadville, CO at 10,152 feet elevation) with at least once excursion to “Climax” (above Leadville) where the elevation is 11358 feet (making it the highest city/ghost town in the country). But, Mount Vernon is simply one beautiful place. I can see why the Pioneers, mountain men, trackers, traders, and possum hunters all put down tent stakes in the soggy soil there. Add to that the fact that it’s only a short drive to the Pacific Ocean and you have an almost perfect place to live.

Tracey met us at his house and was glad to get to see his mother again (and she him, of course). It had been a couple of months since they last got together. But this was a much more positive event. In what seemed like no time at all, and after having the run of Tracey's house and nosing about Mt. Vernon, the day of the wedding had come. We had managed to drive around and see some of the lovely scenery to that time and loved it all. But, now was the “big day” and everyone was focused on the event at hand.

There are only great things so say about Tracey and Ericka’s beautiful wedding and no one could have been more proud than Connie. There were lots and lots of friends and family attending so fellowship was abounding. And, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting. It was at the local country club there in Mount Vernon. It is difficult to describe this handsome place that was quite reminiscent of a hunting lodge. It was wonderfully and painstakingly decked out and adorned in silver and white inside with large silver bulbs and ribbons accenting. Then consider that it was set among countless tall majestic pine trees over the gently rolling hills. Add to that the huge stone fireplace and it just doesn’t get any nicer.

Ericka couldn’t have been lovelier in her gorgeous white wedding dress. That kept the professional photographer kept busy for sure. She took some great shots of the wedding and the families. Ericka’s sister was the maid of honor while Tracey’s son Jeffery and Ericka’s son, Ethan, were the candle lighters. Ericka walked down the isle and joined Tracey. Love was in the air and you could feel it all around. The pastor of their church performed the ceremony in most lighthearted manner bringing smiles to all. In only too short of a time, the wedding was complete and not every eye was dry.

Tracey and Ericka stayed for awhile and partook of the abundance of great food and fellowship before heading out for the honeymoon. The wedding had gone well and they could relax.

The weather was actually quite nice for January. But, true to its nature, the sky darkened somewhat and the wind turned blustery by the end of the event. It rustled a few skirts but only one bumbershoot was injured that I recall. I loved every minute of it.

The day after the wedding left Connie and I with some free time. So, as we were wondering about, we up and decided to just go to Canada. It was only an hour away so we joined the herd on I-5 and started north.

When we got to the border the, terribly unsociable gatekeeper at the border asked for our passports. Passports?! Passports?!! Since when did they require a stinking passport to get into Canuckistan?!!! We politely advised him that we were completely unaware of such a requirement (which is true though we knew of an impending requirement). He then drilled us with a bunch of questions and plugged us into the “international criminal database” that just happened to have our driver’s licenses and personal information in it. Isn’t that marvelous? The guy must have been convinced that we weren’t Arab terrorists and waved us through (though we do look quite suspicious being cleverly disguised as overweight middle-aged WASPs).

I guess I can see his point. The back of the Camry was certainly packed to the gunnels with suspicious edibles and gifts. If we had elected instead to just fill the back end with plastic explosives and just sprinkle a few empty Pepsi cans and empty potato chip bags over it to cover it all, we could have taken out a small fishing village, I suppose. Who knows. Anyway…the guy let us go so we joined the traffic jam leading into Vancouver, BC.

Ah, yes. Vancouver, BC; land of the ….uh…BC’ers. I don’t really know that much about Vancouver except that no Canadian citizens or other white people are allowed to own gas stations or liquor stores. Connie and I wanted to spend at least a dollar each in Canada so we stopped at roadside stop-and-rob. Sure enough, the scowling “Towlie” was condescending enough to take money from us "untouchables" in trade for some coffee and a soda. We blew the Canadian coinage received in change on some really ugly chocolate that must have been imported from Guatemala by way of China. The stuff was gross. It lacked only a few thousand years until it would have evolved into having eyes and teeth. We didn’t see any bears to feed it to so we just threw the stuff away.

Since the traffic was of post hockey game proportions and, since it was getting late in the afternoon, we decided not to go on into the downtown area. It wasn't all that far away but we didn’t need the abuse. We’ll use the Google Maps Streetview if we need to see the place.

The next day, our “deciders” conspired to direct us to the coast. We didn’t argue since they had yet to lead us astray. In about 20 min. or so we were in Anacortes and right on the water. Man! Talk about a gorgeous place! We conducted our tourist group of two all around and took in some awesome sights while taking lots of great pictures. It would have been nice to just stay for a few days and take in the rest of the wondrous area but we called it a day and headed back to Mt. Vernon.

After hugs all around the next day, we departed Mt. Vernon. Though we left behind loved ones, we took tons of grand memories with us.

When we got to Seattle, we simply had to stop at the "Seattle Museum of Flight" (http://www.museumofflight.org/Portal.asp?Flash=True). There are only a few places like it in the entire world. It took more than a couple of hours to get our fill of fascinating aircraft and take all the pictures we desired (I think several hundred will do the job). The "kicker" was that we got to see Roger Freeman's (Connie's brother) absolutely gorgeous WWI Neuport 28 biplane fighter (see picture).

Though we were quite tired (uh....and aching) from all of the walking and shooting, we still had a ways to go. We were soon in the Camry and then we hooked a west and headed out to Port Angeles. Once there, we stopped into to visit Sonny and Beth Carter who are long time friends of the (Minnick) family. Sonny and Beth moved up there many years ago and decided to stay. I certainly can’t blame them for that. Sonny is also an excellent G-Tar picker so he showed me his collection of axes. We visited for awhile then departed with …hugs all around, of course.

Then next morning we departed Port Angeles and headed down the Olympic Peninsula. I thought we had already seen some beautiful terrain! This was spectacular! The only downside was seeing the destruction from the storm two weeks prior. There were hundreds and hundreds of trees that had been snapped like twigs during the big blow. I’m actually glad I was in Kalifornia at the time!

After driving all (as in ALL!) day, we finally crossed the Astoria Bridge. We looked around Astoria for awhile and, after visiting the Astoria Column, we headed east to Longview. We were tired but at least we were hungry.

More hugs all around! It was good to see Mike and Roxanne again. It would not be likely that we could make it back north to see everyone for quite awhile so we wanted to squeeze in as much visiting as was practical. We even got to see Jeff Edgecomb, my dear friend and brother and fellow amateur radio operator and pilot from there. Jeff is deeply involved in the emergency communication services for the county. He is a lead comm. coordinator between the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) and the county and surrounding areas. In fact, his team just led the communications efforts at Seaside, OR when a light plane crashed there this previous week.

The next morning we were on our way south again. The weather was quite cooperative though only a few days prior and a few days later it was a real mess. We saw a little snow alongside the highway and that’s about all. In fact, other than along the Olympic Peninsula (where it only stops raining for such events as the coming of Christ and meteor collisons), we didn’t have any rain while traveling!

A few more stops for gas, grub, and goofing off, and we were back home. Our bodies and minds were numb. After two long trips in a couple of months we thought we had been used as personal doormats for a hippopotamus and butt scrubs for itchy elephants at the zoo.

It took quite awhile to recover from the trips. In fact, I’m not sure but what we are still recovering. But, it was worth it all. We have a lot of great pictures and memories that cannot be taken away. Anyway…that’s our story and …we’re sticking to it.