Mt Hood and Mario Andretti

Picture of Mt. Hood taken out the front window of the motorhome while driving down the highway. Pretty impressive, huh?

Now, for recap of the last couple of days. Short version.

Arrived Moses Lake, WA, engine light on "NEW" truck, Dodge dealer in Moses Lake, battery check failed, gave us new battery, had great rally at fairgrounds, left Moses Lake, WA, spent night in Boardman, OR, took pics on left while driving to Salem, WA. Pulled into Les Schwab Tires in Salem, unhooked truck in middle of their parking lot, truck wouldn't start, dead battery, called for tow to local Dodge dealer, parked moho and Lucy and I waited for Tim to call from dealer with news. He called. Dead battery. Duh. Determined it was operator (as in Tim) error. Left key in ignition in "on" position instead of "off" position. I walked over to Dairy Queen and got Oreo Mint Blizzard to sooth nerves. Got indigestion. Rained (as in poured) all night, 3 trucks also pulled in and parked in lot. They started up their engines about 3am and starting leaving...the last one to leave about 4am. Moved moho over to "truck" area to get new tires installed. Checked date on tires. Not acceptable. Talked to manager who made special trip to Sisters. OR to get tires with recent date on them. Didn't feel bad he had to make the trip since we had made several calls telling him this was a non negotiable item. However, he had a 200 mile roundtrip drive to make and we had to cool our heals in the meantime.

Got tires and left Salem, OR about 4pm and drove down the road to Eugene where we parked for the night in another Elks parking lot. $10/night. Dinner at Elks $25. Oh well.

Here's where Mario Andretti shows up. We left Eugene, OR this morning taking RT 126 which is a 2 lane road heading west to Florence, OR where we make a left hand turn and head down the OR coast on Rt 101 to Lakeside, OR where we are currently parked. Tim becomes this other persona...as in Mario Andretti...when he's driving twisty, winding 2 lane roads in Oregon. Never noticed it anywhere else but Oregon. He starts telling me stories of his times on different twisty, winding roads as he takes the curves at 50 mph with me sucking air. He loves these roads. He dodges the log trucks on the curves. He tells me what kind of truck (called a bobtail) just passed us. He forgets he told me what it was about 52 times last year. He loves Oregon. He loves the coast. He's got web feet and gills. We're here until June 2nd. Maybe I'll get gills.