Sep 21

Trip – Day 2

Didn’t post last night cause I was so tired! I got up at 0300, got her up at 0330, and we were out of the house by 0400. Wow! Missed all that early morning traffic in the Seattle area, got on Highway 18 to I-90 and stopped in Deer Lodge, Montana 12 hours later.
Today we hit the road about 0700 and have just stopped in Moorcroft(?), Wyoming for the night. We decided to stay here andn go see the Devil’s Tower tomorrow morning; since we’re not in a real rush to get to Toledo.
My Goodness! The scenery we’ve seen these past two days! Wonderful. Beautiful. Majestic. I could live in Montana. (In the Summer. Not butt-deep in freezing cold during the Winter. I’m a real cold Wx pussy.) But, if not for Winter, I could live in Montana.
Anyway. Just wanted to check in. I’m gonna to shower and lay down. Almost 1100 miles so far. Phew!
 

Feb 28

Day Trip To Astoria And Back!

Cool! Started out about 0730, got to Astoria about 1100, spent some time there before heading back, and was home by 1600. Cool! Rained pretty much the whole way. Actually, sprinkled, rained, downpoured, and variations thereof the entire trip. But it was nice being out with my Schweetie so I didn’t mind the wet. And there was a couple of times the sun came out and it was almost nice.

Montesano (I think). Breakfast.

Except when we climbed the 163 stairs of the Astoria Tower. I’m getting too old for this shit! Made it though and it was really windy and cold and we didn’t stay up there long; but it was fun seeing that with SWMBO. Resumed raining pretty hard when we got back to ground level. Hurried to the Gift Shop, where she bought a t-shirt, then we headed out.

Just before the bridge to go into Oredon

All in all a really nice day trip. Some really great scenery. And getting to talk with SWMBO.

The Love Of My Life! (And the Truck.)

Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Kitsap Amateur Radio Club over in Port Orchard. Nice meeting and saw a nice presentation on the HamWan stuff. Not sure if I’ll be going back though. No one (other than the guy I went there to see) introduced themsheves or had us introduce ourselves and I have mixed feelings about that. But, then, I run a completely different type of meeting and shouldn’t expect every other club to be that way.

163 Steps To The Top. 163 Back Down.

Anywho, looks like the Mesh stuff will be really short range and probably used mostly on Field Day if we get enough people participating. The 5.8 GHz HamWan stuff is extremely line-of-sight and probably won’t work for Mason County. (Lots of trees and mountains in the way.) However, the 900 MHz HamWan should work just fine even if it is a bit slower. And it can be “tunneled” into the other HamWan system.

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So that might be the way Mason County will roll if anyone other than I gets interested in it. The equipment could cost about $200 per unit (which really ain’t bad) but setup seems pretty easy. I’m going to check it out more.

#Desiree

Other than that not much has been gong on around here. SSDD. Since we got home a bit earlier than I thought we would I’m just starting my usual Sunday chores. Probably won’t make dinner tonight as we’re still full from our last stop at MacDonald’s in Raymond, Wa on the way home.

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MCARC Sunday Evening 2-meter Chat Net went really well. About 10 check-ins. Nice. Somehow I get to run next Wednesday’s Net. Cool!

I’m going to bed. I’m tired.

Feb 16

Special Report: Our Weekend Trip

Which I wasn’t even sure was going to get going at all. I got the most God-Awful, pounding just because I was breathing headache Saturday afternoon that lasted until 0400 Sunday morning. I could only sleep if I refused to breathe. At about 0400, between one heartbeat and another, it went away. Felt so good I was instantly  completely wide awake.

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So I just stayed up finishing up preparations for the trip. Got SWMBO up @ 0600 and we were out of the house by 0700. Nice to be on the road with the love of my life!

We did Shelton to Olympia to Portland to Eugene in just under 6 hours. Rained quite a bit of the way but was really a nice ride. SWMBO liked the Country Mix I made. Checked in to the Timberline Motel right downtown Eugene.

No flash allowed!

Met with a “relative” that I know from Facebook but hadn’t actually met. He is the brother of the guy that married one of my Aunts on my Mom’s side of the family and the closest we can come to “relationship” is Cuz-Uncle. (Although I’m sure there is an actual relationship term that I’m just not remembering.) But, since he would have been my Cousin’s Uncle, Cuz-Uncle seems appropriate.

Anyway, we spent a couple of hours in a restaurant just talking and letting SWMBO fill in her Genealogy stuff and (I thought) having a fine time. They are nice people. I could hang around with both of them.

This woman would make traveling to Hell pleasant!

Afterwards, SWMBO and I walked all over downtown Eugene. Then, later, walked all over downtown Eugene looking for a place toeat. I’d bet we walked a couple of miles both times! By the time we finally settled down for the night I was really exhausted.

Monday we took our time getting up (it was a “vacation’’” after all). Stopped at that restaurant for breakfast and hit the road.

What a beautiful ride! Both from Eugene to the Coast and North along highway 101. It was cold, and wet, and foggy, but the scenery, that that we could see, was beautiful, dramatic, inspiring, and well worth braving the weather to see. Stopped at a lot of roadside stops and generally just had a great time.

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We paid $27 to take an elevator down to the Sea Lion Cave to watch Sea Lions lounge around the world’s largest Sea Cave. (And $50 in the gift shop!) Was totally worth it though.

Because of traffic, and construction, we didn’t hit the Tukwilla area until about 1400. That would have been fine except we saw a GIANT building with “Air Museum” painted on the side of it. HAD to stop. Glad we did! Really not too many exhibits but not bad. Used to be the Tukwilla Naval Air Station back in the 40’s and was built to hold K-class blimps. Well worth the admittance fee.

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Anyway, by the time we made it into Tukwilla proper we were hungry and starting to get tired. Grabbed a quick “dinner” at MacDonald’s and decided to forgo a drive to Astoria and just headed towards Portland. Nice ride! Pretty! Too bad we got caught up in “rush hour” traffic and it took us an hour just to get through Portland.

But, once we got past all that it was smooth sailing, at 70-75 mph, all the way to Olympia. Took the back way through Shelton (where I wasn’t able to raise anyone on the MCARC repeater) and we were home by 2100.

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Nice trip with the best company in the world! I love seeing stuff we haven’t seen with the love of my life. I didn’t take very many pictures because I’m down to using my phone again; but I got a few. (But, for some unknown reason, I didn’t get any of my Cuz-Uncle and his other half. ???)

Anywho, that’s it. For now.

Nov 28

A Whole Lot Of Nothing Going On!

Which pretty much included yesterday even though we actually traveled over 300 miles. In one day. For naught. Mostly.

Got my Lovely-Young-Bride of almost 30 years up early Friday, her birthday btw, and we were out of the house by 0700 to go for a “day trip” to the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon. Didn’t quite make it. After driving for 5 hours (counting the quick stop for breakfast at a nice little restaurant along the highway) we were only in The Dalles. Looked like another 3 hours or so to get to the Fossil Beds, so we decided to head to the Washington Coast (maybe).

Crossed the river (on a bridge!) and took that highway on the North side of the Columbia River back to I-5. Nice ride! Pretty! And was nice to finally see that landscape up close instead of from across the river.

Got back to I-5 and headed north. Took the Kelso exit and got through Kelso when we saw a sign that said we still had 75 miles to go to get to the coast. Ugh! It’s was already 1500 and would be completely dark by the time we even got there!

So we turned around and headed home. Stopped at another roadside restaurant for dinner (GOOD chili burger!). Got home about 1900 and just settled in for the evening.

Even though we didn’t actually get to our destination I still had a great time. Great scenery. Open skies. SWMBO in the seat beside me! Even though my ass was sore from all that sitting it was still a really nice trip. I do enjoy being with her whatever we’re doing.

Today she didn’t have the Genealogy Library but spent some time at her favorite yarn shop outside Allyn. After, she took me to Arby’s for dinner and COSTCO for some stuff we need. Which included 4 5TB hard drives (@ $119 each) for the new NAS. After our usual Safeway stop we be back home.

Drives are already out of their holders and in the NAS and are being formatted as we speak. Raid 5 config should still give us 15 TB to play with. I’ll let y’all know how that goes.