Paul Alton MBA

Our plans for the month are to wrap up things as best we can in Harlingen then mid month head home via the west coast. The month and the page are works in progress.

Up early, surfing Internet for updates on Iran war.

Went to church. Ben spoke, referencing a message Oscar delivered in chapel on Friday about discipleship. Ben felt lead to change the emphasis in the drive through food bank. Currently the gospel is preached with every group of cars. Most people are repeat clients. He plans to provide messages that help people grow. “Going to start taking 1 of 2 days for discipleship”.

Romans 10:12-14 Expanded on message from Oscar

Matthew 28:19 The great commission. Make disciples. A lot more than sharing The Gospel.

John 20:21 Fathers has sent me I also send you.

We had lunch at home followed by a quiet afternoon reading and relaxing before we went to dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse. We stopped at HEB on the way home.

Oscar spoke this morning at chapel, before staff meeting. This may be the last message we hear live from him this winter. He may be flying to Jamaica tonight. If he goes, he is not planning to be back before we plan to start our trek home.

2 Chronicles 35:24-27
Josiah was a great king. After David he is considered the greatest King. He died a bad death. In a battle he wasn’t supposed to be in. Three Bible books described his life. Lamentations mourned the lose of an early, pointless death before he fulfilled his potential. Another described his discovery and pursuit of God’s Law. The third was the account of his life which a book everyone has: born, did things, died. What books are being written about your life?

I borrowed some saws from Byron. We loaded plywood from bunk bed frames into Ben’s truck. Juanita and I unloaded the plywood at the training center. We took the truck to Home Depot for lumber and supplies for the handicap ramp. The sixteen footers went on the bottom with the eight footers on top to keep them from tipping out of the short bed truck. It was a cautious drive with no sudden moves. Known humps and dips were approached slowly.

We returned the truck to the warehouse and drove our car to the training center. We cut the ramp into two sections. Byron was here to replace an AC unit in a dorm. He and I dragged the pieces out near the road for now. removed the old ramp. Things always take longer than you figure.

Enough for one day except a quiet evening at home.

Oscar says he has a ticket on a plane leaving at five. He may go to Jamaica this evening if he can finish other business. His message began in John 6:13, a well known passage. Today’s focus was on what happened at the end of the feeding the 5,000 miracle.

John 6:12 “that nothing be lost”. The feeding of the 5,000 is famous. Also elsewhere the feeding of the 4,000. From the 5,000 there are 12 baskets of leftovers. With the 4,000 there are seven baskets. Why would we pick up the leftovers? We have somebody who can produce unlimited. It tells us that God doesn’t like waste. AS a nation we are too wasteful. Also, sometimes he already has produced today what you need tomorrow but we have wasted it.

Out to Training Center to work on ramp. Got set up. Tried first taper cut on a 2 x 4. Saw died every two inches. Went to Harbor Freight to buy Bauer circular saw.

Juanita and I worked on the ramp rest of the day.

Up before alarm. Added some of Juanita’s picture to the February Update.

Oscar still hasn’t left for Jamaica. We were blessed with a message this morning. It starts here and carries on here (The cameraman was late. Theresa filmed the first part of the message on her phone.)

Bless the Lord because He has so blessed us. Today’s topic is the battle that happened in the heart of Joseph. He had the favour of God even when he went to jail. Sometimes the favour of God doesn’t mean that you are happy with what’s going on. Favour doesn’t mean that you feel good about it.

Galatians 4:4-5. The fullness of time with God.

Genesis 40:9-15. Verse 14 & 15 - Joseph is not happy to be in prison.

Genesis 41:1 two “full” years. Joseph was battling with his own heart. You can survive all these struggles but grieve as you get up every day in prison. “Keep me in your heart” nice thought but trusting in man. The fullness of time - God has a plan. He doesn’t ask for your approval. When the process is complete you realize you are where you need to be.

Jaunita and I continued working on the ramp at the training center. Added supports for and installed two sheets of plywood. One and a quarter sheets to go. Then curbs and railings and painting.

After shower and supper we went to Sam’s for steps, chicken and salad fixings.

Went downtown to the warehouse for chapel. Salomon spoke.

This is the day the Lord has made. The Word of God is alive, it blesses us, fills us and sets us free. We have no other option.
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”

From Genesis to Revelation are things revealed to us.

Juanita and I came back to the training center and continued working on the ramp. By the end of the day it was finished to the point of painting with antiskid paint. What’s left to do is handrails and a threshold which is on its way from Amazon.

We drove to HEB for a couple of items and returned home for a quiet evening.

We are working SOWER hours this winter. Today is our designated day off.

Juanita went to the laundromat to do the week’s wash. I went to the ramp and gave it another coat of anti-skid paint. Leaving that to dry I came back to the rig, dumped the waste tanks and did some keyboarding until Juanita returned with the car full of tools.

I cut up the old ramp. We dragged it to the burn pile. I drilled and set anchors in the concrete so the ramp wouldn’t shift in place but could be moved if needed to be in the future. Then we took some of the tools we would not be using on the ramp and took them back to the warehouse. We met Byron at Home Depot and picked out 2x4’s for the handrail. He and Toby dropped them off at the training center. After lunch we added the handrail to the ramp. Only thing left is the threshold. Amazon says it will be delivered tomorrow. It’s not looking promising on the tracking app.

I took the car to the car wash and thoroughly washed it. Will the dry weather and the unpaved driveway it will be covered with dust by tomorrow, but it got a good swamping out inside which should last until we arrive back home.

Tomorrow, we plan to meet Juanita’s nephew and his wife in Corpus Christi for lunch and a visit. They will be driving down from Houston. Originally, we had discussed meeting in San Antonio which would be four-hours each way for both couples. Corpus is a two-hour drive for us and a four-hour drive for them. Parking fees near the Riverwalk would have been about what we expect to spend for lunch in Corpus.

Just before we left for Corpus Christi we got a call from nephew Tracy about them being stuck in a traffic jam in Houston for the last forty-five minutes. Then we got a text saying they were back up to speed and their new ETA.

Our drive went mostly smoothly. It will go better when they finish the upgrade to interstate highway standards. We had time to pick up a couple of sale items at Harbor Freight. While filling up with gas at Sam’s club they called. They had made up their time and were just heading into the restaurant. Off we went. The directions to the Water Street Oyster Bar were clear on Google Maps but some of the names for exits didn’t match the actual words on the exit signs. I missed a couple of exits. We were rerouted across the bridge and back but still arrived at the restaurant at a respectable time for an exceptional meal and a pleasant visit with Tracy and Margarita.

After Lunch we toured the USS Lexington a WWII aircraft carrier. Lots of informative displays and a large variety of aircraft on the flight deck and in the hanger. A little after four we headed home (for now) to Harlingen. They headed to their hotel and to meet up with Margarita’s sister.

One on the planes on the flight deck of the Lexington was used in the filming of the movie, Top Gun.

Today’s sermon in church was delivered by Theresa. It was a message on forgiveness, under the theme of discipleship messages. She began with Matthew 18:21-22.

How many times do I forgive? Peter asked Jesus that. Maybe Peter had problems with somebody and had forgiven him six times. That would have been beyond Jewish culture. How about seven? Seventy times seven?

God’s kingdom doesn’t run on limits it runs on grace. Hurt in the world means revenge. The mathematics of forgiveness in the Kingdom is not counting. It about losing count not keeping records. We can remember but Jesus says stop counting.

She referenced Matthew 5:7 and Matthew 16:19

We’ve all had wounds. When they heal they become scars. John 20:27 Jesus had the holes and scars. His resurrection body is perfect but still has scars because scars tell the story of Gods healing. The forgiveness you receive you receive becomes the forgiveness you give.

While we were in church the threshold for the handicap ramp came. After lunch I installed it, then sorted tools.

We went to Walmart for stuff we needed now and for some stuff you can’t buy in Canada. Then to Sam’s steps, salad makings and eggs.

At home we had a quiet evening except for the noise of the much needed rain.

Oscar is back from Jamaica. That is a pleasant surprise. He spoke in chapel on the parable of the Sower. The message can be watched here.

Matthew 13:19 Birds come and snatch the seed away. The explanation by Jesus – the “Evil one “ “Wicked one”. In Mark 4:15 “Satan”. Luke 8:12 “the Devil”.

The birds snatch away right at feet of the Sower. They are aggressive. The Devil uses lack of understanding. When God lays something on your heart. You are responsible to …

Staff meeting followed chapel. There is a group of sixty youth arriving from the Houston area for a mission trip here. Significant planning goes into handling a large group of youth.

Juanita and I went out to the training center. We painted both sides of the corner of the bathroom wall that we had repaired last month. We painted the corner of the handicap ramp curb with high visibility paint.

I replaced some screws on a couple of bunk beds in a dorm room. We took a staff member to some medical appointments. When we came back I worked on the door frame in a staff house and started work on the threshold of another staff house. Finishing that is on tomorrow’s list.

We went downtown to the warehouse to return some tools. We borrowed a hammer drill. There were sixty teens here from Houston on a spring break mission trip. Staff were hunting for more chairs for the chapel. We shy woodland creatures retreated to the training center, by way of Home Depot, watching Oscar’s message on Facebook later.

I worked on the staff house door sill started yesterday. I painted the contrasting strip of white below the section of bathroom wall painted grey yesterday. For some reason I didn’t take any pictures. My mind in on the long road home, I guess. It’s due to not being pleased by the outcome. The job ended up looking okayish but infinitely better than the gapping, rotting mess of a few months ago.

We returned excess material from the ramp and sill tasks to Home Depot, returned tools to the warehouse. Scraps of pressure treated wood from the ramp build got stowed in the training center shop. There is a Rubbermaid container of tools I have left under the bench of the training center shop for a decade or so. It holds masonry and drywall tools that don’t need to be carried around in my daily tool bag and that don’t need to be carried north. I found the tools that go into that container. The container got stowed in it’s usual resting spot.

Time for a shower.

We went to Logan’s Roadhouse for supper to use up the last of a gift card.

Back home we went through purchases and receipts for customs.

Late to bed.

Oscar delivered the message to the group of youth from Houston this morning. He mentioned some of the strange food and awkward sanitary conditions one can encounter on the mission field. The message shown here on Facebook doesn’t have the preamble, but it is still worth a listen.

Numbers 23:13-14 Balam a prophet, a Moabite. God and he have a relationship. The king of Moab wanted him to curse the people of God. There is a specific place involved, the top of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 34:1 mentions Moses on Pisgah Peak. Pisgah means to meditate, to contemplate. No accident that two notable men of the Bible are associated with this location. Choose which you wish to emulate.

The drive through food bank happens Wednesdays and Fridays. The gates open at nine but the line forms before eight. I walked up the line of waiting cars and handed out curved illusion tracts before heading back home to the training center. I carried on with receipts for customs, making a spreadsheet to organize the into categories and do the exchange rate calculations. We packed for the trip north and tidied our borrowed fifth wheel.

We went Sam’s for gas, HEB for lemonade. We used the last bit left on a gift card to pick up a “Big Ol’ Brownie” from Texas Roadhouse. We brought it home to share after our supper.

Oscar spoke in chapel to the group and staff/

Genesis 22:1...  “Abraham tested”. Take thou thy son , thy only son… It took three days of walking to get there. Verse 7 “where is the lamb”? Verse 8 “God will provide a lamb”. Verse 9 “a ram”. Verse 13 “instead of his son”. A lamb was a sacrifice for sin representing innocence. A ram, an adult, represents strength, power, maturity. A sacrifice of consecration.

Abraham’s battle was making God #1 vs Isaac

We spent the day puttering at packing. In the afternoon I dropped off my toolboxes and bags of daily tools with Byron. Juanita visited with Martha. Then we went to Sam’s for steps, samples and froyo.

Up early. Juanita headed off to the laundromat. I did some banking, packing and making sure the keto bread got made into toast and eaten.

When juanita returned we carried on cleaning out the fridge and sharing leftover groceries with the neighbours. Then packing, cleaning and tank dumping. Then playing luggage Tetris with the back of the car.

Finally, we dropped off the keys and said our goodbyes (again), driving away about eleven. Stopped at a Laredo Taco Company for chicken fajita quesadillas then got on the road to Eagle Pass. Once we passed through some cultivated land near Raymondville, the scenery became scrubland with ornate ranch entrances to ranches with buildings out of sight from the highway.

After checking in to our motel in Eagle Pass we went to Walmart for steps, premade salads and breakfast croissants.

We began the day with breakfast croissants, coffee and keyboarding. We had intended to get on the road at civic twilight, but the keyboarding had been neglected all week and was going well. We got on the road about half an hour later than planned. The sun was peeking over the horizon.

On the way out of town, we noticed many vehicles parked. People were setting up a large flea market. We parked. Juanita settled in to read her Kobo. I ventured forth to had out curved illusion tracts to the booth keepers and early bird bargain hunters. I handed out over fifty, mostly in Spanish covering about a quarter of the flea market grounds before thinking it was time to get back to driving.

We crossed the Pecos River. We stopped to take a picture. Mistake. You’re supposed to stop before
crossing the river if you want a good picture. I must have been more on the ball in 2011. In 2011 we stopped on the correct side for good pictures. I may include a few of those and label them appropriately. The view hasn’t changed since 2011.

We took a side trip to the Judge Roy Bean visitor center in Langtry. It has changed a lot in fifteen years and more upgrades are in progress.

Our GPS took us to “Historic Fort Stockton”. There were a few scattered buildings but no wall. How can you have a fort without a wall? In the interesting little fort museum we learned that the land was so open and flat that you could see any enemies coming better if you didn’t have a wall. Sounds like an accountant was involved somehow.

The roads we have been on today and yesterday in Texas are two lane. The have frequent passing lanes. At the end of each signs announce the distance to the next one. At posted speed limits of 65, 70 and 75 miles per hour you’ll be at the next passing lane soon. No need to take silly chances.

Crossing into New Mexico we enter a “safe corridor” with 55 mph forever until Carlsbad. As annoying as that is it makes sense. There are frequent oilfield related installations and activity with worker camps to match. The camps are similar to those you see north of Fort Mac but are all single story plus have parking areas for workers to stay in their own RV’s. Many of the RV slots have roofs to keep the sun off the rig.

We stopped in Artesia for a pitstop. Then we sat in the car and looked at hotel options. There was one I tried to book in Roswell. It had mixed reviews, but I decided to take a chance on it. Things went well until it said my MasterCard wasn’t acceptable. I looked closer at the symbols of the accepted cards. No Visa. No MasterCard. No Apple Pay. Just Diners, Discover, and JCB (Japan Credit Bureau!). Maybe some of the reviews mentioning scam were right. Maybe MasterCard and Visa want nothing to do with them. I guess we didn’t either.

I looked up the attractions we may want to see in Roswell. None open before 9 am tomorrow. Roswell is about half an hour from Roswell. Close enough.

After checking into our hotel we went to Taco Bell for supper. Then Walmart for steps and breakfast croissants with a stop for a sundae at Mickey Dee’s. A review of the trusty road atlas back in the room suggests if we don’t spend too long in Roswell we may aim for Gallup tomorrow night.

We wake up in Artesia. Roswell, New Mexico is about half hour down the road. Neither of us have been there before but, like everybody, we’ve heard a lot. I have heard more than most.

In my misspent youth I sold real estate for a little over a year. I worked with a shockingly old guy (younger than I am today, by far lol) from Roswell, New Mexico. Oscar Green was his name, and he had stories some of which I have put in Buddy Tales. Here’s a quick few.

People would come into the real estate office looking for motel listings. They were planning to retire and run a motel. Oscar thought that was funny. He said he had never worked so hard in his life as when they were in the motel business. He also said when he went into the motel business, he had four thousand dollars and his partner had a million dollars. When he got out of the motel business two years later, he had nothing and his partner had a million and four thousand dollars.

He said when he got into the electrical contacting business he had a 1947 Dodge coupe with a ladder on the side, himself and no debt. Ten years later he was huge success. He had ten employees, a big shop and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. A big success!

He was in Roswell as a kid. WWII started. Roswell became a center of pilot training. Overnight it went from a sleepy little town to 50,000 people. Housing was an issue. Building supplies were scarce. People were buying ready to move houses built on a vacant lot with 2 x 2 studs and ¼” sheet rock. They barely held together for the move off the lot.

He got tired of sage brush and the desert. He got on a bus to BC. He rode three days and was still seeing sage brush. He was starting to get worried. He got there and looked around and liked what he saw. He bought his first property in BC over the phone from the sketchiest realtor in our town. He said he just discounted everything he said about the property by fifty percent. It worked out fine.

Oscar could hold a grudge. For a planned interval. He had a houseboat built named the Bon Nus (the good nudes). The fibreglass shop messed up glassing the hull and then charged him big bucks to grind out their mistake. He badmouthed them to potential customers until he figured he had cost them in business five times what they had over charged him. He said that was his standard.

When Oscar came to BC from New Mexico he ran a marina until he decided to retire. Not into a motel business. Into real estate. But he informed us he didn’t “peddle houses”. He sold waterfront property. He would come into the office in the morning in the winter. Read his mail, drink coffee, write letters and arrange listings of waterfront property. In the summer he would take potential buyers to see the properties. They travelled on his boat chartered from his old marina company and written off as a real estate sales expense. One time he ran an ad in the Chicago Tribune “Your Dream Can Become True In Beautiful BC”. There was lots of response, but no sales. He figured that dreamers don’t have any money.

I have a few more stories about or from Oscar Green I could tell but his home town, Roswell, awaits.

Later: lets start at the beginning for today. I was up before the alarm, showered and at the keyboard until six when the office opened. The travel mugs filled with coffee I returned to the keyboard. Wednesday through Sunday narratives are posted. No pictures yet.

We were on the road about eight thirty driving through a bleak flat landscape. Dare I call it an alien landscape on the way to Roswell? The highway was four-lane all the way.

Roswell is prosperous looking. They are really working the UFO and alien angle, plus they seem to still have remnants of the WWII military expansion.

We went to International UFO Museum. They had lots of displays as convincing as one side of any story can be. I’m a skeptic but from what we’ve seen and learned in the last few years the government is capable and willing to cover up all sorts of things. So who knows? There could have been crashed aliens and the powers that be could have spirited them away. Or not.

The museum was worth the five bucks for a senior admission. It was crowded with visitors. I got to hand out a bunch of curved illusion tracts in the museum and, later, in the street while we checked out the alien themed store fronts in the neighbourhood. There was an “expert” there giving lectures. He had books he had written about laid out on the table in the conference room where he was speaking. One dad was saying to his kid as they left the room how lucky there were to hear him. He was “only there because it’s spring break”. I wouldn’t know. I didn’t sit in on one of his talks or check out his books. Not sure what difference it would make in what I do from day to day if aliens are real and are/have been here.

Back on the road. We passed through Vaughan. We had hoped to get lunch there, but it is dissolving into a ghost town with more shuttered businesses than open ones. They needed a crashed UFO and didn’t get one.

At the junction with I40 we stopped at Cline’s Corner, walked through their New Mexico themed souvenir displays and bought a couple of Subway sandwiches. Then gas and on our way through high winds cutting across I 40. The trucks were running slower to reduce risk of being toppled. The cars were travelling at or slightly about the 75-mph speed limit. There were a lot of trucks. When a semi pulled into the left lane to go around a slower semi the cars would start to clump up.

Driving the interstate was more tiring than the highway between Roswell and the interstate. There were so few vehicles on that road that the adaptive cruise control took itself offline. If it doesn’t see cars or buildings often enough it does that. Also, the wind was a headwind on the highway to I 40. Not the gusting crosswind that needed constant vigilance and steering correction. At least the landscape has improved with some scattered trees and lots of red rock formations.

Checking into the hotel at Gallup took a long time. I apologized to Juanita when I got back in the car. I explained I couldn’t remember my blood type so they had to take a sample and run tests.

We went to Walmart for salads and fuel. On the way back to the hotel, we picked up a couple of McDonald’s sundaes for dessert. No breakfast croissants. The hotel has a continental breakfast. 

Up at six, showered. Walked through the below freezing morning to the lobby to find the breakfast room. The lobby has numerous sculptures welded together from scrap metal bits. Did a brief bit of keyboarding before getting on the road at eight. Within the first hour on the road the dash display said the outside air temperature had reached three degrees.

It was pleasant but still jacket weather when we decided to take it easy for a while. We stopped to stand on the corner in Winslow Arizona. The sculptor who made one of the sculptures was there being friendly. He visited with the steady stream of tourists and used their phones to take pictures of them next to the statue. He had a box of tee shirts there for sale but wasn’t particularly pushing them. I’m not sure of the desirability of wearing a tee-shirt that says, “Yup I made the statue across the back” if you’re not the sculptor. I handed out some curved illusion tracts and admired the flat bed Ford parked there before we went to a truck stop near the highway for a pitstop, gas and a four pack of Cinna Bites.

Next stop was the site of a meteor crater that resulted when a meteor arrived and blew Arizona dirt all over the countryside. I found the crater and the many informative displays interesting. A lot of other people did, too. Many of them happily took their curved illusion tracts.

Back on the road to Seligman, Arizona to Delgadillo’s Sno Cap Diner on historic Route 66 another popular attraction. We each had green chili beef burritos. I let Juanita have a few sips of my blueberry pineapple milk shake. I chose a large diameter plastic straw so the bits of fruit could make it to my taste buds. America is not paper straw stupid. Yet. Don’t count the lefties out. They’re like crab grass. They’ll be back.

I remember driving the highway between Kingman and Las Vegas for the first time.

It was 1974. I had started the day with the sunrise on the north rim of the Grand Canyon and drove along the south rim at sunset. Route 66 was being replaced by I 40 but not completely, yet. By the time I got to the highway from Kingman north it was dark. The drive was a bit of a nightmare. The highway was two lane with a stream of cars in both directions. Oncoming headlights in my eyes. No chance to pass. Anywhere. The route lead over Hoover Dam and wound to downtown Las Vegas through a hoard of cheap motels with signs advertising water beds and porn movies. I got a room you could hold a convention in at the Del Webb Mint hotel downtown for $21*. No hidden charges.

Today we arrived in Las Vegas in about 4:30. Temperatures were approaching 30 C. I checked in to a casino hotel advertised as $US11/night. I had read the fine print and was expecting the $50 resort fee and the $20 parking fee and the $100 supposedly refundable damage deposit. Some of the people who write reviews weren’t expecting those charges. Times change. There aren’t any bargains here. That said, the rooms are large and clean. They hope you don’t spend much time in them. No fridge. No microwave. No coffee maker.

About six o’clock we walked north in the strip, handing out curved illusion tracts and taking in the sights. On the outbound leg we caught a glimpse of the Bellagio fountain show across the street from us. On the return leg the next show was about to start. We stayed to watch.

We bought salads at a Target store. Ate them for supper when we got back to the room at eight. The end of a pleasant 16k step day with lots of things seen and decent miles on the road.

I texted my sisters about being in Winslow and Las Vegas. One responded. She said our grandniece was in Vegas. I replied, “we didn’t see her”.

*Note about 1974. A week after the huge room in downtown Las Vegas for $21/night I stayed in a Holiday Inn in San Francisco. The room was $75/night. It was so small you had to crawl over the bed to get to the bathroom.

Up early but not terribly focused. Finally settled into posting yesterday’s narrative and correcting typos and cleaning up a couple of prior days. The internet connection was so good we talked about hanging around a while into the morning but decided to get on the road. Not early but not late, either. Rolled out of the motel lot about 8:30 after puttering rearranging some luggage, doing a beard trim, haircut, showering, cleaning the car windows…

Our route took us through Reno, into northern California and finally to Oregon. Part of the way we could see Mount Shasta. Shortly after crossing into California, we were stopped at a check point. “Any produce?” “Nope.” “Have a nice day.” “You too.”

Shortly before leaving California we passed a check point stopping cars coming from Oregon.

Grok describes our route today as “a gorgeous route with a mix of desert-to-mountain transitions!” He’s not wrong. Or is Grok a “she”? I always think of Grok as masculine, but the voice feature is feminine. But I digress.

We stopped for a pit stop at McDonald’s in Susanville. Juanita stood at the counter hoping to order a couple of Coke Zeroes. The woman ahead of her was hoping to order a cup of coffee. The staff were busy in the back dealing with kiosk and drive thru orders. I had time to go off to the restroom and hand out a dozen curved illusion tracts. The woman said, “All I wanted was a cup of coffee”. She was still standing there, waiting when we debanked to the drive thru.

The intercom said, “we don’t carry Coke Zero would you like Diet Coke.” “Nope. Bye.”

Eventually, the drive thru line moved enough we could get back on the highway. It was Juanita’s turn to drive. Naturally the highway turned narrow and winding and climbed the side of a mountain. We were quickly looking back down from the heights on the valley with Susanville far below. This was a thin grey line in the road atlas. Mr. Google figured it was shorter and therefore a quicker route to Klamath Falls. The pavement was new and the drive through the National Forest was pleasant. Most other traffic seemed to have taken wider, better highways so traffic was not an issue.

We got to Klamath Falls about two thirty and stopped at the Black Bear Diner. The first Black Bear Diner was in Shasta, California. It has become a chain with one of its more recent outcrops occurring in Harlingen, Texas. We had brunch there this winter. Healthy portions of good tasting food. Prices are reasonable by today’s standards. Today, Juanita had a burger and fries. I had their $11.99 steak and eggs special. It was getting close to three when we finished. We looked at what time we would get into Eugene if we went that far today. We looked at the shortage of choices for accommodation between Klamath Falls and Eugene. I went online and booked the hotel next door to the diner.

We drove across the parking lot and checked in, put our bags in the room then drove to a local park to walk. We stopped at Walmart for steps, cold brew coffee and breakfast croissants before returning to the room early enough to get a parking spot close to our room. We were warned that the lot fills up with the vehicles of the construction workers staying here.

I needed a few more steps and walked about ten minutes to the Dairy Queen for a chocolate covered strawberry Blizzard. Oh, the sacrifices we make for our fitness routines! Juanita came out to meet me on my way back. How did she know I was bringing her a Blizzard as well?

I guess the Blizzards were supper.

On the road about 15 minutes before sunrise. By the time we were along the shores of upper Klamath Lake Mount McLoughlin was lit up by the sun and visible to the west. Mount Shasta was lit up in the rear-view mirror.

We rode through forest past the turn off to Crater Lake to the left turn for the highway to Eugene. The roads were dry and clear through the pass but there were remnants of snow in the trees.

Today is the annual free cone day at DQ restaurants in Canada and the states. Seems like a good hobby for today. High carb but one doesn’t end up with a collection of ceramic frogs, brass elephants or owl wall hangings. Being one day only, it’s not going to result in receiving unwanted gift knickknacks for years after your enthusiasm for them has waned.

The DQ near our motel was shuttered. Close to Eugene there were two more that hadn’t opened for the day yet. We stopped in Salem at number four DQ of the day for our first cone of the day. You can keep count from here. It wasn’t too busy. There was room in the parking lot. There was a sign before entering the drive through, “free cones in lobby only”. The first door we came to was blockaded. Another sign. “Use other door”. Inside we lined up. Another sign. Free cones “in person only.” We ordered our cones. Juanita headed to the bathroom. I saw a sign, $1 to dip cone”. I’d like a dip. “It’s too late. Your order has been entered and you have your slip. The cones came. We went outside to eat them. The ice cream was aerated or something but not the usual creamy texture. I wondered if the franchisee had ‘watered the soup’ just for the day or for always. I also wondered if Gordon Lightfoot would have worked with “Is the franchisee still a loser? Do his signs hang on the door? If the others are like this first cone, are we going to want more?”

The rain started near Portland. The spray from the vehicles ahead of us was like a fog. The adaptive cruise reacted occasionally to the mist as if it were a vehicle. Not pleasant driving conditions but traffic moved along near the speed limit. Across the Columbia River into Washington we needed a  
Needed pit stop. I exited to a Shell station. As I filled the car with gas at over five bucks a gallon, Juanita returned. The station had no restrooms. The station did have a lean-to off the side that sold Mexican food. We decided things were not so desperate we didn’t have time for a couple of lengua (beef tongue) tacos. While we waited for our order to cook I handed out Spanish curved illusion tracts to the workers and many of the customers lined up. The Chinese guy eating at the picnic table with his kid got an English tract as did a couple of women customers. Profiling.

As we ate our yummy tongue tacos at a picnic table, we looked at options for a bathroom. Oh! Look! There’s a DQ 18 minutes further along our route. I headed for the bathroom. Juanita went to order a cone. There was a huge group ahead of her. They were all together and waved her past. I came out of the rest room. She handed me our cones. She headed for the rest room. Hard to hand out tracts with a cone in each hand. I went outside to wait for her. I ate my chocolate dipped cone (Bless her!). Juanita took her plain one. I wonder why she doesn’t fight the overweight problem I do? They had no signs and their Ice cream tasted and felt normal.

Close to Olympia we were stuck in barely moving traffic. I was nodding off and having a hard time adjusting to the going of the stop and go. We pulled off at Tumwater and into the parking lot of a granite counter warehouse. There was a coffee drive through kiosk there. I looked at the prices for a cold brew coffee. I’m too cheap to order a brew at that price if I might just throw it out or gag it down in a fit of further cheapness. Mr. Google found us a DQ minutes away with a McD’s for iced coffee not far from that. That’ll work.

The word was out. This DQ was packed. Lots of high strung teenagers bleating loudly at each other. I ordered a plain and a Mint Cookie dipped cone. Yummy. We sat at a table to eat our cones. The ambiance of the background noise was like being in a tile bathroom while multiple people hit golf balls. I tuned that out to check our options for further travel today. The metro Seattle-Tacoma traffic map with multiple red zones was highly unappealing. I booked a hotel a couple of doors down from the McD’s where we would buy our iced coffee. Juanita retreated to the silence of the car. I worked the exuberant crowd with curved illusion tracts before leaving the zoo.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel. Coffee will be available in the lobby at 7 am. Lotus land. Prior hotels of the same chain have been 5:30 or 6. I guess nobody is keen to get up early and venture out into the dim mossy moisture.

We went to the Costco gas bar for gas at the bargain price of 4.999 a gallon then into the Costco proper for steps and samples. Fred Meyer next door had frozen breakfast croissants for tomorrow. We drove to a Black Bear Diner for supper. And guess what happened next? There was a DQ nearby! It’s parking lot was a zoo. I parked next door at the Albertson’s super market lot to trudge through the rain. Inside the DQ was relatively calm. There must have been twenty staff behind the counter and in the food prep area. The line was short. In a few minutes I was out with my cone walking back to the car and Juanita. She, for some reason, had had enough ice cream cones for the day. By the way, the ice cream was fine and there were no signs.

There was another DQ kinda on the way back to the hotel. The parking lot was clustered with cars getting in each other’s way. The drive through line up went out onto the street. I parked at a business next door and walked to the DQ. It was big inside. It needed to be. The line to the counter had over twenty people lined up for their free cones. I baulked, staying only long enough to hand out a handful of curved illusion tracts.

Home to the hotel to slip into a carb coma.

Slept until the alarm went off. That’s the first time in over a week. Might have been the carbs yesterday or the sleep mask. I tried keyboarding but there was not enough bandwidth for what I wanted to do so I moved onto what I should be doing. The analysis of my time management skills was right – “does things he wants to do rather than what he should be doing”. I think my grade two teacher said something along those lines, too.

We dug currencies out of nooks & crannies. We counted and converted to Canadian dollars and wrote down the amount in the event the border minions wanted to know. They ask about one time in five crossings.

You are officially allowed to bring back duty free a certain value of purchases depending on the amount of time you’ve been out of Canada. Like usual, we are over that by a couple of hundred dollars. Usually, they let that slide and just say, “have a nice day” and we’re on our way. We also have a few purchases family members have had shipped to us because of shipping costs. That is supposed to be accounted for separately and the duty paid with no forgivable amount. This is the first time we have crossed the border going north since Canadians mistook negotiation for aggression and went all elbows up. They added tariffs to incoming purchases. If you are within your limit, you’re fine. If you’re over, they are supposed to apply the tariff to the total. Best to be prepared with accurate documentation.

 I finalized the purchases spreadsheet complete with today’s official exchange rate, tore up the old printout. I went to print final version. Last year I bought a tiny printer that prints on thermal paper like the  old fax machines. Today the printer didn’t print. The roll of thermal paper that came with printer had finally run out. I dug out the spare roll of thermal paper. With the roll inserted according to the diagram inside the printer the printer made happy noises. Paper emerged for the last printout plus the one I just asked for. No printout. Just paper.

I regretted tearing up the old printout I could have just marked it up with pen. There’s a good chance I won’t need it at the border but it’s best to be prepared.

I didn’t tear off the sheet. I took the roll out of the printer and rolled the paper back onto the roll. Then confirmed that it was in the way as diagramed and even consulted the instruction manual. I tried again and got no printout. It dawned that the paper was something I bought on Amazon separately. It could be different. Maybe the thermally activated side was on the other side of the sheet. It was. When I put the roll in backwards, I got my spreadsheet printout.

While I was finishing putting away the printer and laptop Juanita went to the office and filled our travel mugs.

We were on the road shortly after.

In the rain.

As we neared Seattle Mr. Google changed our route from I5 to I405 to avoid some car crashes downtown. I missed the new exit. As we were recovering from that error 405 went red on the display. Mr. G re-re-routed us through cozy old neighborhoods before going into a toll tunnel that bypassed downtown before rejoining I5.

We stopped at a McDonald’s in Everett for lunch. Helps to know a bit of Spanish to communicate with the staff there.

South of Bellingham a bunch of mud had fallen on the northbound lane of Interstate 5. There was a detour. Traffic was more stop than go. Mr. Goggle provided a detour around the detour. Every so often we’d get a glimpse of barely moving traffic while we muddled along. Sometimes we were not moving very fast but always moving.

As we got out onto an empty freeway the sun came out. It turned into a beautiful afternoon and evening.

Border crossing was a breeze. “Where do you live?” “How long were you away?” “Where did you cross into the States? Estevan?” “How much are you bringing back?” ”Any alcohol or tobacco?” “Have a nice day.” We were on our way. We didn’t need the spreadsheet. But we had it if needed. Like survival food. I hope we never need that freeze dried lasagna.

We arrived at my sister Sydney’s home in Burnaby about 3. After a visit we went to Costco for steps and to purchase something they apparently don’t stock. We bought something my sister needed and came home for supper and more visiting. A quick visit to Walmart for what Costco didn’t have and back home for more visiting and watching TV together. First TV we’ve seen in months except for the weather channel one morning on the trip north.

I made a reservation on the ferry to Langdale from Horseshoe Bay for 12:10 tomorrow. We went to bed about 11.  Kinda late for us.

I was up early catching up with yesterday’s keyboarding. When everyone was up we spent some time visiting. Then it was time to head for the ferry. You don’t want to delay. Time and ferry wait for no man. We did have reservations for the 12:10 from Horseshoe Bay but there is still window to show up. A bit early for the window seems okay, but late and you end up at the back of the line and lose your reservation fee.

We got in line and waited. I got in a few steps and handed out a few tracts.

The ferry arrived. We loaded onto the ferry and found the line up for the cafeteria for typical coastal fare. Then it was time to find the car and get off the ferry and join the race to the next ferry while the locals passively aggressively poked along. We stopped for gas but we found the line again.

Next ferry. Next line. Off the ferry Another race.

We arrived at my sisters a little before five. After supper and a visit with her, I went to visit an old friend (What else? Can’t think of any young friends that I have). Late to bed again.

Up late, for me, for a lazy day. Got caught up on narrative and pictures, visited with my sister. Then we met a friend for coffee. He drove home. We picked him up at home and went out to Lund at the end of Highway 101. We had coffee and pastry before the bakery by the water closed.

We dropped him off home and returned to my sister’s home for supper and a visit until bedtime. We’ve been gone from here a long time. Time has taken its toll on our small circle of friends. Might see a couple more before leaving Wednesday morning.

Another quiet day in the hometown.

Keyboarded. Visited with sister then went for a two-hour walk. Checked out a store that carries Costco products. That business model makes sense with Costco a membership and a return ferry ride away. If they don’t have what you want that Costco carries you can order it and it will arrive in a couple of days at Costco price plus a fixed mark-up depending how bulky it is.

I walked around the No Frills store and bought some Carbonaut bread which we haven’t had since leaving Canada in November. Then to Walmart for Gaviscon, to Rona for some touch up paint and to Scotiabank to sign some forms. Back at my sister’s. When she left for a ladies’ luncheon, we left to meet a friend then took him for a drive south of town. Then some errands and a DQ app offer.

Juanita, my sister and I went for dinner at a restaurant overlooking the harbour.

Life in the hometown is kinda laid back… with a nod to John Denver.

After a bit of keyboarding, I went for a walk to Alberni Street, down to Marine Avenue, along Marine, up Duncan back along Joce Avenue to my sister’s house. After more visiting there Juanita dropped me off to meet a friend/former co-worker for lunch. Not only did we work together in Powell River, but we also worked a few turnarounds together in Regina. Industrial Instrumentation is a small world.

Juanita picked me up from lunch and I dropped off at my sisters while I went out to visit a friend at Pebble Beach. We had a good visiting and looking out over the beach and the storm tossed waves.

We ran some errands and I finished the step count for today. After Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy I went to visit our best man for a couple of hours. On the way home I bought gas for tomorrow’s travel.

We were up at six to eat breakfast. Then we embarked on the drill for this coastal community since 1954 (before that it was worse, more riding, less driving, if any. No extra charge for sea sickness or shipwreck.):

Go to ferry terminal at Saltery Bay

Wait in line for toll booth, pay

Get in line to wait for ferry

Get on ferry

Ride ferry to Earl’s Cove

Get off ferry, drive to next ferry terminal at Langdale.

Wait in line for toll booth, show them your reservation (This part is better since it was introduced a few years ago. It makes the drive between ferry terminals less of a “gentlemen man your motors” feel. You still have a window for arrival but you’re still going to get on the ferry for which you have a reservation.)

Get in line to wait for ferry

Get on ferry

Ride ferry to Horseshoe Bay. Get off ferry.

We drove the upper levels highway to my sister’s house in Burnaby. After a visit we drove to Granville Island to get some steps and exercise our jaws by dropping them at the prices people were charging for their specialty wares. After an hour of that we drove back and had supper and watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy together. Another exciting day over and done with.