Duck Weather!

Waiting over half an hour for a luggage trolley so we can leave Clackamas seems a little extreme. But the weather has turned and everybody seems to want to get out of town. And it's not even the week-end!

Freeways and rain and trucks are an awesome combination, especially driving a Prius C. Taking it easy is not an option. We are getting blown all over the road. Logging trucks are a real challenge. But we take a break in Eugene to let The Duck take care of us for awhile. (You don't really expect that I would get anywhere near Eugene and not go to The Wild Duck.)

Providence gave us a parking place. And The Duck gave us pretzels and bear cheese dip and perfect sliders and a break from the road. Saying goodbye to The Duck (which is really hard for me), we headed for Medford and Ashland.

It felt terrible to fly past all this incredible countryside and not be able to see it clearly, but it was like God gave us glimpses of amazing beauty. The clouds were hanging really low up against the mountains and sometimes they took on that cotton candy look. If you have travelled in the mountains, you know the look I'm talking about.

When I was a little kid I had dreams of clouds like these low-hanging ones. In my dreams they came down and ate people. One minute the person was there and the next minute they were gone. So I had a bit of a hard time ignoring those clouds driving into Medford. But we were so close to our destination that I just pressed on.

We made it to the hotel and, as it turns out, the challenges weren't over. When we walked into the room, the heat lamp was on in the bathroom. I turned it off and went to turn on the vanity lights and they popped on and then went out. I tried them a couple of more times and they did the same thing.

So we were reassigned. Everything moved to another room, thanks to Sarah! Much better.

We walked to dinner at the Oak Tree NW Bar and Grill. What a funny little place. We were given our salads at the end of the meal because they ran out of chopped lettuce and they had to make more. But the dinner ended up being tasty and simple and we walked back to the hotel in the rain pretty satisfied.

This has been a pretty typical day of travel. Risk and reward. Weather is always challenging. It is such a relief to be off the road in one piece and so looking forward to seeing theater in a place I have always wanted to experience. I think I understand risking comfort for the possibility of something great.

Tomorrow: Much Ado at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

 

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