Fogbow

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 11:46 pm Ft. Collins. We had lunch with our granddaughter in Hays on the way through today. She’s a wonderful young woman and a diehard liberal living in hard red central Kansas.

An old injury to the rotator in my left shoulder flared up this afternoon. Driving tends to aggravate it a little but I’m having trouble moving my left arm very far tonight. I’m throwing everything in the book at it. Hopefully it’s better in the morning.

Dealing with the rotator cuff thing right now, and Biofreeze and Voltaren have been my friends.

Speaking of Hays, Kansas… In the summer 1976 Hubby and I participated in the Bike-Centennial which was a bicycle ride from Astoria, Oregon, to Washington, D.C. You could ride the entire trip or sections of it. We chose the two week Astoria, Oregon, to Prineville, Oregon, trip. A big fella from Hays, Kansas, was part of our touring group. Everybody called him “Hays” instead of his real name “Dave”. What a trip!

Nampa, ID…just outside Boise. ~770 miles in 12 hours and 15 minutes including lunch and gas stops. It was a VERY long day but we’re getting closer. My shoulder fared better today but I mostly kept my arm tucked against my side and only used my left hand to help stabilize the steering. Traffic on I-80 and 84 is pretty light which helps. GPS took us up US-287 to Laramie instead of I-25 and I have to say it’s a much more interesting drive. Most of the drive through Idaho was through a heavy haze, I think from wildfires.

Depoe Bay, OR tomorrow and a 250 mile shorter drive.

bill_g wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 11:48 pm The Most Comfortable vehicles I have ever driven were Crysler products. They seem to get the driver ergonomics right every time. Total pieces of crap mechanically, but a joy to drive when they are fresh and agile. Zero back aches. No leg fatigue. Neck felt fine. I mean I felt like I was in Mother's Arms. Easy to steer. Accurate turns. Good go fast into traffic. Great power up a hill. I kid you not - every vehicle from a Ram truck to a soccer mom van drove and fit perfectly. Loved 'em. Trade 'em in a 50K. Don't dally. Get another one quick. Chrysler engineers have MTBF (mean time between failures) dialed in perfectly too.

The only Chrysler product I’ve ever owned was an early Neon. For a cheap car it was fairly well executed and reasonably comfortable. Unfortunately, mechanically it was an absolute pile of crap. I didn’t keep it long. When I was looking at cars the last time around, the cloth seats in the lower level Murano were impressively comfortable but I didn’t care for the leather seats in the SL. My wife couldn’t see out of it very well so it got knocked off the list early anyway.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 12:04 am

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 11:46 pm Ft. Collins. We had lunch with our granddaughter in Hays on the way through today. She’s a wonderful young woman and a diehard liberal living in hard red central Kansas.

An old injury to the rotator in my left shoulder flared up this afternoon. Driving tends to aggravate it a little but I’m having trouble moving my left arm very far tonight. I’m throwing everything in the book at it. Hopefully it’s better in the morning.

Then I'm really glad Amtrak will be doing the drive back.

Me too! We’re over 1,900 miles on the trip odometer already with another 500 miles to get to the Oregon coast tomorrow and whatever the distance to Lynnwood,WA on top of that. I’m getting too old for this shit. I’m afraid the days of long driving trips are coming to an end.

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 5:07 am

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 11:46 pm Ft. Collins. We had lunch with our granddaughter in Hays on the way through today. She’s a wonderful young woman and a diehard liberal living in hard red central Kansas.

An old injury to the rotator in my left shoulder flared up this afternoon. Driving tends to aggravate it a little but I’m having trouble moving my left arm very far tonight. I’m throwing everything in the book at it. Hopefully it’s better in the morning.

Dealing with the rotator cuff thing right now, and Biofreeze and Voltaren have been my friends.

I’m sorry to hear about the rotator issue. I was rear ended by an appropriately named RAM pickup around 25 years ago. I thought it was just a muscle strain and ignored it. It cleared up after a week and I forgot about it, until it kept coming back. It’s gotten worse with age. Physical therapy has helped. Some. Voltaren is a life saver. My PA suggested it to me when arthritis in the large toe on my left foot was making it difficult to break in new shoes. I use it for all sorts of things now and it was the first thing I reached for last night.

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 10:42 am Speaking of Hays, Kansas… In the summer 1976 Hubby and I participated in the Bike-Centennial which was a bicycle ride from Astoria, Oregon, to Washington, D.C. You could ride the entire trip or sections of it. We chose the two week Astoria, Oregon, to Prineville, Oregon, trip. A big fella from Hays, Kansas, was part of our touring group. Everybody called him “Hays” instead of his real name “Dave”. What a trip!

What are the odds? Even today, Hays is only around 20k people and getting from Hays to Astoria still takes some effort.

Offering you a preemptive Welcome to Oregon! Safe journey tomorrow.

bill_g wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2024 1:53 am Offering you a preemptive Welcome to Oregon! Safe journey tomorrow.

Thanks! I can’t wait. We’ve spent the last seven years missing the PNW!

I may have some photos at some point if I can figure out how to downsize them enough for the forum software on my iPhone. I didn’t bring a laptop this trip. I’ve taken a few photos but my wife took a bunch, mostly through the bug spattered windshield though. I clean the windshield every time we stop for gas, not that it matters much. The front of the car is covered in about eight layers of bug goo. I’m got to have to seriously clean this thing before my daughter sees it.

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2024 2:10 am

bill_g wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2024 1:53 am Offering you a preemptive Welcome to Oregon! Safe journey tomorrow.

Thanks! I can’t wait. We’ve spent the last seven years missing the PNW!

You better get to sleep. It's after midnight in spudminer country.

Shizzle Popped wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2024 2:16 am I may have some photos at some point if I can figure out how to downsize them enough for the forum software on my iPhone. I didn’t bring a laptop this trip. I’ve taken a few photos but my wife took a bunch, mostly through the bug spattered windshield though. I clean the windshield every time we stop for gas, not that it matters much. The front of the car is covered in about eight layers of bug goo. I’m got to have to seriously clean this thing before my daughter sees it.

Download the app Image Size for iOS. Icon is a blue diamond with a curving arrow inside. (h/t to whatever4 for turning me on to that).

We got into Seattle late yesterday afternoon. The traffic up I-5 is every bit as bad as I remember and the Renton “S” curve is still a mess even on a Sunday afternoon. There’s major road construction alongside I-405. Maybe dedicated bus lanes they were talking about before we left? Out here in Lynnwood where we’re staying they’ve torn down the old Sears at the Alderwood mall and put up a 6 story apartment building with commercial space on the first floor.

I got most of the bug guts off of the car so it’s presentable again. Tomorrow we’re going upstate and taking the ferry through the San Juan Islands out to Friday Harbor and back. It’s a day trip but it’s one of the most beautiful spots on the planet.

Glad you made it. And, yes, the San Juan Islands are beautiful.

We got home early Sunday morning. The last couple of days have been spent trying to unpack, grocery shopping and trying to get back to a normal routine. The train actually got into Chicago on time so we were able to switch our bus tickets to train tickets. The Cardinal from Chicago to NYC runs through Indianapolis but only goes three days a week. The guy at the Amtrak lounge told us to go next door and see if we could get rebooked onto the train. So, we took the last leg on a much more comfortable train and got home three hours earlier.

More on the trip as I get back into the swing of things around here.

Glad you're home safe!

We're in the St. Louis area again tonight. My dad fell this morning and broke four ribs and fractured a vertebrae. He seems to be doing well and hasn't needed pain meds so far. That'll change tomorrow when they try to get him up and moving around. There's some talk of injecting something into the fractured vertebrae to help it heal but they haven't decided yet. We'll know more tomorrow when we see the doctor.

It's good that he is where he is.

On the Seattle Trip:

The car had a little over 3,000 miles on the trip odometer when we turned it over to my daughter before we left. The car is in great shape and is about as fully loaded as they came in 2017. The little gas mileage indicator said 33.7 mpg and that looks fairly close to what my gas receipts say. That's pretty good considering speed limits in the interior west are 75 to 80 mph. Oddly, when the speed limit is 80 mph very few people go around me and they do it slowly. Along I-70 in Illinois and Indiana when I'm doing 74-ish mph they blow around me like I'm sitting still.

The Oregon coast was lovely, as it always has been. Sadly, the area around Depoe Bay and Lincoln Beach are starting to develop. I always liked that these areas were quieter and less populated than areas like Cannon Beach. We did find a nice quiet place along the beach to place the ashes of Kiah, our last Schnauzer. She hated getting her paws wet but loved running through the surf. When we would get out of the car near a beach she would pull at the leash until we got to the water. Then I would let the leash reel out and she would run in and out of the water. She loved the beach.

We went to Fremont to drop off one of my wife's quilts with the daughter of a friend. The friend now lives in Cabo but will be in town later in the month. We had lunch and spent the afternoon walking around the area. Fremont isn't as quirky as it used to be. The area has become too expensive to support quirky. Most of that moved to Portland years ago.

The last night we had dinner at Pier88 in Lynnwood. This place didn't exist when we moved and the only thing on that plot of land was a fairly new Costco. Now there's a Home Depot, apartments and a ton of small businesses. The food was good enough but our server was the real highlight. My wife asked if she could make a Cuban Daiquiri. She didn't know what it was but asked for the recipe so I told her how to make it. She didn't take a single note but when the drink arrived my wife said it was perfect. The entire night was like that. She was absolutely terrific and got a tip that reflected that.

That's all for now. I'll update on the train trip home later.

My dad seems to be doing fairly well. They did a Kyphoplasty this afternoon, which is essentially injecting cement into the fractured vertebrae to align and stabilize it. I gather it's fairly routine and it went exactly as planned. Of course, they jostled him around a bit getting him into position for the procedure so he took his first pain meds after he got back to the room. He's tougher than I am.

They're working on getting him transferred into what they call a "swing bed" facility for a period of rehab before he returns to assisted living. I don't really know what that is but it's only offered at the smaller rural hospitals in the area. That should happen tomorrow or Saturday. Once we know where he's going we'll probably head for home. In the rush to get packed and get over here I forgot to grab my Trulicity, which I was supposed to take tonight. Plus my back, which was on the edge after the trip out west, has gone over the cliff. I'm on heavy meds tonight. There was talk of us taking him to whichever facility he's transferring to but they're all 30 or so miles from where he is. Moving him sitting upright in a car with four broken ribs may not be the best idea. One or the other of us will be back shortly anyway. He has unrelated appointments on the 26th of this month and the 7th of October. Mrs. Shizzle is taking the first one since I have an appointment in Indy on that day that's already been moved once.

On a side note, the hospital room he's in is oddly quiet. I've spent enough time in the hospital to know how noisy they can be and how incredibly hard it can be to sleep. There's some noise in the hall but less than I'm used to and when you close the door you can't hear much of anything.