The Question Most Asked...

The past two weeks I have received several emails about our vacation.  An old friend wants to know if we had any "oddball things happen on our trip".  As a matter of fact we did. The first thing that I considered 'odd' happened on our first morning at Melodi's home in California. Tommy and I were sitting outside drinking coffee and enjoying Melodi's patio. I love her house and yard. Completely surrounded by people and not a person in sight. We were relaxing and unwinding from the trip. My cell phone rings, on the other end is a emergency room nurse in Missouri calling me to see how I felt after my discharge from the hospital, the night before. I was caught off guard. I told her I was fine, had not been in the emergency room the night before, plus I was in California. She paused for a second and said, "Hmmm I must have made a mistake." Then she hung up.  I told Tommy about the call and he just laughed. Conspiracy theorist that I am, I chewed on this for about an hour. I was hoping my insurance card wasn't being used. I dismissed that idea, they would have to pay a $300 copay to get anywhere with it. Someone probably made up a cell phone number and it happened to be mine. It could have been a lot of things, so far it has  turned out to be nothing.

The second "odd occurrence" was about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This happened as we were returning home. We were in Oregon, having crossed the Bridge of the Gods.  We stopped for the night. It was a beautiful place.  As we drove into town we stopped to ask directions and recommendations for a good motel.  We were told we were in the wrong part of town. We should be "downtown at the square". We were tired, wanting out of the car and ready to rest.  We drove downtown. This is where things get tricky. There were 40 million old cars all souped up and looking sharp, parading around town. We had the windows down and saw crowds of people lining both sides of the streets. People were taking pictures and making all sorts of comments. I told Tommy we needed to get out of this parade some way. That is when I heard a lady say, "Well, it's a nice old car but why didn't they wash it before they came to town."  She was talking about us. Now I really wanted off the road. This is when we realize we are in a car show!!  Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time!!!  We were driving Mama's 91 Grand Marquis. It is a sweet ride. Roomy, comfortable and old but in excellent condition. I love that car. At times I still get a wiff of Mama's scent. Tami got one the other day, when she opened the glove box. It comes and goes. I think that is when Mama makes us a visit.

                        
We pulled out of traffic and into a motel parking lot. I go inside to get a room, only to find most of the rooms in town are already reserved for the "Antique Car Show."  It is a yearly event and people from all over the Northwest come here for this weekend. UGH!!  I finally got a room but we had to park the car about a block from where we were staying. People were pulling in and parking anywhere. I was ticked off to say the least. We knew if we left that place we might not get a room. The room was nice just inconvenient.

While we were parking the car, we see a sign that read "Welcome Neon Night Cruisers".  As we pulled into the parking lot people came over to see "our car".  I am like "Oh Crap" while Tommy is telling them all about the car. I really didn't want to talk about "what they had under their hood!".  They were curious why we hadn't fixed the car up with more chrome and spit and polish. That is when we told them we were traveling and not in the car show.  Talk about being astonished!!!  The three men who were talking to Tommy, couldn't believe we on a 5,000 mile road trip, in "that old thing." I couldn't believe they spent thousands of dollars on their "old things" and don't drive them.

The next morning I took a few quick shots of cars in the parking lot. This is only a smidge of cars that were there. I like the old truck best. I have to admit I saw some beautiful old cars that are worth a fortune. Ours isn't and that is fine with me. I can't see sinking a lot of money into a car or truck that is only driven on special occasions. They could not see why we didn't fix the car "up".  Apples and oranges. Republicans and Democrats.

We ate breakfast at the diner shown above. We were the first ones there so the waitress had time to talk to us. She filled us in on the "Neon Night Cruisers". Told us about the area we were in and gave us some names of places to see before we left. She was super nice. There was one thing in the diner that I loved. An old jukebox. It was beautiful and bought back a lot of memories. Now that impressed me.