Getting ready to leave one place to go to another is a task we always under estimate, thinking it will only take a short time. Reality is… it takes a significant amount of time as a semi well oiled machine to pack the clothes, pack the food, pack the dog paraphernalia, pack the electronics, gather up the pillows, clean up the kitchen which includes the refrigerator, the freezer, the pantry…it is exhausting just detailing some of it in the blog. And poor Rayman has to fit all our stuff into the car. He is a master at it. But it takes time and much effort.
Then there is handing off food to the relatives, cancelling the TV, asking the neighbor to take of our garbage cans next week…yada yada yada.
Driving from Portland, Or to Morro Bay, CA is not easy with fire and smoke complicating the journey this year. There are many routes and most of them have issues. So, after careful consideration, I think we picked the absolutely worst way to proceed…straight down I-5. It was fine until we got in the hills and mountains. Smoke as dense as pot de creme. It brings home to us how horrible the world is becoming with global warming. We really need to do more raking. Click the link. https://pin.it/1CE0h53
And in OR, you can’t go a mile without seeing beautiful tree boles piled high on a big rig truck so there is obviously some forest management going on despite the rumors. But the raking. We need more raking.
This is near Medford where an entire town was burned to the ground.
Choking smoke.
Can you spot Mt. Shasta? And Lake Shasta is a mere wisp of itself.
When we reached Roseburg, OR we were hungry and I was at the wheel. I asked Rayman if he would find us a spot for a bite. This may have akin to asking him to find the black hole. OMG. After much googling and Yelping he found a Mexican place. Great. He found it on his iPad. Then somehow, he tried to find it on his phone, I think…god knows what he was actually trying to do but in the process he lost the restaurant which he first reported to be located off off-ramp 124. He couldn’t find it on the iPhone. Then he couldn’t find it on his iPad and in the meantime, I’m making good time barreling toward to the destination. His frustration rose as the destination got closer.
“I think I have it. It’s off of 124 just like I said.”
One of the devices says, “Take exit 138 East toward downtown.”Okay, then.”
Then like a premonition from the heavens, another device says, “Exit 124 and stay in the right lane.” Then both devices talk to us in unison and we couldn’t make head nor tails out of any of it.
“Rayman, you have both devices giving us conflicting info”, I offer.
”He says, “What the hell? I don’t know what is going on.”
I say, “Rayman, you need to turn the one off that doesn’t take us to where we want to go .”
Rayman said, “Jesus Christ. What the hell is going on?”
I say, “Rayman, you need to pick one place or the other. I don’t care which one as long as it has food.”
He fumbles with this devices. “There. I turned off the iPad.”
Then the iPad says, “Take exit 138.”
At this point he is screaming at the device. “I don’t want that restaurant. I want the other one on exit 124.”
“Well”, I said. “You turned the wrong device off”.
At this point Rayman goes to the F word. “Oh, fuck, what the hell is going on?”
I say, “I don’t know. Turn the iPad off.”
He said, “I thought I did.” At that point the iPad chirped, “ In 500 yards….”
Rayman yells, “Just get off the damn freeway!”
And then the iPhone says, “In 2 miles, exit the freeway.”
Really, this is exactly what happened.
Anyway, we exited the freeway, turned left and drove toward city center. The iPad said, “Stay in the left lane and the destination is on your left in 200 yards.”
Then the iPhone said, “Get in the left lane and make a u-turn at the light.”
By this time, I spot, I kid you not, three roach coaches (aka as food trucks) parked in a gravel parking lot. “Well, I’m going to pull in here and see if one of these is the Mexican restaurant.
”Rayman says, “Really?”
I turn into the lot. The first roach coach is a Thai venue. We couldn’t figure out what the other two were. I made a U turn and was going to leave the lot but suggested, “Rayman, why don’t we just see if that far coach is a Mexican coach?” He said okay. It was a Mexican roach coach without any signage other than a lone neon “OPEN” sign. So, we parked and sauntered up to the coach. A nice Mexican woman took our order. Food was on paper plates, two tacos each. And it was delicious. Fresh, flavorful, and the best part was that there were three tables under some cloth “umbrellas” that provided perfect outdoor dining in the age of covid. And we were the only ones there until a couple of young guys joined us as we were leaving. They had tacos too!!
Key learning was that really, I need to be on the devices arranging things. And two. Sometimes just giving it a whirl works out just fine!!
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