Over the Weekend

I took a break from blogging this weekend. I just kind of felt like it. Might be that it was a bad idea because I read instead and finished my book in two days. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but here's the deal. I brought 4 books, one book for each week we planned to be on the road. So if I run out of books, I'll either buy one (spending money I shouldn't) or be without something to read.

We finally got unloaded Friday. It took all day for our turn to come. Did I post on this already? Maybe I'm thinking of an email I sent. Anyway, finally our turn rolled round and their auger broke down. So we had to wait for them to fix it. One of the guys there was MAD too. You should have heard him cussing and slinging things around. Well, maybe you shouldnt' have heard him. It was a little...just a LITTLE....ridiculous. Malcolm said he thought maybe someone turned on the auger while the guy was down there working on it. So I guess he had reason to be so mad. Still....it was a little extreme.

While we were unloading, a process that took two hours at this little rinky dink run down mill, there were about 20 quail running around. I had a hard time getting a picture. They are timid little things. I'm going to post the best one I got, but they are still hard to see. They blended in with the ground really well. The male is more visable than the female because of his black marking on his face.

Fifty miles down the road in Wallula, WA we spent the night, and then reloaded first thing in the morning. More meat and bone meal going to Foster Farms in CA. Same drive as before. A skip over to I-84, then 60 miles down the road we dropped south on US97 all the way into CA, where we picked up I-5. In these pictures we're not quite to I-84 yet. This is the Columbia River which runs between Oregon and Washington. Driving the gorge all the way to Portland is a lovely drive. I prefer the Washington side, because its a two lane instead of an interstate, and its views are more impressive.

the Columbia River near Wallula, WA

the Washington side of the river. I love the terraces in the cliffs.

A lot of trucks use this road as its a shortcut into Washington, and it also avoids two weigh stations.

Avoiding weigh stations is something we all do. Even though Malcolm and I are legal in all respects and have nothing to hide from them, its still second nature to avoid them when possible. Its kind of like when you pass a cop, and you feel nervous or have a guilty concious, even though you havn't done anything. Ok, maybe I'm the only one that does that, and now you're all going to think I'm some kind of under cover criminal. I'm not...but do you know what I'm talking about? So we avoid scales. But in this case, we were simply taking the shortest route to the interstate.

We delivered in Delhi, CA on Saturday morning, grabbed a bite to eat, and reloaded at Livingston, two miles down the road. This time it was poultry meal from Foster Farms going to Northwest Pet Products in Woodland, WA. We didn't have to be in Woodland till this morning, so we drove about 350 miles a day, stopping to have a nice dinner at a Mexican resteraunt in Weed, CA (I love that town's name...too funny!) and letting the girls out to play. We also went to bed early Saturday night and slept in. Talk about two lazy truck drivers.

Yesterday afternoon we came through Portland. For some reason, there was a terrible traffic jam crossing the bridge into Washington. I never saw any accident so I assume it was just people going home from a weekend in Oregon. Regardless, as frustratingly slow as traffic was, it did give me an opportunity to snap this picture between the bridge supports.

How about an afternoon of sailing on the Columbia River with a snow capped Mt. Hood in the background? Sounds like a lovely way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Overall it was a nice weekend, warm...in the 90's (havn't felt that kind of heat in months), sunny, relaxing, just right. Malcolm slept a lot Saturday, and while I was driving I day-dreamed about my future enterprises with my future Morgan horses, French Alpine Dairy goats, and chickens. I also planted a lovely flower and veggie garden and a number of fruit trees in my imaginary farm. One day.....one day....