This is all about out our big fat family reunion, the comings the goings etc.
First of all it all started at the previous reunion. We all planned in gathering in Emmett and a good time was had by all including t-shirts. We were also contacted by someone asking if we were descendants of Charlie Berglund. Uh, yup. Anders was from Sweden and a grandson of Per who came here in 1900 with Charlie, Albert and Dorothy. For some reason Per returned to Sweden and had a second family. Emails and friending on Facebook ensued.
Foreward ten years. A Boise cousin messengered that Anders was coming to visit in June, could we have another reunion? Yep with enthusiastic agreement.
My story of the travel and encounter follows.
We decided to rent a car as our Oldsmobile in no longer in its prime. The Hertz rental place is located at the airport in Northbend. Away we go to pick up the car. As we approached the turn things looked very different. We parked at what I remembered as the terminal and went inside. Um, nope this is now a private lobby for plane owners, small business etc. Just follow the airport signs, go up the hill, turn right and there ya go.
And there is was, one of the ugliest forest green quasi military air hangar air terminal you have ever seen. We went in and got the car rental thing going. I asked the young lady about the ugly terminal. She laughed and said that it started out much prettier. It used to have fish scales on the outside that turned gorgeous blue, green tints and shades. That lasted about two years before the salt water corroded the fish scales and it was painted the ugly green. Erp.
So this brand new Ford Escort 2019 had most of all the bells and whistles. It did not come with onboard GPS so we rented one which turned out to be useless. Fortunately Gale came with her Smart phone loaded with Google maps and it talked to us and got us to the little park in Boise. I liked the back up camera, Tim not so much. But the car felt like the size of an aircraft carrier.
The drive over was a bit different in that it has been five years since the last drive. The first thing I noticed on the drive other than summer road work was just past Umatilla a ways is a very large FedEx terminal with dozens of trailer boxes waiting to be freighted hither and yon.
Boardman has grown impressively in the past few years. All sorts of building going on there. I kept an eye out for the Potash tree farm. Kept looking and kept looking. All I saw was a huge field of two foot high corn. That corn was gorgeous but where were those nice trees. I always liked driving by them, it was hypotic. It became apparent as we approached Pendleton that the trees were gone, every last one of them. I am sad, I really liked those trees.
Another very interesting new thing is on the hillside just where the airport is located there are what looks like a hundred or more solar panels. Very progressive and might even light up a household or two.
Going to we overnighted in The Dalles and ordered supper in from The Sahara Pizza. The menu has chicken fettuccini Alfredo and I had the shrimp version. The portions were astoundingly generous and the humongous serving of breadsticks with marina sauce was free. Yum! The left overs went on the road.
So continuing on over the Blues and stopped briefly here and there for gas and pit stops. Ladd Canyon is being revamped. Uncle Paul would be impressed. There had been some fairly severe mudslides. As part of the fix they have dug up tons of very large boulders and are rebuilding the curvy roads into gradual curves that are posted 60 mph with flashing lights. The finished parts are a dream to drive on. Hopefully this will improve the winter drive for truckers and all other mankind.
I kept an eye out for the sign that says "Turn back your clocks one hour, you have entered Mountain Standard Time". Never saw it. I had expected the GPS thingie on the car to change the time but it never did. Tim's phone change to Mountain Standard Time.
Speaking of time, Oregon is very close to passing a law banning the change to Daylight Savings Time. Thank you!!
We stopped at the Chevron in Ontario to gas up but no one ever came. We saw people pumping their gas. Weird, we ain't supposed to pump our gas in Oregon, so we left.
Drove towards Emmett and completely missed the turn off to Letha because of a huge forest of trees. I noticed that there a lot more trees in the valley than previously. We recognized Tom's Cabin but missed the little house where Mom and Dad lived for a few years.
The story about all the trees involves a developer in Horse Shoe Bend who was granted permit to build a canal to his project. In exchange for this the State required that a wetlands area be developed. That wetlands turned to be 80 acres west of my brothers house. They left ten acres in grassland and planted trees in the remaining land. The trees have grown to the point that the little forest provides shade from the western sun, a wind block and traffic noise block. Very nice. They see deer and elk and other smaller critters all the time.
We got to the motel and checked in and Tim got us unloaded and I went to go visit Ollie and Gale. Ollie has a nice room at Apple Valley and we visited a bit. I went to Gales house to mix up the salads I had brought with for the reunion. That was the first day.
Next day Gale rode in front with her magic talking phone and Tim rode in the next row of seats and thanked her several times as he shuddered at the traffic.
There were about 40 people at the park. We met Anders almost immediately, he is very personable, in his 50's, very short hair, about 5'10 or so. After everyone had eaten, rested, talked their heads off, played cornhole and so on, Phil got out his guitar and he and Anders played together. Anders plays the hormonica. They talked Glynnis into singing "House of the Rising Sun". She has a gorgeous voice and a powerful instrument. Check out facebook for the video of that.
Her brother, Carl, had brought product from his goats. I purchased six beautiful soaps and five lotions and he threw in a free lip balm. Lovely things. The rest of the crowd were shoving and pushing and stuff.
Anders went home with Richard and Cathy. They were going to take a look at the old Berglund farm. The next day they were going for a ride on the Harley. We visited and he told of some of his travels. He went to Cuba in 1998 and met lots of lovely Cuban women. He is very well traveled.
We were invited for burgers the next day in Letha and we stopped in after we packed up getting ready to drive back to Coquille. Oh, and Gale generously offered to help get us spoiled rotten Oregon folk get the car gassed up. Thank you pump, lady!!
We stayed long enough to visit and Richard decided that I needed to bring home some of Mom and Dad's stuff. There was a small metal jewelry box in the shape of a mini grand piano. It is stamped "made in occupied Japan on the bottom. I will have to Google that and see if there is any value. Also some other items. Kathy gifted me with a puzzle box made of beautiful different woods, pull up this thing, slide that thing and lift off the box in the shape of an angel. Thank you!!
We decided against having burgers as full stomachs do not travel well long distance. We took off and headed for the coast. The drive back was uneventful. We decided to overnight in Albany and found the Hilton something or other. Wow Very nice room. The bathroom was so big that you would be advised to grab the toilet paper before you sit down. That big. The beds were firm unlike the beds in Emmett that were so soft it was difficult to climb in without sliding out. Running leap worked ok. Er actually it was more of an enthusiastic lean with committmet.
We got home about noonish. Charlie was curled up on the chair and didn't even notice us right away, so his plaintive meow wasn't all that convincing. I had left big band music on the TV for entertainment.
We got the car returned the next day and because I told the nice lady that we could never figure out the GPS thing she took that charge off. Thank you very much.
My new Kindle came while we were gone and the neighbor brought it over. I have it registered but it does not recognize my library. Going to have to call somebody.
Lastly, Richard told a couple funny stories. I liked this one best.
A bartender shows up for his usual shift. A customer comes in and consumed several drinks. He motioned for a refill and the bartender could see that he was a little too lubricated and told him he was not going to sell him any more drinks. The drunk got up and left the bar. About 20 minutes later the same guy walks back in using the side entrance. Sits at the bar and orders. The bartender told him that he will not sell him anything. The guy walks out. Another 20 minutes went by and the same guy walks in the back door. He sits down at the bar and orders a drink. The bartender tells him, "I'm sorry, you cannot have another drink." The guy at the bar looks hard at him and replies, "Hey, Mister, just how many bars do you work in!?"
First of all it all started at the previous reunion. We all planned in gathering in Emmett and a good time was had by all including t-shirts. We were also contacted by someone asking if we were descendants of Charlie Berglund. Uh, yup. Anders was from Sweden and a grandson of Per who came here in 1900 with Charlie, Albert and Dorothy. For some reason Per returned to Sweden and had a second family. Emails and friending on Facebook ensued.
Foreward ten years. A Boise cousin messengered that Anders was coming to visit in June, could we have another reunion? Yep with enthusiastic agreement.
My story of the travel and encounter follows.
We decided to rent a car as our Oldsmobile in no longer in its prime. The Hertz rental place is located at the airport in Northbend. Away we go to pick up the car. As we approached the turn things looked very different. We parked at what I remembered as the terminal and went inside. Um, nope this is now a private lobby for plane owners, small business etc. Just follow the airport signs, go up the hill, turn right and there ya go.
And there is was, one of the ugliest forest green quasi military air hangar air terminal you have ever seen. We went in and got the car rental thing going. I asked the young lady about the ugly terminal. She laughed and said that it started out much prettier. It used to have fish scales on the outside that turned gorgeous blue, green tints and shades. That lasted about two years before the salt water corroded the fish scales and it was painted the ugly green. Erp.
So this brand new Ford Escort 2019 had most of all the bells and whistles. It did not come with onboard GPS so we rented one which turned out to be useless. Fortunately Gale came with her Smart phone loaded with Google maps and it talked to us and got us to the little park in Boise. I liked the back up camera, Tim not so much. But the car felt like the size of an aircraft carrier.
The drive over was a bit different in that it has been five years since the last drive. The first thing I noticed on the drive other than summer road work was just past Umatilla a ways is a very large FedEx terminal with dozens of trailer boxes waiting to be freighted hither and yon.
Boardman has grown impressively in the past few years. All sorts of building going on there. I kept an eye out for the Potash tree farm. Kept looking and kept looking. All I saw was a huge field of two foot high corn. That corn was gorgeous but where were those nice trees. I always liked driving by them, it was hypotic. It became apparent as we approached Pendleton that the trees were gone, every last one of them. I am sad, I really liked those trees.
Another very interesting new thing is on the hillside just where the airport is located there are what looks like a hundred or more solar panels. Very progressive and might even light up a household or two.
Going to we overnighted in The Dalles and ordered supper in from The Sahara Pizza. The menu has chicken fettuccini Alfredo and I had the shrimp version. The portions were astoundingly generous and the humongous serving of breadsticks with marina sauce was free. Yum! The left overs went on the road.
So continuing on over the Blues and stopped briefly here and there for gas and pit stops. Ladd Canyon is being revamped. Uncle Paul would be impressed. There had been some fairly severe mudslides. As part of the fix they have dug up tons of very large boulders and are rebuilding the curvy roads into gradual curves that are posted 60 mph with flashing lights. The finished parts are a dream to drive on. Hopefully this will improve the winter drive for truckers and all other mankind.
I kept an eye out for the sign that says "Turn back your clocks one hour, you have entered Mountain Standard Time". Never saw it. I had expected the GPS thingie on the car to change the time but it never did. Tim's phone change to Mountain Standard Time.
Speaking of time, Oregon is very close to passing a law banning the change to Daylight Savings Time. Thank you!!
We stopped at the Chevron in Ontario to gas up but no one ever came. We saw people pumping their gas. Weird, we ain't supposed to pump our gas in Oregon, so we left.
Drove towards Emmett and completely missed the turn off to Letha because of a huge forest of trees. I noticed that there a lot more trees in the valley than previously. We recognized Tom's Cabin but missed the little house where Mom and Dad lived for a few years.
The story about all the trees involves a developer in Horse Shoe Bend who was granted permit to build a canal to his project. In exchange for this the State required that a wetlands area be developed. That wetlands turned to be 80 acres west of my brothers house. They left ten acres in grassland and planted trees in the remaining land. The trees have grown to the point that the little forest provides shade from the western sun, a wind block and traffic noise block. Very nice. They see deer and elk and other smaller critters all the time.
We got to the motel and checked in and Tim got us unloaded and I went to go visit Ollie and Gale. Ollie has a nice room at Apple Valley and we visited a bit. I went to Gales house to mix up the salads I had brought with for the reunion. That was the first day.
Next day Gale rode in front with her magic talking phone and Tim rode in the next row of seats and thanked her several times as he shuddered at the traffic.
There were about 40 people at the park. We met Anders almost immediately, he is very personable, in his 50's, very short hair, about 5'10 or so. After everyone had eaten, rested, talked their heads off, played cornhole and so on, Phil got out his guitar and he and Anders played together. Anders plays the hormonica. They talked Glynnis into singing "House of the Rising Sun". She has a gorgeous voice and a powerful instrument. Check out facebook for the video of that.
Her brother, Carl, had brought product from his goats. I purchased six beautiful soaps and five lotions and he threw in a free lip balm. Lovely things. The rest of the crowd were shoving and pushing and stuff.
Anders went home with Richard and Cathy. They were going to take a look at the old Berglund farm. The next day they were going for a ride on the Harley. We visited and he told of some of his travels. He went to Cuba in 1998 and met lots of lovely Cuban women. He is very well traveled.
We were invited for burgers the next day in Letha and we stopped in after we packed up getting ready to drive back to Coquille. Oh, and Gale generously offered to help get us spoiled rotten Oregon folk get the car gassed up. Thank you pump, lady!!
We stayed long enough to visit and Richard decided that I needed to bring home some of Mom and Dad's stuff. There was a small metal jewelry box in the shape of a mini grand piano. It is stamped "made in occupied Japan on the bottom. I will have to Google that and see if there is any value. Also some other items. Kathy gifted me with a puzzle box made of beautiful different woods, pull up this thing, slide that thing and lift off the box in the shape of an angel. Thank you!!
We decided against having burgers as full stomachs do not travel well long distance. We took off and headed for the coast. The drive back was uneventful. We decided to overnight in Albany and found the Hilton something or other. Wow Very nice room. The bathroom was so big that you would be advised to grab the toilet paper before you sit down. That big. The beds were firm unlike the beds in Emmett that were so soft it was difficult to climb in without sliding out. Running leap worked ok. Er actually it was more of an enthusiastic lean with committmet.
We got home about noonish. Charlie was curled up on the chair and didn't even notice us right away, so his plaintive meow wasn't all that convincing. I had left big band music on the TV for entertainment.
We got the car returned the next day and because I told the nice lady that we could never figure out the GPS thing she took that charge off. Thank you very much.
My new Kindle came while we were gone and the neighbor brought it over. I have it registered but it does not recognize my library. Going to have to call somebody.
Lastly, Richard told a couple funny stories. I liked this one best.
A bartender shows up for his usual shift. A customer comes in and consumed several drinks. He motioned for a refill and the bartender could see that he was a little too lubricated and told him he was not going to sell him any more drinks. The drunk got up and left the bar. About 20 minutes later the same guy walks back in using the side entrance. Sits at the bar and orders. The bartender told him that he will not sell him anything. The guy walks out. Another 20 minutes went by and the same guy walks in the back door. He sits down at the bar and orders a drink. The bartender tells him, "I'm sorry, you cannot have another drink." The guy at the bar looks hard at him and replies, "Hey, Mister, just how many bars do you work in!?"
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