Tuesday Travel Prep Day

I am traveling today; this will be a brief note, or maybe wrapped into Wednesday… let’s see if I can finish it before boarding begins here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Nope! Finished in New Orleans late Wednesday night on my balcony with a super moon above me.

Tuesday’s story…

Tuesday was a travel day to PDX, and I was up early because I could not sleep in. I started on the blog after I threw on some clothes and got breakfast from McDonald’s again: Hamster surfboards with an eggy-muffin thing with something that might be cheese. This was with a large coffee with cream that seemed to last for seconds. I wrote the blog and checked my transactions in Quicken. I also updated some of the Treasury Bills to rollover. I did read some news, but mostly I was busy getting ready to head to the airport.

I also had two loads of laundry to do and to remake the bed. I like to return to a clean house and clean sheets. I got all that done. With all the chores done or in progress, I headed to lunch. Back to Happy Panda for the American version of Chinese food, but familiar. My usual waiter is there, and she is happy to hear I am off for another trip. Today I tried sweet and sour pork, but ordered extra veggies. It took longer for my meal, but I did get the additional veggies, and I was surprised to see mushrooms included. It was also a pile of pork bits, battered and deep-fried, then buried in a sweet-and-sour sauce. It did not really work, but I appreciated that they tried. I will stick to favorites like cashew chicken and mushroom chicken.

(Believe the cookie!)

I used a QR code to pay, but thanked them. I like the convenience of the code, but I still want to talk to my servers and hosts. I am not interested in making this more inhuman; just digital payments should be as easy as they are, well, digital.

I returned to the house and started on the final items, like taking out the trash, setting the water heater to low, and setting the heating to Vacation mode. There was a church SPRC meeting, and we started it as planned at 2, and others joined soon (for those who do not speak Methodist, this is the HR committee for my church, and I serve on it). We completed the meeting in less than an hour. There were mainly housekeeping items, which we soon disposed of.

Corwin had arrived as the meeting was starting and had taken a shower. My plan to have all the towels cleaned failed; this towel will be hung up for two weeks. It should be OK, and I will wash it later.

It was damp outside, and Corwin took me in Air VW the Gray to the local MAX station, then borrowed the EV to run an errand (he failed to mention it, but I texted him when I saw the VW app that the car was not at the house). It was OK; I was just checking. The SUV is back in the garage.  Air VW the Gray, like many EVs, comes with enhanced security and apps.

I took the MAX through Portland with no issues and sent live pics to friends of the boring Portland landscape. No “Hellscape,” and I counted one person in a sleeping bag under a bridge for the whole trip. It is hard to be on the streets (or protest, for that matter) when the rains are back in the Pacific Northwest.

I left the MAX at Cascade Station and realized I was at the wrong hotel. It was the next stop. Puke. It began to sprinkle on me as I, twenty minutes and 3,000+ steps later, rolled my bags to the Holiday Inn Express. I checked in with a helpful young woman, Kate, who thanked me for returning and my silver status. But that did not make the shuttle available before 4.

I came down later to walk, another 3,000 steps, to the closest food (the appeal of the more expensive hotel became clear), but the rain was cold and whipping. Nope!

I ordered a steak dinner from a local restaurant for too much money, but not much more than chain places (when I ran them through DoorDash). My steak was sirloin and needed a sharp knife. The plastic knife literally did not cut it. I, remembering Susie’s choking incident and being completely alone, carefully bit off some and sawed with the less-than-great knives. Not great but still good. I will stick to easier things next time!

I showered, packed my things for a quick getaway, and read more of my book for the tour. I soon fell asleep, and I surprised myself by closing my eyes and falling deeply into a black, dreamless sleep.

I was disturbed by an annoying sound—my alarm—and I rose at 3:30 on Thursday.

Thanks for reading.