Day 8-Saturday

Well, were we are on day 8, last official day of the vacation, we start home this morning. Did not start out the best, you see, last night when Bob asked me what time I wanted him to wake me up, I told him I didn't want him to wake me up, I would get up about 8:00. Well, he woke up early, like 6:30 and preceded to open and close doors, then got in the shower, which is right next to where I was trying to sleep! So, I got woke up at 6:45! Way earlier than I wanted to on the last day I have to sleep in! Needless to say, I was somewhat grouchie all morning. Bob kept looking at his watch every few minutes, was ansie to get going. After repacking the suitcases, we started packing them down to the car, trying to get everything loaded. Got checked out and on the road just after 9:30. Headed up Hwy 101 to fuel up, typed John's address into the GPS and we were off. As I mentione in one of the earlier blogs, just having GPS doesn't always lead the way, (especially if the driver doesn't pay attention to where it is guiding you!) After a ways on the road, which was leading us towards Portland, Bob kept saying we should be going towards Salem, finally found a road leading to Salem and the GPS kept telling us to proceed to the highlighted route, which we were not headed towards. Finally got tired of Bob getting mad because the GPS wasn't working as he though it should be, and getting mad at me, I pulled out the good old paper map to figure out where we were and where we needed to be. After pulling over a few times, finally figured out what road we needed to strive for, got a little lost going through downtown Salem, GPS still trying to get us to go the other way, we finally found the right route, and turned off the GPS and followed the map. Took us about a hour longer than planned to get to Estacade, turned the GPS back on when we got near Estacade so we could make sure we found John's road and alas, pulled into John's place, vented bit as we got out of the car, John just stood on his porch laughing at us. Boy, was it nice to arrive somewhere that looked familiar! John was defiantly a good site. Settled on the love seat and told John all about our adventures. He said it was because yesterday was Friday the13th, and we just got delayed with the bad luck. Bob showed John the animated video of the program Thiokol will be going to after the shuttle program, took some pictures and then John took us out to lunch at a diner that makes really good hamburgers. He and Bob had hamburgers and onion rings while I had popcorn chicken. Visited a bit more, got some directions to get us back on the road and going the right direction. Did turn the GPS back on and guess what, when you follow it's direction, it seems to work.

We made a stop at Multnomah Falls for a few minutes, took some cool pictures of the falls.

Next stop was at a rest stop a ways up the road, as we got out we noticed squirrels all around a lady that was sitting on a bench. I went and got the Corn Pops out of the car and was able to feed the squirrels right out my hand. The bigger squirrels would take hold of my hand, take the cereal and stuff in as many as I had in my hand into their cheeks. The baby squirrels wouldn't come up to us but would take the cereal off the ground and sit up holding the cereal in their front paws and eat the cereal right away. One of the squirrels took hold of my hand with it's little paws and was licking my fingers. First time I have ever had squirrels eat right out of my hand.

We finally made it to Pendleton about 8:00, checked into the Rugged Country Inn Bed and Breakfast hotel. Was good to finally reach our destination for the day. Got things hauled up to the room, looked through the guide looking for somewhere to eat, had a Pizza Hut listed so we set out to find it unsuccessfully, fueled up the car, headed back to the room, popped some popcorn, and ate the popcorn and ritz crackers and Dr. Pepper, with M&M's for dessert. Stretched out on the bed and watched the movie R.V., at least the last 1/2 of it. Pretty cute show, may have to rent it and watch the whole thing. Now it is about time to turn in for the night so we can get headed on the road early and head for home.