Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #68 – Saying Goodbye & a Very Nice Outing!

 

Saturday, August 29^th, 2020……  Today was flight day. We were both up early and Frances stripped her bed and had the towels and sheets in the laundry before I got back from my walk!  I would have done that!  But, I still had the dogs out and walked and fed before sis got here to go to breakfast and to the airport with us. We got all of Frances’ luggage in the car and went over to Sweet Home for breakfast. Being a Saturday, Skyline was pretty full, but we managed to get right in. After a nice meal, I drove us down the back way and into Springfield because we had plenty of time to get her there to check in. The Eugene airport is like Long Beach so there is not much traffic and you can get through tsa pretty quickly. We said our goodbyes and then headed over to Jerry’s hardware to get some rock salt bags before we headed back home. I also stopped at Tractor Supply to see how (manager) David was doing after his knee surgery and to get an extra key for the zero turn. They also had a doggie bed that was priced right (plus I have my military discount there!) so I bought that too. We got home and Penny put the sheets and towels in the dryer and then left and took Q back to her place. I hung around the house for most of the day, just taking butthead out for a romp in the water and watched races and day one of the Tour de France. I put the enchilada package in the microwave and enjoyed a nice dinner.  I texted Teri to see if she wanted to take a day trip tomorrow to go to the dahlia farm up in Canby.  She said yes. 

Sunday, August 30^th, 2020……  I picked up Teri around 9:00am and we headed north through Salem to Canby. We stopped at The Original Pancake House to have breakfast. I had never tried their specialty apple pancake so today was the day!  It was humongous!  

 

We both shared it and with her bacon and eggs, it was way too much!  I took half of it home for tomorrow. Once we left there, it was only a short drive to Canby and I followed the gps and got to Swan Island Dahlia Farm. I’m not sure how many acres are there, but we walked through most of it!  The flowers were amazing!  They don’t really have a fragrance, but there so many different varieties and they are really pretty – even for a non-flower guy like me!  I think the guy there said they grow over 350 different ones!  We took several pics....

 and then went to the counter and bought three bunches (see below).

After leaving there, I took us over the Willamette River on the Canby Ferry and we kept driving past the I-5 and went on into the town of Lake Oswego. Talk about a ritzy community. There really is a lake and it’s huge!  But you can’t get to it because it’s all private and every piece of waterline has a house on it!  And I mean everything! Big bucks here!

 

Once we left there, we stopped in Salem on the way back to visit with Teri’s mom. She currently has a motorhome at the Salem Elks club campground. We had a nice but short visit as we had to head back home because we both had dogs to care for.  I dropped her off and headed back home and ate a couple of items from my recent burrito delivery! A bit later, she texted and dropped by with the flower arrangement that she had made from half of what we bought. 

The lavender ones are Mikayla Miranda and the yellow ones are Sun Kissed and the third bunch was the greens to go with it all. She did a great job! We filled up a gallon container of my well water and she took that home with her and I settled in to catch up on my races. It couldn’t have been a better day. The weather was great and it was fun to be out and about again.   

Monday, August 31^st, 2020…… Today was mowing day. I needed to wait a bit for the dew to dry up on the lawn. So, I watched the Tour de France that I had on tape. This was day 2 of a 21-day race across France. These guys are the most amazing athletes on the planet!  I sure don’t see how they can go that fast for so long!  And climb up mountain roads that are hard even for a car! Anyway, when the grass dried up, I texted sis that I was going out to start. She came over and did the back field with the tractor. I sure like this new mower!  This time I set the height down a half an inch lower than normal to get a shorter cut. Turns out I got a LOT more grass than I thought I would!  I quickly filled up the triple bagger and actually got everything clogged up to the point that I had to stop and clear it out before dumping.  Lesson learned! Check it often! Once we got everything mowed, we cleaned up the equipment and put everything away. Sis went home to shower and I came in to start to watch today’s Tour (day 3) and then showered. Not much else on the agenda so I got caught up on the race and then later, heated up another container of the chicken lasagna that I hadn’t put in the freezer. After that, I had the apple pancake as dessert!  Then it was tv until bedtime.        

Tuesday, September 1^st, 2020……  Sis came by today and dropped off Quincy. She was headed off to Junction City to visit a friend and both Kirk and Linda were coming today to mow and clean at her house so poor Q would have no place to relax. No worries – she enjoyed sacking out on my bed all day! After feeding them, the first thing on my list of things to do today, was to go to Albany and pick up the plastic sheet for my boat windshield. I stopped at Jack in the Box and got breakfast and then went to get the piece. I got back and immediately assembled it because if it didn’t fit, I would need to have another one cut. But no problem! It went back together and I pop riveted everything back and it’s ready to install after I get the carpet done.  Kirk and his guys came here in the afternoon and worked on my driveway area, cleaning up some dead foliage and spraying for weeds. It’s an endless task, even through the summer to keep all of the weeds down!  I’m sure glad he’s here because I would be overrun otherwise. He unloaded his new mower here just for the afternoon and they took the empty trailer off to get a load of mulch for the next client. I was in the house relaxing and didn’t even hear him come and pick it up later in the day.

Tonight was another leftover meal. This time I had the chicken pot pie. The rest of these are in the freezer for another time. Earlier, at lunch, I also finished up the last of the Ramona’s burritos that Frances had brought me. We both have checked into ordering online and having them delivered with no luck so far, but I have one more outlet to check. I finished up day 4 of the Tour and then watched America’s Got Talent. I didn’t find too many acts that I cared for but five of the eleven will be going through to the semi-finals, so I will have to pick before tomorrow night’s reveal.