Part two of notes on the road, late Saturday afternoon, waiting for Harriet to return.
Maybe we'll explore downtown area before dinner ... not sure how hungry we'll be. Restricted by dog, too hot to leave him in car, so we get stuff to go ... not many dog friendly decks but in Boise, according to net, there are several, which will be nice. We have all day Monday in Boise to explore.
I played a little bit of ukulele today but that is the only "constructive" thing I've done, which is fine. It was fun to see a Portland team of kids go to the WS!
I would imagine H would be very tired after a long day of planned activities, I think. She may just want to crash. Fine. I can get dinner to go later and bring it back.
Man, the world has changed so much. I am sure every generation says the same thing; it's true every generation in a culture focused on change and youth. But I think Nature is showing us that short term fun has long term disastrous consequences ... the human experiment seems to have failed, though of course we will start all over again on Mars or somewhere, probably with the same brains and desires.
A short meeting at the institution tomorrow and if Sketch and I can't go, which I believe is the case, then we have four hours to kill OUT of the motel, which may be hard to do. I am not looking forward to it. Maybe we can find a park to hang out in.
4 o'clock ... H's day should be ending now and she's headed home. May make a stop at a market or something. Eager to hear how it went ... eager to see she is all right. I can never be certain.
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This damn AlphaSmart ... just checked the battery ... 100%!!
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Looking again at the hypertext book. The canon consists of 23 hypertexts chosen from over 200: my play is one of 9 considered "first generation hypertext." Quite an honor. Perfect for old age.
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Harriet tired and rather quiet about her day. On the bed watching a movie now. I'm sort of watching, reading, writing, brooding, fiddling around.
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SUNDAY MORNING. Rest of the family sleeping in (it's 730), so I have time to kill. Shower, take out at McD's for breakfast ... I like their $1 sausage muffin. Slow morning but we should get away early afternoon, short drive to Boise for two nights. Living it up in downtown Red Lion. Hopefully interesting walking there.
Then to Baker City to see a daughter and grandson ... then maybe 2 days to get home.
But so far, I actually feel more on vacation sitting on the deck at home than on this trip, with the exception of a few scenic drives along the way. But it can be stressful when H loses stuff on the road.
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BOISE. First rate motel room with room service etc but the "downtowner" isn't very downtown, it's on the edge, about an 8 block walk from downtown. Otherwise, this is a huge contrast to the pits of Mountain Home.
Seem to be many dog friendly restaurants here, for a change.
Listening to Ms, tied with Red Sox in xtras for a change.
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MONDAY IN BOISE. Very good first impressions! Ends up, we are well located ... short walk for my morning iced coffee ... near parks on the river, which we'll check out before going to Basque block downtown for lunch ... maybe some museums later, though many are closed on Monday.
Moment of stress ... car keys missing and H forget to bring her copy. They had fallen onto bed when I stretched out after taking Sketch out early in the morning.
So far, "vacation" is NOT as relaxing as sitting on the deck at home, so I am rethinking the whole RM thing: only sensible reason to do it is for more cash NOW, only sensible reason for that is to SPEND IT, only way that makes sense is travel ... but if traveling with H is so stressful, do I even want to do it? At the same time, I have to get H to spend less on her credit card. I am going to suggest giving her an allowance to do anything with IF she will not charge anything. Finances are a constant stress because she is so unpredictable and does things on a whim, like charge $100 of magazines we can't really afford. She wants her independence but we also have a very tight budget to stick to. I hate shit like this. I can be happy meditating and brooding all day, which costs nothing.
I am pretty bad at being a caregiver, manager, to tell the truth.
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The Basque Market, where we had lunch on the sidewalk cafe, where we had a variety of tampas, had one called Paella Roll which was a seafood paella wrapped in something, a tortilla maybe, and deep fat fried, and man was it good! Trying to decide whether to order some to go on our way out of town. Man I loved them!
Boise has some first rate parks along the river, too. Ran into an old guy walking his dog ... moved from Montana, loves Boise. Loves his dog: which has a disease, and the guy is paying about four grand a year to keep the animal alive. "He's my best friend." I hear him. Sketch is mine these days.
We pooped out two hours before our parking ran out -- old farts, I guess. And actually there isn't all that much to see downtown in terms of time consumption, esp with the museum closed on Mondays. But saw some great hangouts, including a coffee bar with large sidewalk open air space attached to interior.
Boise is cool. I think I could live here.
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Chinese take out in the room. Checkout not until noon and we have a short drive.
A "Castle" marathon on TNT, one of H's shows. I don't like it but don't mind it, just sort of space out and do something else, like listen to baseball on earphones.
This was a good day after a short stressful morning! Need more good days.
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Interstates are great unless you are not in a hurry and want mellow driving ... so the I84 out of Boise soon was driving me crazy, took Idaho state highways for a while to mellow out.
Now in Baker City with another great room, a Best Western! H off to see daughter and grandson, we'll meet here for dinner at restaurant with patio where we can take Sketch.
Sketch has been a great traveler this trip. More mellow than usual: often takes him time to settle down but not this trip. Maybe it is old age, just as with us.
We won't drive the last 300 miles in one day ... 4 hrs is about our limit. So I suspect we'll spend tomorrow night between Pendleton and Hood River somewhere.
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This road trip has brought back memories of my youth, a young writer, loving to work in motel rooms alone, or taking a bar hopping road trip with my best buddy, small town taverns after another, in Idaho and eastern Washington towns nobody ever heard of, great country, great characters in the bars, perfect for an LA boy getting a little too romantic about the Pacific NW, with a great guide in Dick.
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Ready for dinner whenever the troops get here.
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Eager to get back to work on Dancing on the Titanic ... renewed energy for it while on the road.
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WED the 19th. Hard to find a room for tonight! Firefighters, I guess. Got a spendy resort room in the gorge, The Dalles, a little last night luxury. Then home tomorrow, a short drive.
Oh, yes, this motel has the best shower I've been in for a very long time.
