Cammie and I took off yesterday for our annual Odessa or Bust trip. We missed last year because she was working. She pinged me on Monday and it was an immediate YES. We took off at 9am with blue skies and what promised to be a warm day. First song on the playlist? On the Road Again! Mom and Dad used to play this song every time they set out of one of their new adventures. I figured, why not keep that tradition.
The sun stayed out all day, and in Eastern Wa it got up to 71 only. It was actually warmer in Seattle than Eastern Wa, which isn't normal.
We stopped in Cle Elum to pee and get some breakfast. While we were there we decided to see if Owens Meats was opened to get jerky. It was! It was packed, and I have to say people were not social distancing like I had expected.
Jerky in hand...off we went. The "tradition" is when we get off the freeway to get onto Hwy 21, Cammie gets to drive. The first couple of times she was nervous to drive, but this time she seemed to approve and even enjoy the way Wroamin gripped the road. There's a section where the road gets a bit curvy. The "joke" her dad told her when she was learning to drive is she couldn't use brakes... ahhh, sure... I told her...go ahead. She couldn't. She wasn't comfortable enough with the car. It would have done fine, but I appreciated her being aware of her insecurities and not doing it.
We finally got to the cemetery, drove Wroamin in and took a deep breath. This part of the trip is always the most difficult. This time though it seemed worse, the Bohemian Cemetery looked horrible. It doesn't look like anyone is keeping it up they way it had. It looked like it hadn't been mowed for awhile. The weeds were calf deep.
We did what we do...cleaned the headstones, removed old flowers and put in new ones (we take the old flowers and put them on other family member graves who might be missing some), had a moment of silence, and just existed with our loved ones. We miss them so much.
Our next stop is the German cemetery where we stop to see our cousin Cindy. Every single time we forget where Cindy is. We "think" we know, but we always end up parking and walking the rows until we find her. THIS time we both made a note that she's back by the far corner, so maybe next time we won't forget. We will. But we like to pretend.
Back in the car and off for home. We slathered up more sunscreen - because we've learned our lesson. Stopped in Moses Lake for lunch and sat in the parking lot eating our cheeseburgers.
Our last and final traditional stop is the scenic view over the Columbia River. The wind is usually blowing like mad so we take crazy photos of our hair all over the place. Yesterday, not so much. Pretty calm considering.
The day went by too quickly. I do so enjoy these days with her. Thrilled she still wants to spend time with me. We barely talk in the car, she's a pretty quiet person, but just being around each other and then when we do talk it's usually pretty worthwhile conversation.
The fun I like to have is putting together a playlist that I'm SURE she will not approve of. She knows my taste of music tends towards 80's and she tolerates it. I personally think it's her "pretending" to tolerate it. I see her singing along. After every song, you can almost feel her wait with baited breath to see how bad the next song will be. "Bad" being all relative.
The other thing that happened is Wroamin flipped over to 19,000 miles. I leased Wroamin - though always planning to keep it - and the lease gave me 32,000 in 3 years - which is July 6th. If I were to turn this car in, I'd be well within the lease parameters. We were 2 miles from home when it flipped over so I had to pull over and take a photo.
Now, I'm back home. By myself. Well, me and the cats. They were a bit put out that I was gone all day yesterday. There was a lot of cat cuddling last night just to settle the two down.
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