Date: 23 July 2001 (Monday)

Start:

End: Cousin Luann’s house, Bend OR (0 miles)

The temperature was about 50f when we got up earlier than usual; it reached 78f later in the day but felt cool. The skies were mostly sunny.

We looked out the window to see the day for the first time and saw a group of quail, including three tiny young ones. They were so cute scurrying around.

We left to take the truck for servicing and the laundry to be washed. I dropped D at the laundromat and checked in at Thomas Sales & Service about 7:15 for the appointment I made on Saturday. At 9:30 I asked what the outlook was, and was told they likely wouldn’t get it done today. I had them tear up the information and left. We obviously have a different opinion on what an appointment means.

I picked up Dolores and the laundry and took her back to the trailer to be comfortable. Then I went to the Cummins place that had been so efficient and asked the service manager where I should go to get the rear axle seal replaced. She said to come back at 3:00pm so the second shift people could do it. So I went back to the Dodge place (Thomas) and bought the seal and the additive for the differential.

Then we went to pick up the photographs and went to Art & Helen’s house. Helen served lunch and we went through the pictures with them. Most are ok, a few are really good and many can be thrown out as duplicates or bad.

We went to the Cummins place and found they had a couple of big jobs show up and they couldn’t help us with the truck today, or tomorrow. We have an appointment with them at 8:00am Wednesday.

Then we went to the Transmission Place, which advertises to do anything on the drive train. I talked with the owner there, who said to come in at 8:00am Tuesday and he’d replace it.

Next, we went to Chuck’s Auto Repair and got an appointment there for 1:00pm Tuesday to get it replaced. He doesn’t really want to do it, but he thinks he can get it done.

So that’s three places over the next two days. One of them better come through or I’ll scream.

We stopped at Barnes and Noble and bought a couple of books using Dolores’ Mastercard.

Then we went to Art & Helen’s, and rode with them to El Caporal for dinner with Luann and the three girls. It was good and we really had fun with Morgan, Galyn, and Eryn there. Lots of subjects were discussed, among them school and math. It was so much fun being around these lively and intelligent kids, and seeing them interact with Luann.

Oh, by the way, Luann had fixed the phone system at the resort herself today by intelligent swapping of components.

Luann mentioned she hopes they can come to Washington DC sometime. I told her we’d be happy to host such a thing. It would be great to have them.

I had started to pay the El Caporal bill with my Mastercard but couldn’t find it – a terrible feeling. We used Dolores’ card again. The best guess is that I dropped it at the photo place. We’ll check there tomorrow and cancel the card if it’s not there. Then we’ll have to shift to the backup card.

The twins are camping out tonight with a friend who just won a tent. Luann left with them to get them there on time, Morgan left to do her thing, and we went back to Art & Helen’s with them.

We chatted with them for another several hours about all sorts of things, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Lots of fun and giggles and some serious talk and some book talk and so it goes. Helen’s playing golf tomorrow morning and won’t be home till 1:00pm or so.

We left after a bit to get home and compile these notes.