Following the Oregon Trail

 Well, kinda, but not really. We followed the interstate mostly. From Pringle we headed southwest towards Edgemont. Within an hour we are in Wyoming near Lusk. We take backroads until we get near Douglas. That is where our troubles began. 

That is when we first noticed the winds. Throwing us around the lanes of the interstate like a ping pong ball. Gusts would push you onto the shoulder and you had to keep the wheel slightly turned to maintain a straight line. Which was fine until you went under a bridge and there was no wind. Suddenly, you are halfway in the other lane. We also noticed something else. The absence of semitrucks. Oh, there was the occasional one, but not the constant line of trucks we usually see on the interstate. Maybe they are all up in Canada in the caravan?!?! 

Then we saw the flashing sign up ahead. Extreme high winds, I25 closed to high profile vehicles, 60+mph gusts. Hmm, that would explain a thing or two. Normally not a problem as we did not have our camper but what we did have was our nearly empty cargo trailer that was acting like a 16' sail behind the truck. We got to Casper an hour later and stopped for lunch at Village Inn. For those of you who have not been to a Village Inn, they are famous for their pies. Specifically, their Carmel Pecan Silk Supreme! We walked into the restaurant, immediately dropping the average age of the customers by a good 15 years. 

As we ate, we pulled up Wyoming 511 and saw both I25 and I80 were closed to high profile vehicles for the next 4 hours. Wah! Our waitress returned "Did you save room for pie?" Is the pope catholic? So, we hung out for a couple hours, eating pie and watched an episode of Ozark.

We hit the road again 3 hours later driving a few more hours to Riverton Wyoming where we spent the night in a really cool pet friendly local motel. 6:30 the next morning we were up and ready to hit the road. We loaded up the truck, jumped in and noticed that the trailer lights were not working. I spent 5 minutes trying to get them working to no avail. Well, it is like 20 minutes to sunrise, and you can see the truck taillights around the trailer, it will be fine. So off we went! 10 minutes later, I was handing my driver's license to a State Trooper. Damn it! Trooper: "Sir, did you know your trailer lights are not working?" Me: "Oh my gosh, no, thank you for stopping me!"

The Trooper leaves us with a warning and tells us not to move until we get them operational. So here I am 6:45 in the morning in single digit temps trying to get these damn lights to work. No amount of wiggling of the plug even gives me a flicker of light. The Trooper headed off in the direction we are going to travel so I know he is parked a mile or two down the road waiting for us to drive by. As a last resort I go back to the truck, grab a can of diet Pepsi and pour it on both sides of the trailer connection. Maybe the carbonation will clean up those connections.... Wham! Lights are on! Sure enough, a couple miles down the road, there he was, lights off, sitting in a pull out. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Dakota spent the entire 23 hours or our journey in the back asleep in the back seat. Zoey, on the other hand spent most of her time in Barb's lap. 

Note the bag of donuts on the dash!

                               

We took a new road out of Riverton. Highway 28 between Riverton and Green River was one of the prettiest roads we have been on in quite a while.

The Sunday before we left Kevin and Cheryl came over and we got the shower glass installed! The glass company wanted over $1,000 to install it. We got it done in about 2 hours and it only cost me a couple of beers!

The rest of that day we spent watching football, another couple of great games. Both teams I were hoping would win actually did win! I like the underdogs. Good to see the Cincinatti game it after a 30+ year drought and Matt Stafford having suffered so many years with the Lions finally make it with the Rams! I was talking to Dino during the game, and he missed a key play but Lisa saw it, and this is how she described it "The guys in the white outfits threw the ball and a guy with a blue outfit caught it!" 

Speaking of foooootball, the first night we were here we went and watched Lily scrimmage another team. We had not seen her play in over a year and was pretty impressed that they were actually passing and were not just a mass of kids huddled around the ball.

Lily is center screen, yellow shirt and pink socks

And of course, as any soccer parent (or grandparent) knows. All soccer matches must involve at least one shot at the bar. In this case, we dropped her off, went to the bar and came back to catch the last 15 minutes. 

So, we are all settled in and ready to work. We have a big list in front of us over the next few weeks. The name of the game right now is divide and conquer. Barb is in the kitchen taking the doors and panels off the cabinets and sanding them to get ready for paint. 

Barb's project

Somer is whitewashing a call in the entry

This section is done, moving on to another area

Forrest and I are mounting vanities, countertops and sinks in the master bath. 

Lots to do in the bathroom, pretty much everything!

Each of these projects are going to take well over a week, hopefully next week's post will include some pictures of the completed project, if not at least an update and more pictures of the family.

Forrest's birthday was a couple of weeks ago so instead of sending him a gift we told him that we would take him out to any restaurant that he wanted to go to once we got there. He picked an Indian restaurant in downtown Klamath. Of all the cuisines out there, this has got to be my least favorite, but I bucked and determined I could find something. Somer got the Chicken Saag in medium, Barb and Forrest got the Chicken (Barb) and Lamb (Forrest) Madras with medium spice, Lily got Chicken Fritters while I opted for the Shrimp Tandoori in mild. I mean you cannot go wrong with shrimp and mild should be just mildly seasoned right? 

The food arrived, Lily's first, it looked like chicken strips covered in curry. Next up was Somer's, Forrest's and Barb's. I don't even want to describe what that looked like, but I doubt even our dearly departed Daisy would have eaten it and she never passed on a meal! They just did not look appetizing at all! Then I see the waiter walking across the room with this beautiful mound of shrimp on a sizzling skillet. He set the skillet down in front of me and immediately my eyes start water and my throat closed up and I start coughing. Holy crap, you call this mild?!?!? I ate two shrimp, could not even taste them and downed a beer in an attempt to put out the fire on my tongue. It did not work. 

The rest of the meal I nibbled on naan bread. Whatever that is but at least, between that and the beer it put the fire out. Remind me to send Forrest a gift next year!

After that Forrest and I headed to the Klamath Social Club. That's right, Klamath has a Social Club and no, it is not a bunch of dudes sitting around on leather couches smoking cigars, sipping scotch, solving all the world's problems. And no Dino, all the women were fully clothed. It is a poker club that features Texas Hold'em. I have played once or twice in casual settings and watched plenty on T.V. so I felt like I could hold my own. My first issue started when I opened my wallet and had like $4. (Really, that is all I had in my wallet). So, Forrest slips me $200 and tells me to set it on the table. "Can, I just start with $20?". "No, you have to put enough in there to look like you have a stack, if you only have $20, or $50. If you are the short stack, it is like blood in the water and everyone will be gunning for you". 

Well, $200 it is then. I actually played really well..... for a while. I was up almost $200, even, down a little, but playing well. I even got confident enough to bluff a few times and won. Then it happened. I flopped a straight with two other guys in. I raised $25, the first guy calls, the second guy goes all in at over $400. I know I have the best hand so I have to call and shove my stack in. Well, he ends up with an ace high flush which demolishes lowly straight and all my money slides over to his side of the table. Wah! The dealer says "You want to buy in again?". Yeah, right, can I have $4 worth of chips? Instead, I slide my chair back and watch the action. Forrest plays for another 30 minutes and cashes out with $370, up $170 for the night. So the big question is.... Do I owe Forrest $200 or $30? I mean technically I did pay him back $170 in a roundabout way!