Awake: 6:40am Temp 40 sleep 7+04 sunny overnight @ Long Beach, WA.
I give Ray a call to let him know we’ll be visiting him after lunch. Meanwhile, Kathy does (2) loads of laundry & ironing while watching her morning TV programs. I watch the history channel until a phone call comes in from Lyle who has done some great work as a sleuth; he passes on the phone #’s of Kenny P. & Darrel K. (2) more ole pilot buddies from yesteryear.
I call Darrel & we do a mini catch up session of each other’s life since 1972. Darrel is (81), still hikes, bikes, travels in his motor homes & dances with his wife. Hopefully next yr, we’ll visit them personally.
After lunch, K & I drive about (7) miles to Ray & Sharon house. Walking out of his garage, Ray greets us with a smile. Last yr I rode with him to Gresham, OR when he purchased a small welder for home use; today he proudly shows his “One man band” as Sharon calls it, complete with acetylene & oxygen bottles & a wire feed system built right onto his hand truck; this guy is good.
Ray keeps his workshop, garage, storage shed & equipment very clean & organized. When we pulled our Suzuki into his driveway, he insisted that “we need to wash that car.” Ever since Ray married Sharon in 1971, he has been a notorious “keep those cars clean & nearly spotless kind of guy.” Well, no question about it, that Suzuki needed a good wash job & Ray + a little brush action from K & me, finished the job in less than (40) min.
Kenny P. calls as the Suzuki is drying & we talk for nearly an hr. Kenny’s health is not so good. He described his near death experience in Dec 2005 & how much the follow-up recovery has immobilized him. He is on oxygen 24/7 now. We shift gears for awhile & reminisce about the good ole times we had @ Pearson Air Park in Vancouver, WA during the late (60’s & early 70’s). I hope that Kenny hangs in there; I would like to pay him a visit next yr when we return to PDX.
Next, we drive Ray to his local bank so I can cash in (4) checks for cash. The amount was rather small but it’ll be awhile before we return to PA.
Then Ray shows us his newly built storage bldg close to his house; here he keeps his John Deere Tractor, lawn mower, air compressor, tools, etc; very nice layout.
When Sharon returns from grocery shopping, we all give her a hand in getting the bags inside their home. Then we spend some time upstairs in their lovely living room kibitzing & solving some of the itsy-bitsy problems of the world….& checking out Ray’s new flat screen computer.
We’re getting hungry so we drive both cars south to our campground, drop off our clean Suzuki, hop into the PT cruiser & continue a few more miles south for dinner @ the Doogers Seafood Restaurant where Kathy has a halibut dinner & I have an oyster dinner. All meals were very tasty. More kibitzing & then Ray delivers us back to our campground @ 7:45pm & they return to their comfortable abode near the ocean.
We watch DVR movie: “A Face in the Crowd” with Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, WalterMatthau, Lee Remick, etc. Story about homespun hobo (Griffith) discovered by Neal & promoted into successful & unscrupulous….TV star. Cast gives life to fascinating story. 1957. You’ve got to see it to believe it: mild mannered Griffith in a role like this; check it out!
Lights out: 12:12am
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