Awake: 7:25am Temp 45 sleep 7+05 sunny overnight @ Portland, OR.
Lyle B. calls around 9:00am; he was my sponsor for the CAA meeting on Thursday. Very thoughtful guy, he looked up some phone #’s of my ole buddy pilots, Kenny P. & Bob R. He is still working on Darrel K. who is difficult to find because Darrel is full time in an RV unit. I thank Lyle & plan to keep in touch.
K & I have a small breakfast & then stop @ the Welcome Center for Oregon to load up on brochures & pamphlets on what to see & do while driving through Oregon. Next we visit the Rochelle & Dean family. Dean is working today.
(9 & ½) yr old Monica shows me her Girl Scout vest & handbooks; her progress on crocheting & cross stitching; her bedroom & organization, etc; a very talented young lady. Maggie, age (6), also shows me her closet & special things she likes. Then (4) yr ole Donavan shows me some of his favorite toys, his bedroom, etc.
After those exciting tours, we climb into Rochelle’s car, drive to the nearby Burgerville & have lunch. Like yesterday, K & I deem this lunch to be dinner: K has a grilled chicken salad & I have a fish salad. The kids like Burgerville, are well behaved & eat fairly well.
Back @ the Dean home, I show Monica the technical aspects of developing a paper airplane that flies a long distance without fuel. Maggie & Donavan each order a prototype during the production phase. Last yr when I did a similar demonstration, Monica’s airplane out flew my own superior model & I couldn’t explain why. This year however, Maggie decorated her plane with stick on foam stars; she attached those stars @ just the right weight & balance spot & her plane flew the best throughout the air show period. Amazing!
Meanwhile, Kathy & Rochelle sit on the concrete driveway & gab; not only being amused by the air show but also with Chaco, their new dog getting excited with so much outside activity. Kathy also assisted Monica in balancing & controlling the skateboard trial runs down the driveway.
After the active air show, the kids & I start something new with me throwing a spider rubber ball high into the air & they trying to catch it. One ball wasn’t enough so I try a rubber saucer & the spider ball @ the same time to double their fun. Luckily my underhand pitching arm is still in good shape because this sport outlasted our allotted time. These kids loved this challenging high in the sky stuff; even when on rare occasions, one of the flyers would land on the garage roof & have to be retrieved using a ladder. Then they stretched their short legs & arms while on the ladder trying to bring down the space junk. It was great fun; even for us.
Rochelle offers to let us take Monica & Maggie to 5:00pm Mass @ the nearby Saint John’s Church. Those girls both carried their own car seat & fastened them down in the back seat of our Suzuki. We were honored to have them with us & they were extremely good during Mass. Monica later told me that she is one of the rare kids in school that actually enjoys being @ Mass. Rochelle joins us in church about (10) min after starting time. She is in charge of selling “scrip” (a school fund raiser at Our Lady of Lourdes) & had gone there to do her duty. However, a friend of hers appeared & relieved Rochelle, allowing her to join us. We return to the Dean home, say our goodbyes with hugs & let them know how much we enjoyed hanging out with them & hopefully, we’ll be back next yr.
Melissa calls as we are about to leave the D & R Family. Kathy shortens the call until we are on the highway returning to our bus. @ the bus, we share talk time; Melissa has had a difficult week as Andrew seems to be trying to give up his nap but cannot comfortably make it through the day without it, getting very testy & disorganized by late afternoon & not sleeping through the night. Then there’s Matthew who is waking up several times during the night; Melissa thinks he is having bad dreams possibly due to the reading of “The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe,” which he really seems to enjoy but might find a little scary.
Mid evening; DVR movie with popcorn, a few mixed nuts & strips of cheese: “One Foot Into Heaven” with Fredric March, Martha Scott, Beulah Bondi, Gene Lockhart, Elisabeth Fraser, etc. Superior acting in honest, appealing story of minister & wife facing various problems as church life & (20th) century America clash. 1941, Very good story. Make room for this in your schedule.
Lights out: 11:24pm
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