Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Family Reunion in Albuquerque - this one's for Harry

After much badgering from my friend Harry, who apparently is an avid follower of my blog, I will resume blogging with posts about my road trip to Albuquerque for a family reunion. The first leg of the trip was to my daughter's place about 60mi east of Portland up the Colombia Gorge. The usual interstate travel but quite lovely driving up the Gorge.

My daughter broke her ankle recently so I left a couple of days early to help them out. She's a teacher and this is a very busy time at school winding up the year so help was appreciated. Did lots of housework and laundry and also enjoyed hanging out with the family. My son in law and I went to Council Lake up at the base of Mt Adams with his inflatable kayaks and we paddled around a bit.

He fished unsuccessfully but the serenity and and beauty of the place more than compensated for the lack of fish.

That's a beautiful area wth Mt Adams and Mt. Hood, and many rivers.

Mt Adams
 
Mt Hood
 
White Salmon River
 

While there, the thermometer began to rise, the days in the 30s but cool at night. With that in mind, I got an early start for my next leg of the trip to Bosie where my mother in law lives. The interstate follows the Columbia Gorge, a gorgeous route until it diverges from the river and heads out across a seemingly endless, flat stretch of farmland.

And it was hot! Finally reaching the end of that landscape, the road began to ascend the Blue Mts., a steep climb and when I happened to look, down at the dash and I saw that the temperature gauge was at the top. Yikes! So pulled over immediately, opened the hood but saw nothing obviously amiss. Waited until it cooled enough to resume but it started overheating again so I limped along dreading any uphill. That went on all the way to Bosie making for a very hot, stressful trip. Made it to my mother in law's where I would spend the night. She lives in a little single wide manufactured home on a desolate piece of property. It was about 32C when I got there and AC never felt so good.

So the question was, to continue limping along since I was on a pretty tight schedule, or find a mechanic. With my daughter's urging, I opted for the mechanic, not relishing the thought of breaking down on one of those lonely highways in Nevada. I got a recommendation and first thing next morning was at the mechanic's, the problem quickly diagnosed and fixed and on the road by 9:00am, much relieved.

 

 

1 comment:

  1. Gracias a Dios--un blogecitto con mi cafe! Por sopuesto, gracias a Andres tambien. Ahora mi dia esta completo. El mundo es normal otra vez!

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