After the devastating phone call that Diane's father, Gregg Melde, had died, we did not get any more sleep though we tried. Once it got around our normal wake up time we got up and went through the normal morning motions. Phone calls, email and texts were being exchanged. It was a very busy time. Bill called his mother, Elena, and told her what was going on.
Diane booked a flight from the Portland, Oregon airport to Santa Rosa, CA on May 8th. She called all the doctors we planned on visiting the next week and moved appointments up a week or two, luckily she succeeded. The plan was Diane would fly down to California, where Kimberly and Rosalie would pick her up. Misty was driving up from Southern California to also help. Leo had to be convinced not to come, his help would be appreciated once his mother was in Washington state again. Diane's job was to get her mother and the motorhome to Eugene, Oregon, where it had repairs and maintenance scheduled.
Our toilet also had a broken part, which is ironic considering how much Gregg hated working on toilets. Bill knew how to fix it but had to order the part.
In the late afternoon we went to visit Elena. Since Diane was not going to Budd Bay Cafe for Mother's Day Brunch, we went there for dinner. Then we went home and Diane packed.
The next morning, the 8th, Bill drove Diane to the Portland airport and dropped her off. She was told to be there 2 hours early and ended up getting through security in under half an hour. One of the gate agents said that it did take 2 hours some days. We wish we would have known how fast security was that day so we could have had lunch together.
Bill visited with his mother and had many dinners with her, mostly at restaurants. They also found Beau Legs Fish and Chips in Lacey and went twice since it was good. Bill did get together with Rex at Iron Rabbit and Carl and Laureen at Ramirez Mexican. Bill had some lunches at various places since we did not have singleton lunches on hand. These places included Subway, Burger Claim and Burgerville (see a trend?). Bill also did projects for his mother and fixed our toilet once the part came in.
On Mother's Day Bill and Elena put flowers at his grandmother's grave after going to Budd Bay Cafe for Mother's Day Brunch. She was Elena's mother and lived with the family from before he was born to her death when he was 16.
Diane was busy her entire time away. The three sisters and mother spent a lot of time together, getting things handled and supporting each other. On Saturday, May 11th, between the four of them they got the motorhome out of its driveway location, to a large parking lot, and got the car hooked up. Then Diane drove the motorhome with her mother to Corning, CA for the night. The next day they drove the rest of the way to Eugene. Carrier RV took care of the motorhome and was very helpful. On May 17th Rosalie and Diane drove the car to Diane's aunt, Claire's, place by Portland and Claire drove Diane to our campsite in Rochester to drop her off. Claire and Rosalie then headed to Poulsbo for the weekend. While in Eugene Diane and Rosalie ate at Sabai, and Fisherman's Market, and had lunch with Claire at Nuevo Vallarta in Canby.
It was good to be back together again. It was good to have breakfast and lunch together.
May 19th we drove the familiar 113 miles to LTR Thunderbird in Monroe, WA. We last stayed there in August 2012.
We had a busy schedule since three weeks of appointments were crammed into two. But we succeeded and got everything done. The weather was not the best, it was mostly cool and wet.
The last couple days the weather was finally nice so we took some walks in local parks. Here are some photos from them.
We also had some time with friends and family, mostly eating. We visited with Peggy, Jim and MacLean one evening at their house. We had dinner at Racha Thai one evening with Bill and Ron. We had dinner at Fred's River Town Ale House with Kelley and Mark one evening. We had lunch with Brick at Tommy Thai one day. We had dinner with John at Ixtapa. We visited with Liz and Ed a couple times at their house.
On our own we ate at Gyro World, Panera Bread and Toshi's Teriyaki.
Now we are heading back to Oregon so Diane can help her mother move the motorhome from Eugene to Chimacum (Port Townsend), WA.
Back Home Back to 2013 Main Page Previous Adventures Next Adventure