#tualatin oregon

[fairy-faun]

Toro Sushi

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Okay.  So we don't know it yet, but someone (or someones) removed the hubcap of the Rialta's left rear tire. Including the lug nut covers.  While we were in the Rialta. That's a discovery that's still ahead of us, though.  

The day actually begins with waking up to a very cherry blossom tree posing beside us.  

A brief word about our sleep during this adventure: we both wear watches that keep track of steps, heart rate, blood pressure, and so on. The watches also keep track of our sleep and the quality of that sleep which we can then observe in a phone app that breaks it down by hours slept, time spent in light sleep, time spent in deep sleep, and so on. The app then rates our sleep, which is the metric I'm most interested in because so far... the scores don't play out the way I think they should. Poor quality sleep falls in the zero to sixty range. Sixty to seventy-five is considered "secondary". Seventy-five to ninety is "good". Ninety to a hundred is "excellent".  

With me so far?  

Now, I've worn the watch for several months now and, in that time, I only ever score in the middle to high range of "good". In my own bed. Indoors. Temperature controlled. "Good"... is my best score. 

But then sleeping at these rest stops along I-5 in the back of an RV, I started scoring in the "excellent" range. For example, 60-ish miles north of Roseburg, the watch app documents six deep sleeps where I usually only score five at the most. Plus, my score's now firmly in the Nineties.  Apparently, then, my sleep quality really grooves in the back of RVs parked in rest areas next to busy interstates.  

Who knew?  

So we pull out of the rest area without our left rear hubcap and lug nut covers without realizing it. When eventually we stop for gas first thing, though, Kimmer spots it just as soon as we step out of the RV.  

Pretty creepy to know that happened while we were right there just a few feet away.  

Movin' up the freeway afterward, it's 10am by the time we hit Eugene for a morning Starbucks run. Interestingly, this one has three tables in its dining room open for seating. Which is a revelation since I haven't seen a single Starbucks with anything open in its dining room for over a year. So this is both different...  and super normal.  

Okay so something we've been thinking about: when... do we actually and intentionally start going home?  Because just out of idle curiosity, I check Google Maps... and Astoria's a doable thing for us if we wanna take another night to ourselves. Plus, we won't have to backtrack all the way to I-5 in Portland once we leave Astoria. We can cross the Columbia river and sneak up on Kelso, Washington, from behind and join I-5 there. A grand idea for sure... but we're still experiencing the occasional transmission hiccup or misfire. Couple yesterday. Once this morning. And with Astoria only three-ish hours south of Seattle, we decide to add that to our list of future road trips along with the miniature golf tour we thought up on our way out of Medford, Oregon. Better to do Astoria, after all, when it's summer... since right now it's overcast along the coast with rain in the forecast.  

For us, right now, then, we're gonna hug I-5.  

Now the parking lot we're in for Starbucks is also the parking lot for Trader Joe's a little farther away. Which is where we pick up our salad lunches (Cobb salad and Spicy Arugula & Quinoa salad, btw) before continuing north on our way to Tualatin.  Along the way, Kimmer's Zooming with our new hot spot. I realize it's not new tech... but wow.  

It's liberating.  

By the time that meeting's over, we're stopping in at the Fred Meyer in Salem which is something we seem always to do going both directions. In this case, we need to score some dry ice for our cooler and we need to top off the air in each of the Rialta's well-traveled tires. And as we did on our way south, once again we spot the "High Ped Activity" sign the local DOT's placed before the Market Street offramp.  

"High Ped Activity"  

High Pedestrian Activity. Meaning... Meaning two densely-packed tent encampments wedged into the spaces beneath I-5 on either side of Market.

"High Ped Activity" indeed.  

Now while I'm pumping up the RV's tires, I look up just as traffic on Market on the west side of I-5 catches the red light while traffic coming off the freeway southbound is clear to turn onto Market eastbound. They're turning onto Market through the stretch of road that runs underneath I-5 where the encampments are. And right then... as southbound traffic coming off I-5 gets the green, a man in a wheelchair decides to cross the street from one encampment to the other and is nearly hit by an SUV.  

Yeah.  

It was a very close thing. And the image of it's something that's indelible.  

At quarter to one we're on our way north again, stopping, finally, at that Comfort Inn where, yes, they hand me the wayward Rialta cushion we accidently left in our room eleven days ago. Then it's duplicating the keys to the Rialta at the key place next to Fred Meyer that's finally finally finally open. Then the GoodWill in Tigard, a town that's basically attached to Tualatin. Then the Dollar Tree down the street a ways. Then that Whole Foods that's just barely north of Tualatin but in Tigard... with an employee by self-checkout who basically looks like a young version of our friend Jeff. Plus there's the guy working in hot foods where we get our $10 special meals who worked at the Seattle Whole Foods in South Lake Union a few years back, 2016, our daughter’s store. 

After we buy our dinners, we drop them in the Rialta and walk across the parking lot to that REI that's right. There.  We're over at REI 'cause we're still interested in solar powered gear and want to know what recommendations they have. Nice guy we spoke with, by the way, with fifteen minutes to close. He talked about the brand REI sells, Goal Zero, and explained his personal experience buying products from that company.  

Then the store’s officially closed and we’re outta there with fare-thee-wells all around. :-)

Now we're back, sitting in the Rialta, eating our dinners and discussing  our plans, the first of which calls for us to spend a night or two at an RV park along the mighty Columbia River. So we call an RV place but it's after 8 already, too late in the day to accommodate us. Also, it's turning out that many such RV parks don't accommodate RV's built before a certain year. And no matter what year that is... the Rialta we're driving was built before it.  

So an RV park along the mighty Columbia River's not something we can make happen. Not tonight.  

Maybe tomorrow morning, though.  So we figure that, since we wanna stay in the area, better to backtrack a touch and spend the night at the nearest rest area south of where we are and then see what's possible tomorrow. Which is how we wind up at French Prairie Rest Area Northbound... but only after missing the southbound exit because my phone died even though it was on charger up front with all our other electronics. I missed the southbound exit eleven miles down I-5 'cause the nice lady in Google Maps didn't say to take that exit. So I didn't and had to eat another ten miles southbound before turning around and doing those miles all over again plus the ones we would've done had I taken the exit I was supposed to take in the first place.  

Yeah.  

It was another not great moment for me.  

By the time we arrive at French Prairie Rest Area Northbound, it's 10. Interesting thing, though, the place looks closed. Like for construction.

Fortunately, and even though there’s construction going on, French Prairie's basically a two-parter: the parking lot in front that's under construction... and the massive parking lot in back where all the 18-wheelers, RVs, and everyone else spends the night. There's a second restroom building back there (open only during daylight hours). There's even a huge solar panel farm behind all of that. 

So. 

What initially looks very small and closed for construction... is really a huge parking lot with plenty of space and facilities and woods and grass. Basically hidden behind a façade that screams "Closed".  How very clever.  

This is our home for the night and SPOILER ALERT we manage not to have anything stolen whilst sleeping this time around.  

Once again, Hot In Cleveland... 

And then we're out like lights  :-)

[m-bv-blog]

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