Hi there. Erich and I had another l-o-n-g road trip
coming up. I was NOT looking forward to it at all. It's off to Bend, Oregon and
then, ultimately, to go to the son of some friends' wedding in Baker City, Or.
These friends are like family and I needed to go. However, the rest of the trip
was NOT appealing to me. I was (and am) way beyond broke and really couldn't
afford it, for one thing. It's a LONGER trip than my last road trip---and I'll
end up eating up far more vacation days (4) than I had planned on.
The biggest problem with this upcoming trip was CATHY.
UGH!!!!!!!
Cathy is Erich's friend. He mentioned this trip to her
a while back. She has a cousin in Bend somewhere she hadn't seen or really
talked to in years. Erich and Cathy were supposed to go on a trip to Bend a
long while back. It didn't happen for whatever reason (Cathy got upset with
Erich about NOT calling her back in a timely manner--in her opinion, anyway--
to plan their trip) and so he mentioned this trip to her. She jumped at the
chance.
Cathy retired about a decade or so ago. From what I
understand, she really has no social life. She just stays home with her cats
and watches TV. Because she has no social life, as soon as she is around
someone all she does is TALK ...NON-STOP about anything and everything and it
drives me INSANE after about 5 minutes. Imagine being trapped in a car with her
for 8 hours and 4 minutes (based on what Google maps predicts)!?! Oh my
STARS!!!! I was sure I was going to end
up stark raving BONKERS!
One of the reasons Erich asked her to go on this trip
was because she had been whining that her mechanic told her that she needs to
take her newer car on the open road...and not just use it for around town
driving. This was her chance to get out of the house, use the car, and talk for
hours on end. Lucky HER.
Cathy is also a bit of a control freak. The trip was
scheduled for mid-June. But back in April...or probably March...she insisted we
make hotel reservations. Erich and I had already booked a two bedroom little
AirBnB house for the few days we were going to be in Bend before Cathy got
invited along. We tried to convince her to look at AirBnB like we had...but she
was unsure about the privacy and cleanliness of staying in a stranger's home--even if it is a vacation
rental. She wanted us to stay together---but we didn't want to give up our
house (and god knows I did NOT want to be trapped in a hotel room with her as
well. EEK!). So....as a compromise, we agreed that on the way back from the wedding,
we'd stay in Bend two extra nights and we would stay at her hotel---wherever
that might be.
She was looking at several decent hotels close to
downtown and then, from out of the blue, she announced that she had booked
herself at someplace called The Holiday Motel. The Holiday Motel? Oh my stars!
It looks like the offspring of the Clown Motel and the Bates Motel from PSYCHO.
Geez! Take a look here: http://www.holidaymotelbendor.com/photos.htm
But, true to our word, we booked ourselves into a two
bed unit in the Holiday Motel so we could all be altogether. UGH! What a dump. And the Holiday Motel is way
south of downtown. Swell.
About two weeks before the trip, Erich told me that
Cathy had told him that she was going to be staying with her cousin the whole
time she was in Bend and had cancelled her Holiday Motel reservation. GRRRR!
A week later, Erich told me that Cathy decided to get
a hotel room after all and had booked herself into a completely different hotel
that is NORTH of downtown. We hadn't even left yet and already she was driving
me crazy(er).
Fortunately, the same AirBnB house we were to stay at
before the wedding was available on the dates we needed after the wedding---but
it would be $100 more than the Holiday Motel. There were other hotels
available, but they are either crazy expensive or dumpy as well. I didn't know
what to do as I was UBER broke (and responsible for the housing in Bend). I
still had to come up with something to wear on my big ol' fat body and a
wedding gift of some kind. My wallet was screaming for mercy. I was so
broke...I had been eating OATMEAL for more meals in those last few weeks
leading up to the trip than I had all last year. Seriously. I was/am doomed.
When Cathy told Erich about her second change in
housing plans for the trip, they had been on a jaunt to Costco in Cathy's car.
She had turned on the air conditioning and Erich thought she had put on the
heater. She hadn't. Her A/C was blowing hot air and, according to Cathy, has
always blown hot air. Erich told her that she needed to get it fixed if we were
going on the trip. The weather predicted the day we were leaving was pleasant
in Bend (in the 80s), but scorching throughout California (110+), which we'd be
driving through on the way to Oregon.
Erich came to town (from San Leandro in the Bay Area,
where he lives) to get a haircut and to pick me up for the trip. Just before
leaving town, we saw another weather report about the current heatwave (which had
broken temperature records all over and in the Bay Area). He called Cathy,
leaving a message about the car, the impending heatwave and the possibility of
the need for renting a car if her A/C isn't fixed. There's no way we can endure
the trip with just the windows down.
Cathy called back. She dids not want to rent a car and
she had not gotten her A/C fixed. She "likes heat". She also does NOT
GET IT about heat as she lives in one of the coolest places in the East Bay,
Alameda. She has no concept of 110 degree heat. She also was complaining of
"stomach issues". She is always having health issues. Anyway, the
next day, she called to say she was probably not going on the trip...which
meant that we WOULD have the added expense of a rental car added in.
But somehow, with Cathy out of the picture, the trip
just seemed to get much better some how. I was still dreading the trip (the
long drive, the expense, and the vacation time off from work)---but it seemed
far more tolerable than it had been suddenly.
The day before the trip, Cathy confirmed she was not
going via email:
Shawn & Erich - I'm so DEPRESSED; I was so looking
forward to this trip with you boys.
Have a wonderful time & I'm sorry I couldn't have
joined you in my car with a properly-functioning A/C system and a
properly-functioning old-lady body.
My thoughts are with you (but I'd rather really be
with you). Oh, whoa is me at this
unfortunate turn of events.
That said, please send me a road trip travelogue upon
your return, Shawn, if you make one. I'd
love to read about all your adventures.
Love,
Cathy
So, the road trip was already off to a bad start of
sorts as we'd have to cough up hundreds of more dollars for a rental car. But
then things REALLY got off to a bad start. We picked up the car, which was
up-sized to a small SUV. That was a good thing, I guess. However, when we
stopped to fill up with gas, we got locked out of the car. I don't quite
understand how it happened. I was driving and I DID leave the keys in the
car--but the doors were unlocked. In fact, Erich got out of the car, then back
in the car, then out of the car again...before it locked. Fortunately, we had
gotten the rental car's road side assistance insurance and a guy came out to
help. We were told it would be a 40-minute wait, but the mechanic was there in
10 minutes. My phone was in the car, so I couldn't get pictures while he was
breaking in, but it was amazing. He used something like a blood pressure cuff
to help him. He got in in about 5 minutes. Erich was, of course, grumpy and
irritable about the whole ordeal, but it all got resolved quickly. Phew!
Anyway, we got home, all gassed up and ready to take
off the next morning. We hoped that would be the last of the drama...but it
wasn't. Stay tuned and take the trip with us and see what happened.
CHEERS!
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