September 5, 2009 – McMinnville, OR

Not really a red-letter day for me, but not a bad one, either. We all had a very relaxed morning, except for Don, who had to do a tank dump in the rain, but that’s his job. Don and I had a short and rainy walk out to the field between the RV Park and the Aviation Museum, where I took care of my business expediently, and we made our way back to the rig rapidly. At eleven on the dot, just when she said she would, Don’s cousin Jan arrived. She’s one of Don’s favorite cousins, even if she is a liberal. I brought her a toy, as is my custom for greeting visitors, and she was pleased with it. We all sat around and visited, catching up on what was going on in our lives, with a lot of attention paid to me, which was appropriate. Don gave me my lunch, and then they got their coats on and headed for Jan’s car, leaving me to my napping, which I probably needed.

They were gone until nearly five; Jan left for home after bidding me a proper goodbye, and Don and Geri told me about where they had been, which was the Evergreen Aviation Museum, next door to us. They had nothing but good things to say about the place, and they were really pleased with the number of aircraft the Museum had on display and the quality of information on each of the exhibits. The Museum’s big draw, apparently, was the Howard Hughes seaplane transport, known as the “Spruce Goose”. Don and Geri had visited the plane many years ago when it was on display in Long Beach, next to the Queen Mary, the ship that they were mated on. From their description, it sounds really big. They also saw a SR-71 “Blackbird”, the fastest airplane ever built, which they had heard breaking the sound barrier back in the Eighties, when it made a record-breaking flight from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic in forty-six minutes. They said that Jan really enjoyed the Museum too, and it was a good afternoon for all of them.

Don took me back to the field where we had gone this morning, where we met a man with a very nice brown dog that they had rescued from a pound. He was from Sacramento, and they had been touring western Canada for several weeks. The man said that he was starting to feel nervous about driving the motorhome, and was thinking about giving it up. Don and I were both sad to hear that, but we knew that this eventually happened to all RV’ers, and would someday happen to us.

Later in the evening, I pestered Geri into taking me out for a walk, as my day isn’t complete unless I spend some time one-on-one with her. She took me for a nice stroll, then spent a lot of time combing some of my excess fur out of my coat. She got enough to make someone a really nice sweater! A little TV, some blogging, and off to bed. See ya tomorrow!