Laundry and Football

2019-09-28 (Saturday)

Today was our combo laundry and football day. We woke up at our nice green state park campsite, and drove down into town, i.e. Castle Rock, WA. It is really a sweet little town-- a lovely riverwalk path, all the necessary small stores and civic buildings, etc. But what we were interested in, as I wrote in yesterday's blog, was a laundromat and good wifi reception, and that's what we got.

We set ourselves up in front of the laundromat at about 11:15 or so, and I loaded 3 loads of laundry into the machines. The washes were finished before 12:30 kickoff, but we had to juggle the dryers a little bit. For one thing, I had trouble using one of the machines and thought it wouldn't start. I also didn't get change out of the change machine after it ate my dollar bill, and Joey had to go next door to get more quarters. Then he was a good sport and stayed with the dryers after the game started. But it was all finished before halftime, and he did some of the folding, and I did the rest while I watched the game.

The game was MSU vs. Indiana, and I seem to be the only one who remembers that Indiana always gives the Spartans fits. This game was no different, and it was remarkably close right up until the very end. I was braced for the worst, but the Spartans pulled it out with the last drive, going ahead in a tied game with a field goal, leaving only 5 seconds left on the scoreboard. Indiana tried a razzle-dazzle, pass the football around like a hot potato trick play, trying to score in those 5 seconds. But on the second pass, the MSU defense knocked it loose, and it bounced into the end zone, where one of the Spartan defenders fell on it. So the final score was a 9-point win, but it wasn't anything like that. It was a great game if you were impartial (like the announcers--they were really enjoying it!) but a nail biter if you were me. But we won--YAY.

After the game, I started trying to figure out where we should drive tonight (about time, right?) Joey went and did the grocery shopping while I calculated our next moves. He even hooked up the Jeep alone. But I finally decided where we should head for (Mt. Hood), and then we left. There was a little sprinkle as we left town, and we saw another nice rainbow.

Before we got to Portland, we saw the Columbia River on our right, which was like seeing an old friend again (we drove next to the Columbia back when we visited Grand Coulee Dam.) We also caught glimpses of Mt. Hood in the far distance--a gleaming white upside-down cone. We were feeling a bit dumb that we hadn't seen Mt. Ranier-- we were pretty close to it for much of our time in Washington. But just after we crossed into Oregon and had maybe 10 miles along the Columbia River, I looked to my left (north, back into Washington) and said, "Holy Crap!  THERE'S Mt. Ranier." I mean, OMG, you can not MISS it, it is so dominating on the horizon!! It is simply humungous. Sadly, I couldn't get any photos of it.

Unfortunately, as we drove down the highway, there was a heavier rainstorm, and clouds, and I started to worry about driving in the dark. So as we passed Portland, we pulled over into a parking lot and used several different apps, until we found a county park about 15 minutes or so south of Portland. We got here just as it became truly dark, but the camp host came out to meet us, and now we are tucked in for the night. There's even a shower--an unexpected luxury. So we're feeling okay. Tomorrow we'll head for Klamath Falls, to see our godson Adam. And then into Northern California to Lassen Volcanic National Park (yes, more volcanoes). And we'll try to avoid the winter storm that is threatening the entire northwest. I didn't pack any winter jackets!