Coast Road Trip

With the arrival of the MT3, there has been considerable chaos. Still, we were able to pull off a family gathering at the Oregon Coast. Today's post covers that. For those only interested in hearing how the bus handled carrying 6 people plus coolers and luggage, I left that for the end :) I can't get to my pictures, so I swiped the one below from the internet. Neskowin looks just like this, and yes, the beach is that empty.

Out of the City

It still amazes me how hard it is to get a group of humans to do just about anything. Kids especially. After talking about plans, setting expectations and defining what was going to be done by whom and when... rather than leaving around 2:30 or 3 in the afternoon on Friday, we left as rush hour started at 5. I guess, all things considered, that's really not too bad. My folks, T and C all arrived within a few minutes of each other. After a few minutes of strategy, we combined 3 cars into Flash and Hapy: 10 persons in total. Since it was the first weekend after the end of the school year, I had reservations about how long it would take to get to the coast. We were pleasantly surprised.

MT3
The MT3 are natural travelers. I should have known this from their epic journeys from western Montana to western Oregon, but seeing it firsthand is pretty amazing. For such youngsters, they self-assign into seats without fuss, grab a pillow and a book and belt in as soon as you say "go". They don't complain, ask where we are or how long it'll take to get there... they didn't even ask to stop to go to the bathroom. Crazy. In fact, before we hit Dundee, the 2 boys were asleep.

Dundee
No trip to the coast is complete without some mention of Dundee. For the unfamiliar, Dundee is a tiny no-traffic-light town in the middle of Oregon's exploding wine country. Once home to drab, empty storefronts, Dundee now houses many tasting rooms representing the vineyards from across Yamhill County. Sounds like a fun place to visit, eh? It can be... if its your final destination. The empty storefronts didn't slow down the passing cars nearly as much as the wine connoisseurs who flock to Dundee. To be fair, 99W chokes down from a 4-lane 55mph highway to a 2-lane 20mph drag to pass through the center of town, and has for 20+ years. The cork-sniffers just bring traffic to a stop when they want to cross the street, or make sudden left turns into particularly interesting looking wine bars. Neat. On this trip, however, Dundee did not slow us much at all, and we only came to a complete stop once between the 2 trips through it. Maybe its just too early in the season for wine yet. We did happen to notice during the coast-bound slog through town that construction has finally started on a by-way around Dundee for the Portland-to-McMinville (and beyond) traffic. Hazah!

Neskowin

Those traveling in Hapy arrived about 10 minutes after Flash. About 30 minutes before Flash arrived, my brother E landed at the beach with his 2 little girls. All told, there were 13 of us, pulling into Boo's friend's beach house. Boo had been going to this house since she was a very young teenager, and treats the house like the home she never had. The kids spent nearly all of the daylight hours on the sand in front of the house, digging holes or splashing water. A weekend without television or electronic devices had a calming effect on everyone, sending all of us home much more relaxed than we were when we arrived. Boo and I were the last to leave (with 4 kids in the bus), since we had to clean the place top-to-bottom before we left. We discovered a plumbing issue and had to solve that first, delaying our departure until after 9:PM. By leaving so late, however, we missed any traffic.

Hapy
The bus ran incredibly well. From start to end, his temperature barely popped over 190*, and he took the hills well. At no point did I need to down-shift below 3rd, and that includes that massive hill on the US101 heading north from the OR18 / US101 interchange while loaded down with 3 adults, 3 kids, 2 full coolers and 6 people's luggage. The cross-winds from McMinville to the foot of the coast range made handling a challenge, but otherwise weather had no meaningful effect. After sitting on the driveway at the beach for 2 days, there wasn't a single drop of either coolant or oil. I checked both anyway before heading home and they were spot-on. Last, how was the mileage? When I filled up on Thursday (before our Jun18-21 adventure began), the fuel jockey topped-off the tank. This skewed the numbers downwards, but even with that caveat, we got 28mpg. Based on how much fuel was in the tank when the nozzle popped (as in, if we hadn't topped off), we effectively got 31mpg between the Hoot and the coast run. Carrying camping gear, coolers, and extra people through cross winds and over mountain ranges... Hapy killed it.

That's it for today. I am still working on the music review for the 10th Annual Hornings Hideout Hootenanny. Additionally, Boo and I hit another festival this past weekend, so I have another set of travel posts and festival / music reviews to come. Thanks for following along. It's looking to be a fun, travel-filled Summer!

The Triumphant Return of the MT3

No, its not a punk band. The MT3 are the 3 young cousins from Montana who visited last Summer. Today's post celebrates their return for another visit.

Reflecting Back
Last August, 3 young cousins visited for a couple of weeks. To protect their privacy, we'll reference them as E (girl, age 9 at the time), R (boy 5) and E2 (boy 4). Their mom had to take a trip into Georgia, taking her oldest with her (A, girl 11). The kids were great. They climbed into their aunt's car after only knowing her a few days and drove 11 hours to our place with few issues. Looking back on their stay, I can only remember good memories. R riding a tiny kid bike we'd found. E playing with same-aged, new-best-friend "S" from down the street. E2 demonstrating great independence and cuddliness with his Aunt Boo. By the end of the visit, they had grown homesick, and greatly missed their mom. Our oldest, K, drove them home just before Labor Day.

Today's Realities
Again, to protect the innocent, I'll omit some details about what motivated this most recent visit. Suffice to say, the kids returned to MT, but they did not enjoy the kind of stability and safety young ones need to thrive. When Boo learned to what degree their condition had deteriorated, we welcomed them back for another stay. This time, it may last longer. Possibly a lot longer. In E's case, this could be a new long-term reality. It started with a phone call on Wednesday, followed by some deep discussions between Boo and me on Thursday, a car rental on Friday and a there-and-back drive to MT on Saturday and Sunday. A, now 12, did not want to join her brothers and sister, and remained. This may or may not stay the case, however. In the meantime, the MT3 arrived tired with little in terms of belongings. They took to the house like old friends, though, and quickly fell asleep in their designated beds.

What of Tomorrow
What about tomorrow? I don't know. I don't know how long they will be with us, but we are going to operate like this is the new reality. We are re-arranging rooms, adding beds and dressers, digging out old toys, etc. The larger family has really reached out already, and the kids are feeling just for broad their support structure is. For example, we hit my brother's house for his son's birthday party and there were, like, 25 family members there. It was a party of kids putting on skits and plays for each other, eating pizza and making ice cream sundaes. A new future with 3 more kids should scare me. Doing the math, that brings the total to 7. Kids need stability and security. I can't give them DisneyLand. We can't easily give them Oaks Park, but we can take a drive to a little kid birthday party in an old VW bus.

That's it for today. I do want to point out that every one of folks Boo and I talked to before collecting the MT3 were supportive. Not only have they voiced support, we have been asked about hand-me-down delivery times, and given kid-sitting references. It really does take a village to raise a child; it is just incredible watching the village marshal when the child(ren) arrives.