A Pile of Metal

By now you are probably well aware that American Automobiles practically run in our veins. Up until now, we have been fortunate to act as we don't have any responsibilities. Yet as time keeps advancing, we find ourselves needing to invest and prepare ourselves in our kids future. In no way am I placing blame on my kids for needing to depart with my hobbies because at the end of the day, a car is simply a pile of metal that is neatly arranged. However, it's interesting how a pile of metal can just about become an extension of our family. Seven years ago we purchase our 1979 Cherokee Chief as newly weds and it has been a blast owning that car. We have visited Seattle, Portland, Bend, Astoria, Wallowa Lake and even camped in the car on couple occasions. Let's be honest, miles-per-gallon was not a priority when we purchased it. The Chief is a great example that driving should not be about making good time but having a good time.

A couple of years ago we factory ordered a 2014 Jeep Patriot Sport. It too has been a great car that has gone above and beyond our expectations. We have visited my hometown of Venice, Yosemite National Park and it has displayed amazing traction control when driven on the sandy coast of Long Beach, WA. Not only has it provide us with ample ground clearance on multiple gravel roads, but also the peace of my mind that it would get us to our destination and back home. Yet we bought these cars knowing that one day we will have to depart and head our own separates way. So I wipe that single tear and sit here pondering what other pile of metals will cross our path in our journey of life. Who knows? Perhaps a minivan?... Aaahh, nope.

Daddy my help?

This blog began to assist me in remembering all the good memories that I make with family and friends. Yet as the years keep coming, I simply want to write down for my son (and grand kids, if I ever have any) so he has more pieces to the puzzles of his younger days. The problem is that I am a terrible slow writer and being a stay-at-home dad is much busier than it looks. I would love to sit down for a 15 minute task and not be distracted but that is a luxury that comes only when the grandparents drop by. I'm not complaining in any way. Even though any task takes longer, it's far more enjoyable with him by my side. I'm not making this up.

This past week my sister moved to Seattle to study and she needed help moving her items across the state. The Chief had been giving us a few electrical problems and since it's the only vehicle we have that can tow my new trailer, we had to go over everything before driving a 36 year old car on a 10 hour round trip. I kept explaining to Ben the Chief was sick and we had to get it better soon so that made him want to help.

"Daddy, my help?" He asked.
"Not right now Ben, I need to work on the Chief." I replied while handing him a socket to play with.
"Daddy, my help the Chief. Please!!!"

It was then that I saw a flash image of a younger me sitting on the curve while my dad worked on the Chevy. Interesting how history repeats itself.

"Sure." I said. "Let me remove the battery and make some room for you to work."

I didn't finish replacing the solenoid since Ben was directly in my way but he had fun for a several minutes with a socket. I wish I could write more but since I began writing this post he has drop by five times to see if I can play with him. The thought that he won't be this young for too long often crosses my mind and I don't want to miss out.

Does anyone even follow this blog?

I have high hopes every evening that I will update my blog but nothing seems more appealing once Ben goes to sleep than to go to bed myself. I suppose I could be the strict parent and tell Ben to go play with his toys while I spend a few moments on the computer but let's face it, he will never be this young ever again. My days with Ben are numbered and although I might be spoiling him by spending my days doing whatever he wants to do... I also much rather play with Hot Wheels alongside than update my blog. This past week Ben has wanted to constantly be by my side and although it wears me down, I recall that not long ago he only wanted Traci. Then again, I'm trying to figure out if there is greater joy than spending time with my son and carrying him on my shoulder... Hmm. Probably not. Actually, adding Traci by my side makes for quite the hilarious good times.

It's wild to think that in less than a month Ben will turn 2 years and the days will begin to get shorter in 18 days. Somehow life has just picked up and each year seems to go faster than the previous one. Wasn't it last night that I held my son for the first time? Where did my son go? Who took my kid and replaced him with this older one? I miss him yet I don't want to let go of the one I have.

Several months ago Ben and I sat in our living room after playing a friendly game of wrestling. As always I kept attention to not stir him too much since he shatters my energy levels. Anyhow, he continued to play with random toys as I sat on the floor with my back on the couch. It was not long before he decided it was time to play with dad once again and a toy gracefully flew from his hand to my forehead. Now he knows throwing toys in the house is against the rules and he knew immediately he was in trouble. I paused for a second as I tried to figure how I would discipline him yet before I said a word, he looked at me and exclaimed, "Catch!" Obviously I did not get the memo that we were playing catch yet at the same time, he did not sent the memo. I was surprised that he was quick to find a way out of trouble at an early age. He reminded me of who I was when I was a kid and honestly, how can punish him? I was not even mad, in fact, I was impressed. It puzzles me that I am so blessed. I have a great son with an incredible and stupendous wife. On top of that, she is really pretty. Why me? Seriously? I want her to have her way and she wants me to have my way. That, if anything, leads to our random disagreements. Then there is Ben who sits on his swing and exclaims, "Daddy! To the moon!"

I suppose I should describe what the pictures are all about. Well, it begins with our return trip from to Sandpoint, ID where Ben was able to acquire some pretty neat toys from his friend Dylan who has outgrown them. Then there is the weekend trip we made to Portland in our Cherokee Chief for the antique auto swap meet. We got to ride a train at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and Ben had plenty of fun playing with a yellow Labrador named 'Cheese.' Lastly, the speeders made their way to Walla Walla for Mother's day weekend and we got to chase them down the tracks as they made their way to Weston in Oregon. That same weekend we got to see 3 hot air balloons land on some random field and lit the whole farm on fire. The valley was engulfed with a whirling vortex of smoke and ashes. At one point the air smelled like sweet onions and freshly picked asparagus. As the fire quickly spread and surrounded our Jeep... wait a second. Does anyone even follow this blog?

Cheap Fuel

Writing is a difficult task for me. I struggled with each literature, grammar or english class from elementary through college. I find it fascinating how people effortlessly sail through school while others (myself) struggle to make it. The truth is that I was never good at writing and my years at Walla Walla College proved that. I retook English 101 and passed Research Writing after my 4th attempt. It's rather embarrassing and I'm not proud of it. As a matter of fact, just last week I had the recurring dream where I am back in school and having the worst time finishing my research paper before the quarter ends. My heart beat increases and I tense up while laying in bed. It's fairly evident that I had miserable time in College which is why it intrigues me that I make an effort to write on this blog. So why do I write? The truth is that I don't have much record of my family history and just as I make an effort to link all the pieces together of my history, perhaps someone down the road will want to know about me. Maybe a grand kid or a great grand kid. If so... "Hello future generation, How are you doing?"

Three weekends ago we made an afternoon trip to Wallowa Lake since gas prices were so low and we have had a warm winter. We had no intentions on making the excursion in the morning yet after realizing that staying home during a warm winter day is dull and boring, we decided to fire up the Chief and hit the road. We arrived at Wallowa Lake at 3:30 and immediately began throwing rock and sticks at the lake while pretending we were mad at it. Since Ben has no concept that water is wet, we had to detained him from jumping into the lake with his clothes on. It's always nice to visit Wallowa Lake especially in the winter when it's desolate and free from tourist. Anyhow, after relaxing from beating the water with sticks and stones we headed into town to grab some ice cream from our favorite soda shop except that the business had been sold and a bistro restaurant has replaced it. The new owners were nice and made us a veggie sandwich yet despite their delightful service there is something about ice cream that can't be replaced, just ask any ice cream aficionado. We proceeded to the liquor store to obtain ice cream, Traci got a cookie sandwich and I got an ice cream sandwich. Since there is no place to sit inside a liquor store, we went outside and found ourselves a bench to enjoy our chilly treats with a chilly evening.

The round trip cost us a mere $15 and that's driving the Chief which gets about 11 mpg. :) As we drove back home, Ben sneezed a couple of times and exclaimed, "Oops! Sorry Daddy." Of course, there is no apology needed so I replied, "That's OK Benny, I love you." Somehow he seemed to enjoy my response and continued repeating, "Oops! Sorry Daddy." as I followed with my response. A few repetitions later, he began to say, "I love you." after my response. This continued for 15 or 20 minutes and although it's not the first time he said the phrase, it's moments like these that I realize how blessed I am. A beautiful wife, a wonderful kid, a Cherokee Chief and a stomach full of ice cream.

Ocean in View

We hear that traveling with children requires extra planning and preparation. Since we are on our last few months before having a little young one, Traci and I decided to explore the Washington Coast. Our original plan was to make a trip to Moab with the Chief for the Easter Jeep Safari, but having to drive that distance with a vehicle that doesn't have overdrive is quite hard on the engine. On top of that, I had a feeling that my throw out bearing might be on it's last leg and I didn't want to risk anything with Traci carrying a baby child. Anyhow, the Washington Coast is an area of the state that we have not explored much of, so we packed up the Chief with all the essentials and headed west.

We drove on the Washington side of the Columbia river until Biggs Junction to refuel and then switched to the Oregon side for the rest of the way. I'm not sure if the semi trucks enjoyed having to pass us as we putted down Highway at 60 mph but that's life. Anyhow, we stayed with Dorane our first night where we enjoyed a great supper, a good nights rest and playing with Mac and Cheese. Our plan for the following day was to visit Baby "R" us and take our time to Long Beach, WA. We allowed the GPS to guide us to the closest Baby "R" us, which so happened to be the farthest away and after an hour of stop and go through traffic, our throwout bearing gave out. Oh, the joys of a city!… Stop and Go traffic with bicyclist who believe we should share the road. Fortunately we were able to make it to Baby "R" us and after a little shopping continued our journey west. Despite that our throw out bearing grinding every time we shifted gears, our drive to Astoria was amazing with daffodils upon daffodils everywhere. Once at Astoria, we took a quick snapshot of the bridge that would lead us into Washington and headed north to Long Beach.

When we arrived at Long Beach we searched for an area to park the Chief until we realized that we were already on the beach. It was there that we both were reminded of the words of William Clark, "Ocean in View. O! The Joy! We are in view of the ocean. This great Pacific Ocean, which we have been so long anxiously waiting to see." Finally. Our 34 year old Cherokee Chief had made it to the Pacific. We drove the Chief at high speed of 5-10 mph since we didn't want kick up any sand. We then headed into town to go see the worlds largest skillet and enjoyed an omelet cooked "light and fluffy". The Marsh Free Museum is right across the street so we made a quick stop to see the bizarre collection of items at the store and then proceeded to look for the place we were going to call home for the night. We were both excited to spend the night in a vintage trailer, yet it turned out that the trailer was barely holding together. In fact, the whole place looked like it was barely holding together. Anyhow, they did have a collection of movies that we could watch and nothing appealed to us so we watch "Clifford" the big red dog. We learned how to be nice to each other, then we took a short drive around cape disappointment. After being disappointed we had a campfire at the beach which was perhaps the highlight of the whole trip.

On Sunday we decided that it would be in our best interest to not continue northbound and return to Portland for the next couple of nights. With our throwout bearing not working well, we didn't want to be caught further from home with no cellphone reception. On our way back we drove on the old highway 30 which parallels the new road. We saw a herd of elk crossing the road and an old M715...a relative of the Chief. Once we arrived in Vancouver, we stopped by Fort Vancouver to enjoy a nice educational walk around this old Hudson Bay Company Headquarter. That evening we enjoyed a nice meal with Dorane at her Bed and Breakfast and were grateful that she would give us a place to stay. The following day we were able to borrow Dorane's Grand Cherokee to drive around Stevenson, WA and visited the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. Although they have various neat exhibits, a 1921 Mack Truck caught our attention as it was amazing to see how primitive yet tough these trucks were built. They have also acquired a nice collection of heavy equipment trucks and huge diesel engines outside the Interpretive Center. I'm hoping I can acquire one of those engines for my hot rod one day.

Tuesday was just about enjoying a nice drive back to Walla Walla. We drove on the old highway along the gorge and visited the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, also known as the WAAAM. We reminisced on the good times we have had at the museum in the past, visiting with Traci's parents in 2010, being able to drive a Willys MB with the Bechtels, celebrating Ed & Juanita's 40th anniversary. Although we weren't able to make it to Olympic National Park or Seattle, the trip was great and we were able to see other great places. Spending time with my best friend is great. It's wild to think that the next trip with the Chief will include a little one sitting in the back seat. I'm going to be a dad...I can't believe it.