This post has some details on our trip to Oregon for Christmas, and some photos from the Christmas Eve party at Bob and Garnet’s.
We haven’t been to Oregon for Christmas since before Mary Ann and I got married. The weather isn’t great this time of year, but the family gathering is fun, and we want to visit Mom a little more often now. Mary Ann and I flew up on Monday and returned on Friday. On Monday night we arrived about 8:30 and had to pick up Josh and Aaron at the Greyhound depot at 10:30 (more on that later). Sam couldn’t make it this trip.
On Tuesday we ate lunch at Russellville (aka “the home”). Then we took Josh to Bob and Garnet’s where he was staying, and played ping-pong, etc. We had dinner at Bob and Terry’s. On Wednesday we visited Jim and Felicia’s, and went to Christmas Eve Mass at Russellville, then on to Bob and Garnet’s for the Christmas Eve family gathering. Pictures of that are below. On Christmas day we took advantage of the closed Portland municipal golf course and golfed for free. It rained a little but not much. The ground was very soggy in some places. Fortunately we didn’t keep score 🙂 and we had a good time. Aaron’s coat with his cell phone and wallet fell off the pull-cart at some point during the round, and that caused some panic after we finished the round. We searched the course for it. Finally somebody answered his phone and we were able to go to their house and get it. Phew! On Friday we visited Tony and Christy’s. They have a new truck and fifth wheel trailer. We went to Jim’s for lunch, then to Mom’s, then to the airport.
Aaron and Josh wanted to drive to Portland rather than fly. Unfortunately, Josh’s truck broke down in Grants Pass (about 250 miles from Portland). Josh’s truck is a 1991 Mazda B2600 that used to belong to Grandpa Phelps, and has pretty low miles for such an old truck (about 120K miles). The first shop (Kelly’s) said it was the timing chain and timing chain tensioner, and it would cost over $1000 to fix. We had it towed to a different shop (AutoPro), and they said it was the computer board, and estimated $450, but they couldn’t have it fixed until Friday. So Josh and Aaron took the Greyhound up to Portland. On Friday, Rick at AutoPro said they replaced the computer board, and then found that the mass air flow sensor was bad. They said the mass flow air sensor failed and then ‘took out’ the computer board. Sounds fishy to me! I think it may be that all that was really needed was to replace the mass air flow sensor. They couldn’t get the new mass air flow sensor until Monday, so Aaron decided to fly home on Saturday, since he has work on Monday.
We had a fun trip despite the problems (car breakdown and lost coat). Thanks to all. Here are some photos from the Christmas Eve party:
One Comment
Nice photos, Joe. I’m glad you got more of the people there than I did!
It was great seeing you. Have a happy New Year!!
MJ