Tag: Oregon

Vacation Part X – Oregon to Nevada

We made our way through McDermott, hotter than hell and then we get the amazing welcome of the sign on the door that read “bathrooms for customers only”.  WHATEVER.  not happening.  We have 5 kids and they all need to pee.  I do too.  So not in the mood for anymore.  No one stopped us or said anything.  There was also another small problem I was having on top of all the rest…I had these weird bites on my legs that were very itchy and painful.  I felt terrible overall.  I just could not shake these weird bites of whatever they were.  I was beyond miserable.  Add to that that when we got to Winnemucca, my mom’s gate was locked.  She had gone fishing.  OMG…could this get worse?  Still 106 degrees outside and oh man…it was rough.  And I still had to get our 1/2 beef.  And I was exhausted.  And I was in pain.  Perfect storm.  Chip threw the stuff we needed over the fence and we climbed the fence.  Luckily I had a key to the house.  We overnighted at moms.  Next morning, hubs loaded up all the stuff and kiddos and headed home in a jam-packed minivan.  I stayed behind to get the meat in the big ole diesel pusher Dodge.   The final leg of the McVey Vaca. This was fun, but not without its own bunch of crazy, and a lot of driving.
I’m still having trouble with my legs/feet.  Finally, I was able to pick up our beef.  Jim’s wife commented on my legs/feet when I picked up the boxes of beef.  I felt like a lepper.  It was all I could do to get that loaded and get going.  I high tailed it out of there because I too was worried about my legs/feet and wanted to (hopefully) get to an urgent care.  I had reached my max.  The itching.  The heat.  The kids.  The lack of air conditioning.  I made my way out of the Mucc, headed for Reno and over to St. Mary’s Quick Care at Walmart about 15 minutes before they closed.  Because it was so hot, Chip came and grabbed the truck and I would take the minivan home.  I walk in and they say it’s too late and I can’t be seen.  At that moment, it was so overwhelming.  The tears came.  I was so DONE.  There was no more to give.  I begged them.  Luckily they saw me.  It was flea bites.  From somewhere.  Really?  Great.  Just great.  Then I had to trek over to CVS for antibiotics.  Wow.  Amazing.
Regardless of all of that, a big, huge THANK YOU to all of those who housed, fed, partied, laughed, and put up with invasions of the McVey family. It’s quite a big undertaking to take on 7. Hopefully, we didn’t leave too much devastation as we left each place. We’re grateful to all that we were able to share special times with so many. Friends and family that we didn’t get to see, we are sorry we couldn’t make it happen. We hope to get up to WA/OR again soon. Now a week from now I must start to work hard to remove some of the vacation food and drink indulgence weight gain.  Gillian was a trooper too. Hard to be tied to a bunch of rambunctious little boys for days on end when you’re right smack in the middle of being a teenager. Chip, Gill and I had some great conversation about all of it on our last night.  Wish I had one more day to breathe, but it is what it is and we’ve had a fun time with our travels. Thank you hubs for packing, unpacking, packing and unpacking with all the kiddos in tow.

Vacation Part V – Oregon Tigard

So we get up early to leave, Chip packed the car super fast as I gathered, herded and managed to get myself ready.  Neither Chip nor I had a chance to get anything to eat.  We were hyper-focused on leaving to avoid Seattle traffic.  This would definitely come back to haunt us.

Off to Oregon way we went!  We managed to leave Dawn and Rusty’s around 10:30 or so, give or take 30 minutes.  We knew it would be bad, but not how horrific this day would be.  5 mph on I-5.  Seriously.  I was trying so hard to be calm.  After a while, it was just infuriating.  Especially considering the hunger factor.  I tend to go from zero to bitch in about a millisecond when I’m frustrated and hungry.  It was all I could do to not hurt our children in the car with me as I was spouting off at Chip how horrible it was as the hours wore on.  I wanted it to be his fault.  It so wasn’t.  It really wasn’t.  As the day wore on, if traffic allowed for 20 mph it made me super happy.

Of course it IS July.  It IS hot out.  No, we don’t have snacks.  Arrrrrrggggghhhhh.  This went on for a few more hours.  Finally at about 3:30p we got off the God awful freeway and made our way to a Jimmy John’s Deli.  We had never been there before, so ordering was interesting.  I desperately wanted a drink…if only drinking and driving were legal.  And…I was still itching.  A lot.

Adding insult to injury, the speed limit in Oregon is 55 mph.  Finally at about 6:30 or so, we managed to reach Danny and Jamie’s.  Thank god we had cold wine!  It was so fabulous to visit with Bunny, Bill, Danny and Jamie.  It was way too quick at less than 24 hours, but we crammed in all of the wine and conversation that we could.  The kids enjoyed the cat, but Ryan had a little reaction.  No, we didn’t punch him.

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After wayyyyyy too much wine, I went to bed.  Chip, Bunny and Bill stayed up and enjoyed more wine and conversation.  As soon as the alcohol had worn off, I was awake.  Off to Fred Meyer I went.  Early in the morning, the store was quiet.  As I roamed the beautiful store, it made me nostalgic for my Alaska home.  I remembered how much I enjoyed shopping at Fred Meyer out on Dimond.  Amidst my thoughts of home, I gathered up sausage and biscuits because I was set to make the best hangover food ever!  Biscuits and gravy.  I found all of my ingredients but made no hurry of leaving the store.  I was reliving my past in Anchorage.  God how I miss that place.  Living there.  And the people.

Anyway, back to Horton’s I went and whipped up some breakfast while everyone, with cobwebs in their head and all made their way through the morning.  Chip and I quickly packed up because we had to get to Winnemucca within the next 24 hours or so to pick up our half beef.  Always something.  Always a deadline.  Made it feel like it was not a vacation.  Oh yeah, I was still itching.  Bad.  Really bad.