Depoe Bay Day 1

Depoe Bay Day 1 “Getting there is Half the Fun” or “It is the Andersons so of Course there were problems” Our plan was to leave the house by 7:00 am. We were driving ourselves to the airport, parking offsite and all we needed the time to get to our gate on time. Rob has an internal alarm clock so he got up around 5:00. I woke up long enough to remind him to pack the cribbage board then went back to sleep. He woke me up at 6:00 and I jumped into action. I had everything packed except for my bit guard and my glucose test kit. I got dressed, made the bed and made sure that everything was set for the cleaning ladies. They will be coming while we are gone so except for some cat fur and free range litter the house will be clean when we return. I quickly check my computer for any important emails then shut it down and pack it for the trip. Oops I forgot to do Wordle. I pull out my phone to do it while I am eating breakfast. Uh oh, there is an text from United Airlines that came through at 11:47 the night before. Due to “operational issues” our flight is now delayed an hour and five minutes. This will give us 20 minutes to change planes in Denver. Um, yeah, not happening. Rob quickly checks online and calls United. If we take what they are offering us we will be arriving in Eugene, OR at 9:05 with a 2 hour drive after landing. We decide to take off for the airport and try to get it sorted out at the ticket counter. Earlier I had heard that the bridge that we take to the airport is down to one lane due to a multi car accident. OK, we will go the long way around and take I-471 to I-275. We say good bye to the cats, who are already looking unhappy and take off. I give myself until we leave our subdivision to come up with what I forgot. Nothing comes to mind and we keep on going. We are now into the start of rush hour and hit a few snags on the way. We have not seen anything else about the accident so we get brave and take the bridge. I must be all cleared. We get to the offsite parking and he has us park in D section. Wow, usually we are in the U or W section so this will be nice when we come back. As I am searching for a parking place I see that the shuttle driver is right behind us. I tell Rob that we do not have to rush. I get everything out of the van and make sure that I lock it. One time the shuttle driver drove back around to let me lock it. We are the only passengers on the shuttle and get right to the airport. Wow, things are going well, why does this make me nervous. We get to the United counter and explain the situation to the nice young lady. She tries a few different things and there is nothing that she can do for us. She has booked us on the later flight out of Denver but said that if we make it in time we can still get on the original flight. She did suggest that we ask at the gate to get moved up on the plane so that we can get off quicker. We clear TSA quickly and here is the amazing thing, every TSA agent was in a good mood. I also learned that you can take your water bottles through with ice in them, just hope that it has not melted. We find the gate and settle in. As we are sitting there I realize that I did not put my test kit into my bag. Oops. Do I go eight days without testing or do I buy a cheap replacement? I will decide later. I am not looking forward to doing an unfamiliar drive in the dark with a three hour time change. Rob goes up when they start the boarding and we get moved up three rows, but he has a center seat. It is not too bad, the guy in the window seat sleeps most of the time. I am digging in my bag to get something and find my test kit. OK, I do not remember packing this, but at least I have it. We did ask the flight attendant if we could get off early. She said that a lot of people were going to have tight connections so they would make an announcement asking those without a connection to let others off first. Here’ hoping. We actually land earlier than expected, but still almost an hour later than our scheduled time. Before we landed they did make the announcement and asked those of us with tight connections to raise our hands asking those around us to please let us get off first. Generally when we fly we let all of the crazies get off then we take our time. This is payback, we are going to be the crazies and we want off NOW. I get Rob’s suitcase down and he is going to make a run for it. Unfortunately the man ahead of me is in no hurry. He is just standing in the aisle blocking me from getting past him, but not moving to get off. A nice young man offers to get my suitcase down since the unhurried man is in my way then gets my Cpap case. The unhurried man now moves out of my way and we take off. We only have to go from gate B18 to B9. In some airports that is just a quick jog, in others it is time to pull out your passport. I am moving as fast as I can up the jetway. Why does it have to be one of those jetways that snakes around? OK, I am in the concourse. Rob has gone up ahead and will block the doorway if need be. I can see the gate and move as fast as I can. Wow, this is not easy. Doh! You are in Denver, you are at a mile high, no wonder you are having issues. We get to the line and have a couple of minutes to catch our breath before we board. From the time that they opened the door on our first flight until we are seated on our second flight; nine minutes. We have aisle seats and room to stow our bags. Really good thing that we did not check a bag, I do not know when we would have seen it again. BTW, I did get everything in my bags. Some of the camera equipment was packed in my Cpap bag and my meds were crammed into the water tank of the Cpap. It looked like I was smuggling drugs, but really boring ones. We land and had to a rest room to change. It is 100 degrees in Eugene and we both wanted shorts on. I fill the water bottles and we are set. We are going with Turo for a car rental. This is kind of like Airbnb for vehicles. The woman told us where the car was parked and what the license number was. We wandered and wandered, pulling luggage and looking. Keep in mind that it is 100 degrees and we are on black top. I pull up the information again and check the license plate. Hmm, still cannot find it. She sent me photos of where the car was parked. I look at the background in the photos and finally find the car. Um, that is not the license plate, but there is a lock box on the wheel so this is it. I try to open the lock box and cannot get it to open. You know the kind that they use for real estate sales where you pull the U shape out of the box? Yeah, one of those. I try and try and cannot get it to open. I hear the woman in the next parking place passing off a Turo vehicle so I ask her for help. Nope, they all use different lock boxes, but she is a real estate agent. Doh! We had it open but the front lifts off, not the U pulling out. OK, fine, we are set. We are going to drive to Junction City to get something at McDonalds since it has been several hours since we ate. We place our order at the kiosk. It tells you to take a number tent to place on your table then type that number in at the kiosk. Only, there are no number tents here, I grab one from the counter and type in the number. We sit and wait and wait, Rob is on wifi so he does not mind so much. After 20 minutes I go up to the counter. Oh, what did you order? They finish our order and bring it out. We did not get a receipt. I like to answer those surveys and this one would have been a doozy, but then again this is how the day is going. Back on the road to Newport then Depoe Bay. Rob knows the way, or so he thought. I pull out my phone and open the maps app while driving and hand it to Rob. Yup, we are going the wrong way. Turn around and put our destination in the app and get going again. It is not taking us the way that he would have gone, but then again he has not lived here for almost 50 years. The way that we are going we will not go through Corvallis. It is a nice drive, winding around hills and Rob recognizes a few things. He worked in a forest lookout tower in this are for three summers. They are doing some field burns so it is a tad smoky here. We stop at a Fred Meyers, which is owned by Kroger. You know that Rob has a shopping list and he has looked at the sales. Anytime that you shop in an unfamiliar store you know that you will be wandering around, but we find most of what we came in for. We are close to where we are staying but the traffic is getting worse. Yeah, a lot of people want to go to Depoe Bay and so do we. The town looks nice and I see a few places that I would like to visit. We are going to be eating out at least once at the Sea Hag, mmm, seafood. Fun Fact; Depoe Bay is the world’s smallest natural navigable harbor, should that ever come up in trivia. We find the resort, but not the check in office. I am sitting in the car waiting for Rob when he calls. He cannot find the car. I see him and yell to him, he still is not seeing me so I start going “Marco” “Polo.” And he finds me. I have done this when we travel, he was looking for the minivan and we are driving a black Toyota Corolla. We find the check in office and we are set. We are on the second floor so I go in search of a cart. Luckily I brought several flip and fold bags for grocery shopping. Not only did we not have to pay for a bag but we are able to hang the bags from hooks on the cart. This cart is not easy to steer but we get it into the elevator, now how do we get us in? We find our unit and open the door. I enter first and WOW. We have a solid wall of windows and are overlooking the ocean. I grab groceries and haul them to the kitchen amazed that we have this for eight days. After we get everything in Rob finally gets in and sees the view. Yup, sorry about your other plans, I am going to sit on this balcony all week.

Dinner is a frozen pizza, which is about all of the energy that I have left. There is not a cutting board big enough on which to cut the pizza so I use the box. We eat out on the balcony and watch the waves crash. This is a great way to end the day. We catch up on a few things online take showers then watch the sun set. To our bodies it is now 11:30 and it is bed time. For some reason my back is seizing, hauling a suitcase around a bad parking lot for 40 minutes might have something to do with it. I take ½ of a muscle relaxer and hope that this works. I did wake up during the night and did some stretching. I also went out to watch the waves from the balcony. Our unit is very warm, the sun was shining yesterday and it really warmed the place up. I have checked and the heat is turned off, there is no A/C so we will figure this out tomorrow.