Epic RVing with the Gradys - Day 13 - Day of Rest

We decided to take it easy for a day! Our initial plan was to head out to Mt. Hood today, but we decided that we’d been going HARD for like 2 weeks straight, so we opted to stay around camp and do camping things today instead! That said, Jenny and I decided to do a 3 mile trail run this morning to stave off all of the calories we’ve been eating on vacation! It was a really nice run, actually. Super flat, low altitude, and nice and cool. Just what the doctor ordered for these old legs.

Back at camp we did some breakfast burritos then a shower, then we were ready for the day! Unfortunately, laundry keeps piling up, so we all piled into the car and headed to Newberg to get the laundry done. We found a laundromat near the Safeway, so we parked there, Jenny filled up two machines (big ones), and Mireille and I walked around and found Chai’s for us. Luckily the laundry was almost a non-event. Within the hour, we were back on the road with all clean clothes!!! Honestly, there are probably times where it would make sense to go to a laundromat to do laundry rather than doing it at home. It didn’t even take quite an hour with their industrial machines, where it would have easily taken 5 hours at home to serialize each of the loads one after the other. Plus, free WiFi!!!

By the time we got back to camp it was about lunch time, so we cooked up some leftovers, chicken alfredo on a pizza crust. Hey, it’s food. Then we headed out on bike to the historic Butteville Store where we were promised ice cream sundaes. The ride wasn’t too arduous. Only 2.5 miles, but there were some hills that Mireille had to walk up because her bike is still pretty little and only one gear, and there was also a sign of an active cougar area, so, that was fun… When we got there, we were treated to soft serve ice cream sundaes served by a, I would put him at 11 year old and his dad.

The ride back was more or less the same as the ride there, just in reverse. There was one moment where I saw our entire vacation coming to an end. We were rolling down a pretty big hill. I told everybody to slow down, mainly directing that at Mireille, but nobody did. Towards the bottom of the big hill we were heading down, Mireille started listing and weaving wildly. She put her feet out while her front wheel went rapidly back and forth. I knew for a fact that she was going to crash, I was just waiting to see which bones she broke. Somehow, miraculously, she pulled out of it and stopped just before hitting Jenny who reacted to my screams of “brake, brake!!!” Crisis averted, for now…

Back at the RV, Mireille and I decided to play some catch while Jenny and Quinton played cards, Speed to be exact. Quinton, who is very competitive, was immediatley hooked. At the time of writing this blog, we have collectively played at least 12 games of speed since about 2:00 this afternoon.

Around mid-afternoon, we locked up Harvee and headed to the Lady Hill Winery, which was almost exactly 1 mile from our campsite. We walked!!! There we were treated to a wine tasting and some great views of the Willamette Valley countryside.

Dinner was next. We had prepared for this meal by getting some burgers and buns, so we had burgers, chips, beans, and leftover chicken alfredo (this would be the last time we had this particular dish - 4 meals!).

After dinner we headed to Wolves and People Brewery about 10 miles away. It was a really nice brewery with great beers, mostly focusing on IPAs and Saisons. IPAs are pretty commongplace, but there aren’t too many places that focus on the saison category, so that was a nice change of pace! The brewery was really interesting and “cute,” as Jenny would describe it. All seating was outside of the barn, and the ground was covered with spent hazelnut shells. We tried to get some gear, but as I’ve seen with a lot of small breweries of late, they are constaly just waiting for a merchandise shipment. “We’re all out of larges,” or, “We have lots of the commando hat, but none of the trucker hats.” Oh well, their logo wasn’t great anyway. Got some beer to share back in Denver when we return, though.

Back at the campsite before dark, we purchased some firewood for s’mores and played a few games, 4 more games of Speed and a game of Scooby Doo, the Sorry/Trouble game that we’re playing quite a bit. Quinton decided that we were going to keep track of all of the wins and losses on the vacation and crown a victor at the end of the vacation. We started during a game of Speed, but when he lost, he declared that a practice game and instead decided to count the game of Scooby Doo, which he won.

It’s nice to take it easy for a day! Tomorrow we will take it easy as well, though further from camp. We’re heading into Portland to tool around in the afternoon tomorrow, and we have to return the Mazda 6. I like this car almost as much as I like the Infinity we rented in Montana!!!