Astoria Bound

Meanwhile back in Hillsboro, OR it was back to the business of organizing the Truckster to get her officially road-ready. Meaning well and doing well though are two separate things. We awoke lazily to fresh blueberry pancakes and coffee. After dinking around and visiting with family we finally headed into town to attempt to find some furniture for the new "home." Four thrift stores and even a Habitat Restore later and we were essentially empty handed. Why is that always the rule? Whenever I'm looking for a particular item at a thrift store, I cant find it... when I don't need it? There are 20. This happens to me on an annual basis when I get retarded for Halloween costume planning.

Giving up on the idea of finding a dresser or cupboard for the van today, we went about installing the items we did have. Installed was a new towel rack here and there, some of those sturdy clasps that help keep cupboard doors shut while Kai is hauling ass on I-5, and enough rubber shelf liner to make any grandmother proud. Organizing a roughly 100 square foot home is more difficult than it may seem. Some how all of this crap fit in the Robot on the way down, but now it's exploding out of the Truckster like a hemorrhagic brain injury. It's a difficult and frustrating task just deciding where to keep the peanut butter... When will we use the peanut butter next? Should it be in the front of the shelf or near the rear? Why did we bring peanut butter on this trip? When was the last time I even had any peanut butter?

We finally decided that without the new but not yet present storage unit that the van would just have to wait to become an organized machine. So we headed to downtown Hillsboro to check out their weekly Tuesday Night Market. I had the biggest plate of Thai food $7.00 could buy and a cold beer while enjoying some family time on the steps of the Civic Center. I even won a dollar betting against my old man in an impromptu game of "Name That Band" that he likes to think he's amazing at. Turns out, The Animals sing "House of the Rising Sun" and I'm a whole dollar richer.

Local Hillsboro celebrity

After big good-byes and our expressed appreciation for having us and our cat-hating dog, we loaded in the Truckster. The Truckster would not be the vessel it is today without the diligence, hard work, sweat and probably tears my dad poured into it, and for that we are forever grateful. We adorned her with Lebowski quote bumper stickers as well as some Alaskan Love art and a firefighter logo that our friend Mitch said may or may not assist us in the next time we are pulled over. Fingers crossed...

After the sun went down we hit the highway heading west for Astoria, Kai's hometown. Mummu and Poppa were still awake waiting for us when our beast pulled in the drive. KK has never been to her paternal grandparents' home, but oddly enough, she was spoiled just as much as back in Anchorage. She pranced around the kitchen and even started howling as Grandma Melissa gave her an entire banana, a hot dog, and several grapes. She's currently in a banana coma at the foot of our bed right now. I informed my loving mother-in-law that she had just created a monster who will forever stare at her kitchen counter and husky-howl for the fruit bowl to be unloaded directly into her mouth. What in the world will ever happen when we bring children into this world? My own mother will be pouring Mountain Dew down the kid's throat as mom-in-law sprinkles sugar onto Sugar Smacks cereal?!?! There must be some weird age that these women hit that automatically turned them from stern yet loving mothers to crazy, we-talk-baby-talk to dogs and feed them in the kitchen Grandmas. 

Our new nephew Grayden

His big sister, our niece Ciara

 The poor dog is in for a rude awakening when we depart Oregon...