What! Another vacation? You barely got over the last one. Gotta go, though, because it’s on the calendar.

First there’s an injury report I must share.

Prepping for this trip involved replacing static shelves in the pantry for ones that conveniently move. During this process I purchased a small job site table saw so I could make sawdust. It works just great and I can actually pick it up to move it around.

That leads me to the first injury. No, I didn’t saw my fingers off. Instead of moving the saw out of my way I attempted to carry a bunch of stuff around it and got all tangled up in power cords and a 5-gallon bucket. The end result was me falliing to the cement floor, scraping my right shin bone on the bucket, and slowing down the bulk of my descending body with my left arm (the bad one). The end result was a reinjury of my left shoulder and a sprain to my left wrist. Kinda minor, really, but it hurt. Not enough to keep me from finishing the job, but it hurt.

The next injury occurred yesterday when I was trying to un-wind Max from the mess he made with his tie-out cable. Unfortunately, I had him tethered at the front of the car port which gives him access to the side yard, accessible via a wonky set of stone stairs. There are only, like 3 steps, but missing just one of them can cause damage. Check it out.

When I landed, it was face first, or at least a very close second for my face plants this year. The injury report I initially received from my body was a broken nose because it was that kind of pain. Struggling to my hands and knees, before Diane could see me at my worst, there was a considerable amount of blood escaping from a few places that stopped my fall. So, I chose “broken nose” to report that as the cause of what happened when my body made contact. Diane heard me hit the ground and, as she’s prone to do upon hearing unfamiliar thuds, asked “what happened?” Not being fully in charge of my senses at this point resulted in me reporting, “I think I broke my nose.”

She found me quickly, but without panic, and asked if I needed a doctor. I waitied to see if I might start spurting blood from some other area of my body. I didn’t, so deemed that I was fine. “No doctor needed.”

I found it interesting that she thought it would be a good idea to take a couple of photos before I cleaned myself up. Her only request was for me to brush the yard debris off my front side. I was a mess. I had to lean back as far as I could, as I walked to the bathroom, so blood wouldn’t drip on the floor. In hindsight, I could just as easily pulled up my t-shirt to staunch the flow, but that was not one of the possibilities provided as I headed to the bathroom.

I was thankful for my glasses, which blocked yard stuff from plowing into my eyes, but they bit the dust and will no longer be useful to see properly. So they will be retired with honors, replaced by an older prescription that were handy.

After that last paragraph our journey had begun and we are now well into it. Last night we stayed at the county fair grounds in John Day, Oregon. Prior to that we’ve spent a couple of days at the Peyton Dam RV Park near Madras, then a couple at the Wheeler County Fair Grounds in Fossil, then last night in the Grant County Fair Grounds in John Day. We’d like to stay a couple more days here, but all the sights are reserved through the weekend. We were lucky to get a site last night.

More later as the journey progresses.

Until then, here’s a sunset from Fossil for you;

The Dalles is where we’ve lingered for the past couple of days. We’re here to visit with our Winnebago Group who are staying in their rigs at the local Eagle’s Lodge. We didn’t bring our trailer because Diane didn’t want me to aggravate my poor pitiful shoulders any more than necessary. I was, of course, all in for that relief.

The shoulder (left) is actually getting better after giving me a ton of grief for about three weeks. It was damaged a bit on my last tumble to the asphalt a few weeks ago. That happened just when I thought I was on the mend. Silly me, right? The fall is just now revealing its true damage in the form of a bruise on my left shoulder. When I first fell, I thought the main damage was to my left wrist which hit mother earth first. But that turned out to be the pivot point for me to rotate forward and bang both my head and shoulder on the ground, along with everything else.

It took more than a week for the shoulder to produce a bruise, a sign of its displeasure for being treated so badly. I’ve mentioned before about the beatings I’ve taken over time that failed to produce bruises like everyone else. I feel kind of cheated for that. Seems like I should get bruises just like normal people do.

So, here in The Dalles, we are living in an AIRBNB unit that is pretty much in the heart of the city. The old part of the city. Our travelling friends paid us a visit so I took this photo;

Historically, this house was part of the church you see in the back and was called the nunnery. This porch services the one unit we rented as well as the main house that fronts Fourth Street.

This is our room. It’s a studio with a fridge and micro.

The view out our side window.

Here’s a view of our side windows, all three of them.

Here’s a look from the courtyard.

Today we had lunch in the courtyard. Simple fare from Burger King.

It’s been a fun trip except for last night when I was dealing with high blood sugar because I chose to eat an entire serving of lo mein too late in the evening. It wasn’t a good night.

Tomorrow we return home. Max will miss his time in the sun.