Meandering on the Way — Sept. 9 to 14, 2022

Friday, September 9, 2022

It’s been a little bit fall-ish lately. It’s still in the 80’s in the afternoon and the earth is still parched, but the nights are chilly and noticeably long. Today we got weather alerts about high winds from the east and extreme fire danger in the Cascades.

But it was also the weekend of the 42nd annual All British Field Meet car show. So in the afternoon we packed up and drove north on I-5, through Portland almost to Washington. There are one or two fires burning out east and smoke was in the air. We stopped at a Best Western, where a generous benefactor had gifted M with a two-night stay. The motel was just half a mile from Portland International Raceway, where the car show was being held.

Saturday, September 10, 2022

We woke to dull smoky skies and an orange disc of a sun. We got to the show at about 10:30 and started meandering through the mass of cars parked in a large grass field. The cars were grouped by brand–or marque as the Brits say. Within each marque they were further sorted by year and model. There were about 800 cars in the show, mostly from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s but also at least one from every decade from the 1920’s to the 2020’s  Restoring, maintaining, and driving older British cars is a labor of love, especially since some of them weren’t all that reliable to begin with. Serious Britcar aficionados are a special group.  

The most common marques in the show were MG, Triumph, and Austin-Healy, all of which sold quite well in the U.S. some sixty years ago. But there were also a large number of other cars, some of which were never imported in volume but which somehow made it to our shores. How many Morris Minors have you ever seen in one place? At the ABFM there were twenty or so. There were also Austins, Cortinas, Lotuses, Morgans, Rovers and an Isetta. And of course there were a fair number Land Rovers and Jaguars–marques that are still for sale here. 

It was because M once had a Jaguar that we learned about the ABFM. We had attended once before, back in 2015 when M put his XKR on display. We didn’t stay long this time–just long enough for M to see examples of the four different British cars that he has owned over the years.

After the show we went out to lunch at the Island Cafe on nearby Hayden Island. The area is notable for its long rows of floating houses and houseboats, and the café is in fact a floating building. (Floating buildings are on the water but are never meant to be moved. The have water and sewage connections to the Portland systems.) The people we saw in the restaurant were tanned and seemed affluent; the floating homes were beautifully maintained; a marina provided moorage for dozens of sailboats, both large and small. No one was walking on the streets. 

Our hotel was a mile or two away from the river and also closer to the interstate. Next to our hotel, there was another one, a bit larger. The people we saw in the parking lot and in the breakfast room seemed pretty normal, or maybe just a little odd–like the couples in their tiny old British cars and the old men who talked about overheated radiators all during breakfast. And then there was the couple in the parking lot charging up their electric car–a Tesla to which they had attached a Ferrari badge. Why exactly? In this neighborhood, there was a fair amount of foot traffic, including a number of homeless people going to and fro from nearby camps. 

Very near the hotel, there were two chain restaurants, a Burger King and a Shari’s Cafe and Pies. (There was also an empty building that was probably a nicer restaurant once upon a time.) For various reasons, we didn’t want to drive very far, so we decided to eat our dinner at Shari’s. That didn’t work out very well. It was understaffed, as in just two people on duty, one cook and one waitress/cashier. The waitress was very nice, but we could see that it was going to take forever. Also, most Sharis are open 24 hours, but we noticed that this one was set to close pretty soon. We decided to try Burger King instead. 

As we neared the Burger King, we could see that people were eating inside; but how had they gotten in there?. There were four entrances. Two were locked and one was broken and boarded up. It turned out that just one door was open, which was, naturally, the last one we tried. The unlocked door was also the door nearest the bathrooms and was not visible to the counter staff. Interesting. Once we were inside, it was fine. E had an Impossible Whopper, which she found delicious. 

But what about dessert? Being at Shari’s had put us in the mood for pie, but our Shari’s was closing. So we ended up driving to another Shari’s. The building and décor were identical; but this one, in addition to being open, had four or five people working. The innocents abroad.

Sunday, September 11, 2022

On Sunday we split up. M, nursing a sore tooth, headed back to Corvallis on the airport shuttle. E went shopping at Macy’s before heading over to her daughter’s place. From there, daughter took mother kayaking. E had only been in a kayak once before, and that experience was only 3 feet from shore. She was a little fearful of the real thing, but still determined to try. She ended up having a wonderful time. 

They went to a lake near Camas, WA, and paddled around for a couple of hours. It was quite peaceful with not too much boat traffic. The few boats that went by provided entertainment in the form of waves that were fun to float over. The two paddlers spent part of their time rescuing bees which were foundering in the water. After scooping them up onto their paddles, they drifted over toward the shore to let them climb to safety on tree limbs or rocks. Their wings were too wet for them to fly, but E and A are hoping they dried off and lived happily ever after. 

Generally E was impressed with the clever design of kayaks and all the accouterments that go with them, and even more impressed with the strength and expertise of her daughter as captain and purveyor of the expedition. A even lifted and loaded the kayaks onto the car with very minimal assistance.

Another treat for E today was having a personal tour of the newly refurbished food truck that was parked in A&A’s driveway. Soft opening is rumored to be only weeks away… 

Monday, September 12, 2022

A lovely, cool day, even more like fall. We did yard work. And one of us did yoga. Also, M found a buyer for his Sony camera and lenses! Oh frabjous day. Callooh! Callay!

We have made a potentially momentous decision in regard to TV watching. Black Money Love (Kara Para, Aşk) is still on Netflix and we’re thinking of watching it again from the beginning. So tonight we tried out Episode 1. It was pretty good. 

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

We watched episodes 2 and 3 of Black Money Love. Still liking it.

Our heroes are Ömer and Elif, played by Engin Akyürek and Tüba Büyüküstün.  

The main villains are the truly evil Tayyar, played by Erkan Can, his not quite totally evil son Metin, played by Saygin Soysal, and Elif’s false friend Bahar, played by Tuvana Türkay. 

Wednesday. September 14, 2022

M’s car cover also found a buyer. Good. He’s done enough merchandising for a while. E also got rid of some stuff, deleting 9,000 old messages from her Gmail account.