Medford Post Script

I have written about my wedding rings before: The Wedding Rings Story

Both of those rings were bought at the same department store, the original at the Vancouver, WA location, the upgrade at the Salem, OR location. 

But here is My Favorite's frustration ~ he has never liked either of the rings. As much as I loved them, he has never been satisfied. He has always wanted me to have diamonds.

I never wanted diamonds.

My ex-husband gave me a freaking rock. It was undeniably gorgeous. But he's my ex-husband and I realized that the diamond thing just wasn't worth it. Especially not when there are so many other beautiful gemstones. Just look at the garnets My Favorite has kept me in all this time.

Until one day, it finally dawned on me, he wanted to make the statement to the world that I was this valuable to him. That, if I like it or not, this is one of the ways the world judges a relationship. So, about five years ago, I conceded the diamond ring.

But we still weren't in a place to get me one, because I had made it clear that if I was going to give up my garnet rock, I wanted a diamond ring that was worth it. Otherwise, I was quite happy, thankyouverymuch.

We've been in Medford. The department store has a Medford location. And My Favorite decided it was time.

I've got the love of my absolute favorite person, ever. Oh, I've also got a really nice ring. That, yes, I really, really love. *squee*

Yreka to Medford to Yreka to Medford ... and South Dakota

From Susanville, we headed up to Yreka, CA, right on the CA-OR border. The northwest was picking up, so it was a good place to pre-pro and be available for being picked up. 

My Favorite called an old friend of his who works at ODF (Oregon Dept of Forestry), who put our ships at the top of his To-Call list. Sure enough, ODF friend picked up the ship, so we headed to Medford, 45 minutes away.

My Favorite texted ODF friend and said, "thanks for the gig" and ODF friend replied "Put it out, Lithus" to which My Favorite replied "Wilco!" And he did. Which means we worked 1.5 days in Medford and then had a couple days off, as the crew waited to be picked up again.

Now, here's the thing about Medford ~ my family lives in the town over. Which means time in Medford is time with them.

But when they weren't picked up by ODF again, it was back to Yreka, which is less expensive than MFR. At the same time, it makes the ship available to WA, OR, CA, and NV. It's a good central spot to pre-pro.

Yreka has an Indian food restaurant. In a truck stop. We've eaten in truck stop restaurants before. We've eaten out of the convenience stores in truck stops. But Indian food felt different somehow. Nonetheless, we are bold and brazen, so we ordered truck stop Indian food.

It was some of the best Indian food we've had in a really long time. If you're ever in Yreka, stop at the truck stop for dinner. You can even take it to your room and have a nice meal.

Eventually, though, fire season means moving on. Last night, we got the call. Where were we going? WA? OR? Southern CA? Maybe even NV? Nope. He was being sent to South Dakota.

That's a full-day flight for him and a 4-5 day drive for me. Or should I fly and rent a car? How long would I need a car? Where would we be sent next? Back here, or somewhere out there? How do we get our car back? Wait, what, Texas is even in play? Fucking Texas? And South Dakota may only be two or three days. He could be leaving before I ever get there.

We decided I would head back to Medford and check into a hotel there until Saturday. He took off to Custer, SD this morning. I will be checking into a hotel in Medford this afternoon. I'll hang out there until Saturday, which will give him time to get a feel for how long they'll be in SD or at least in the general not-on-the-west-coast area. Saturday, I'll start driving west. I'll end up where My Favorite is at some point. Because that's what we do.

And the adventure continues.

Susanville, CA

Last I wrote, we were in Coalinga. The ship was picked up for a small fire in Susanville, CA, so we went to Susanville. NOTE: I had to check and see where we'd gone because I have already forgotten, and don't ask me what the dates we were anywhere are, because, wow, those are gone, too. 

Anyway, My Favorite had two days off, but we couldn't go anywhere other than Coalinga, because the relief pilot brought in a rental car and would need the rental car to leave in two days, only the fire in Coaliinga was out and so it was pretty much guaranteed that the ship would be released and sent somewhere else. And My Favorite wasn't getting off work until 8:30 PM the night before his two days, leaving us very little time to get anywhere and in a convoy or looking at driving back to Coalinga to pick up whichever car we left in Coalinga before heading wherever the ship was, in order to take the rental to the relief pilot. All in 48 hours. We decided to stay put and enjoy the hotel.

Sure enough, the ship got sent to Susanville, CA, 4.5 hours away. We had a lazy second day, checked out at noon, had some lunch in Lemoore, and headed down the road. Only there was a major accident up the road adding an hour and a half to the drive. So, we moved around that. And there was another accident. And there was a navigational glitch on our part. Finally, we threw up our hands and wandered a truck stop, looking at trucker shit. Eventually, we hit this stretch of road. At night. In the dark.

At which point, we reached a road closed due to the fire. So, My Favorite talked me through the road closure under the guise of my being essential personnel. 

Ten hours after we left Coalinga for our lazy 4.5 hour drive to Susanville, we rolled in.

For the first time ever, I spotted a fire and My Favorite called it in. He dubbed it the Rex Fire, because he's cool like that and loves me. A lot.

After the fires were out, and the guys had enjoyed a couple lazy days on stand-by, we were released.

Since they weren't picked up, the company sent everyone to Yreka, CA...

To be continued, because the adventure continues...

Final Coalinga

Here are the last few Coalinga images. It was an interesting few days. As always.

Horned Toads. Also the mascot of TCU, my parents' alma mater.

The liquor store in Lemoore, CA has a cow on it. Because.

So, we're all using Rite Aid pharmacy now, apparently.

This is the drive from the hotel to the grocery store. A true metropolitan center.

The Denny's got creative with the no-dining-in rule in place in CA right now.

I think we're heading north next. The adventure continues...

Coalinga Sunsets

The thing about fires is they create gorgeous sunsets 

Coalinga Hotels

A long time ago, I wrote that I needed to take pictures of hotel lobbies and window views. It was a good idea then; it's a good idea now. But when you end up in three hotels over the course of four room shifts in a little over a week, it's best to just combine them.

The post immediately preceding this one showed you the...interesting...hotel we started with in Coalinga. So, imagine our surprise when it got this much better:

MUCH better

See?

This was the view from our private balcony

Sadly, after staying three nights there, we all had to move for a night. We made reservations to come back here after that one night, though. 

This time, thank goodness, there were rooms available at the national chain. Luckily for us, it looked better on the inside than on the out. When the co-pilot and I met in the space between our rooms, I said, "It's better on the inside, I promise." To which he gave me the most skeptical "ooo-kaaaay..." I've heard in a long time.

You can't tell, but that building is under serious external construction

                                                 

The pleasant surprise inside

Until I turned on the TV and found this. Coalinga is just flat-out haunted. You can't tell me otherwise.

                                             

By the time My Favorite got home, the issue had been resolved, so we could flip through channels and find non-creepy people. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if we should all just stay put, when I had to call him out of the shower to come get the really big, furry spider. No, there's not a picture (what's wrong with you people???) and no, I didn't suggest we all just stay.

We went back to the nice hotel. While we all ended up downgraded in terms of rooms, there were no spiders to be seen while I was there.

Spider-free hotel rooms are the best kind of hotel rooms

                                      

And even with the downgrade, the place still looked like this:

                                      

And allowed us to have dinner here:

                                                                                         

                                             

Honestly, there's not a lot to draw a person to Coalinga in its own right, but if you happen to be in California and in the area, this place is an oasis in the literal desert.

And just like that...

...it gets a little more real. We had been in Modesto again, for three nights this time. The hotel, which should have been nice because it is a major national chain, wasn’t. We thought maybe it was just us but, nope, no one’s a.c. worked, no one’s carpets were clean, and everyone had asked “what is that smell?” at least once during the stay. So when it was time to check out this morning, we happily made reservations at the truly nice place where we’d be the last time we were in Modesto. Our mechanic had even arranged for us all to check in at 10:00 am.

My Favorite and I were standing in the lobby speaking with the front desk clerk to check us in when the noise that says “IT’S THE BOSS” hit his phone. There was a fire in Coalinga.

We canceled the check in and the rooms, put our stuff back in the car, and I drove him to the airport. On the way, he made hotel reservations. There were no rooms until tomorrow at the place he'd wanted, so he booked those. But that left us the first night. He called a little no-tell motel. They had 4 rooms. After he booked them, he warned me that, um, they may not have internet, babe.

But it was a room (4 of them) in the town we needed them to be. He took off; I found a shady spot to tutor (hello, Nouran!), and then headed to Coalinga, 2 hours and 7 minutes away.

Sure enough, the motel is exactly what we’d pictured...

No-Tell Motel, the Universe's way of reminding us to be grateful for not-quite-so-nice national chains

Not pictured: black mold in the bathroom or the single wash cloth provided for the two of us

But the fire was the fire. These are the views of my drive into town. Expect more of these in the next post.

And after one night in the No-Tell Motel, and another afternoon fighting fires (him) and hanging out at a Starbucks patio (me), we moved to the nicer place. Which is also coming soon.

I started this on the 13th and a week later finally have the time to finish it. Sometimes, the adventure is busier than others.