Hello! It’s me.

That’s me, addressing an audience of zero at an amphitheater at the base of Mt. Hood outside of Portland. I’m trying to warn everybody in the park that building a lodge and ski resort ON A VOLCANO that exploded 230 years ago is a BAD IDEA.

Nobody listened.

Not a soul.

With Mt. Jefferson as my backdrop (another volcano, for crying out loud), I spoke at length about the fact that a pyroclastic event happened around 1790 … and a steam event happened in the 1850s. If this puppy were to burst again, the lodge and ski hill would be wiped out.

Heck, this guy gets paid to tell people that trouble may well be on the horizon, but people didn’t seem to listen to him either.

Maybe he was telling them about a fascinating story about the lodge. Did you know that the Mt. Hood lodge (the exterior) was used in The Shining??

At first, I had to sit in the RV while Mom and Dad supped on a buffet-style luncheon (Dad was particularly mesmerized by the spice-cake mini-cupcakes).

But then I got to walk the premises! The first thing I did was chase a cat.

Then I sprinted for the trails, heading to the amphitheater to give my lecture.

As soon as I finished my lecture, Mom and Dad drove me away from the volcano as fast as possible.

Whew!

P.S.: We were planning on staying in the Seattle area for a few days, but there weren’t good camping opportunities in King County (or in Western Washington for that matter). But there were traffic opportunities.

P.P.S.: Dad got a new door window frame at Roy Robinson RV. He hasn’t installed it yet – he’s afraid he’ll butcher the job and we’ll have a gaping hole in the rig.

P.P.P.S.:  Here was today’s catastrophe. The generator was overwhelmed this morning, and instead of tripping the GFCI circuit or flipping a breaker, the generator tripped a breaker on the generator itself. That’s a problem, because the RV is only about a foot off the ground and the generator is under the RV.

Ooops.

After an unhealthy and abrasive crabby spell, Dad teamed with Mom to back the RV over a ditch. Once the rear of the rig was positioned over a ditch, Dad set the emergency brake, crawled under the rig, and flipped the breaker. We were back in business!

Tomorrow we head to Astoria … the western-most extent of the journey of Lewis & Clark, and home to classic movies like Kindergarten Cop and The Goonies.