A Good Day: A Jammed-Packed 12 Hours

Cary and I certainly have had a busy week, and it didn't slow down at all on Sunday.  We left our house a little after 9:00 a.m., picked up my SIL Maria, and headed to Eugene.

We waited for a bit at the Salt Creek tunnel.  It is looking nice inside, they are making good progress on the much needed repairs.

On the other side of the tunnel are these graffitied rocks.  Another option to murals, I suppose.

We stopped in Oakridge and got the car washed.

The car wash didn't have public restrooms, so we backtracked a couple of miles to the rest area.

Maria posed for me in front of the large maple tree.  She is so cute.

We resumed our journey to Eugene.  First we stopped at my daughter Kari's house, and then we drove to Mom's to get our grandson Casey.  It was his big day; Casey's team was playing at Autzen Stadium, the home of the Oregon Ducks.  His game was scheduled for 4:00.

I had not been inside for decades.  It is quite an impressive place.  Casey, who has been to a few Oregon games, was a bit apprehensive about playing in front of a stadium full of loud and crazy Duck fans.  Kari told him that she didn't think it would be a sold out crowd on Sunday.

Cary headed toward the entrance.  Though it was a warm day, he was glad that he brought his coat.  It turned out to be shady and windy where we were sitting.

Pretty!

Kari was right.  The stadium wasn't very full after all.

We spotted Casey and Kari in the seats below us.  They had left Mom's before we did so that Casey could get lunch before the game began.

Cary was busy taking pictures with his new phone.  He wanted to show them to Tyler, our grandson who plays for TCU.

Somehow, even though our high school games were held at Duck Stadium, it seemed smaller than I remembered.

Maria waves to the camera.

The rest of our group trickled in little by little.   From left to right:  Some guy we didn't know, Alix, Kari, Cary, Rick, Kristin and Scott.

Zane, Julie, Mom, Maria, Alix, Akrion and Kari

Maria, Cary (asking Kristin if she knows how to send the pictures that he took for Tyler), Scott and me.

Kristin, figures it out as Cary and her Dad look on.  They all have I-Phones, (ours aren't) but she has always been a sharp one.  Scott is doing his thinking pose as he watches the kids on the field.  I'll get to the team in just a minute.  Tyler received the pictures of Autzen and texted back that he thought it was ugly.  Well!

Alix and Akrion.  That kid is so cute.  He loves Casey.  We were trying to point out Casey on the field, but Akrion has just turned three.  "Casey is #38, in blue and white, see him?"  Not sure that helped at all, but pretty soon he was saying, "I see him!  I see Casey!".

This was our team!  Once per season, Kidsports gets use of Autzen Stadium and all the kids get to play one game there.  We didn't have very many kids on our team, and they were playing the whole field.  Instead of getting to switch out for offense and defense, they only had 4 at a time who were not on the field.  The boys were pretty tired by the time the game was over.

Getting ready to play.

Casey Ward, he's our man, if he can't do it, nobody can!

They were all so cute.  Springfield was playing Willamette.

Thanks to you, the volunteer coaches.

John and Ethan joined us a bit later, after they got off of work.  Ethan is my nephew.

Kristin and Scott are adorable together.

WTD stands for "Win the Day".  Casey's team didn't win the game, but they played their hearts out.

God Bless America!

We caught up with the team on the way out of the stadium.  Their coaches were giving them a post-game talk.  We waited until they were done and took a few more pictures.

Grandma Kathy and our star.  Can you believe that he isn't even 12 years old yet?  I wonder how tall he will end up being?  I am 5'4".

Scott, me, Casey, Kristin and Maria

Kari, me, Casey (getting tired of the picture taking, apparently), Kristin and Maria.

Cary, Maria and I hopped in the car and headed back to La Pine.  The picture above was taken as we drove by Dexter Lake at sunset.

The moon was incredible that night!  Huge and bright.

At Crescent Lake Junction, we stopped 

at Manley's Tavern for a bite to eat.

The have the VERY BEST broasted chicken around.

Maria ordered a cup of homemade chicken soup.  

We all shared my order of chicken and jo-jos.  It was so good.

The bartender asked where we were headed, and we told her about our day and that we lived in La Pine.  She said, oh, good, then you won't be in that truck mess that they are still cleaning up.  There had been a bad accident earlier in the day, but nobody was hurt.

One last picture of that pretty moon, and we headed toward the car.  A man and a lady were standing outside smoking, and the man said, "How are you?"  I said, "I'm fine, how are you?"  He said, "I haven't had the best day ever."  

Usually, I would have said, oh, that is too bad and then gotten into the car.  Instead, I said, "Why, what happened?"  It turns out that he was the truck-driver in the accident.  He had a 2002 Frieghtliner and was pulling a car carrier loaded with nine brand-new cars.  He was just driving along, minding his own business, and the kingpin broke.  This caused the cab to separate from the car carrier.  The cab flipped onto the driver's side on one side of the road.  The trailer loaded with the cars flipped on the other side of the road!  And he was standing outside of Manley's unhurt and telling us the tale.  Also, there were no other cars around when it happened.  I am glad that he had a newer truck with airbags.

Wow.  That was a total miracle story, in my opinion.

We drove the rest of the way to town, dropped off Maria, and came home.  Dana was quite pleased to see us.  It was 9:30 p.m., I reported in on Facebook to say that we made it home safe and sound and went right to bed.  

What a great day it was.  I always feel so much better when I get a hit of love from my Eugene peeps.  I think that you can see it on my face in my new Facebook profile picture:

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.