If I found one-eyed Willy's rich stuff, I'd pay all my Dads bills, so maybe, he could get to sleep at night ~ Mikey from The Goonies
On a recap of our adventures, we were evacuated from Mt. Shasta, California, encountered one of my veteran's ex flings, kayaked, and lived through a near-death experience on the Rogue River (that's another story), and enjoyed time with old friends.
Having spent two weeks on the Rogue River, we decided that it was time to head to the beach. The west coast was experiencing the hottest summer in decades. The Bootleg fire to the east of us in Oregon had consumed over 200,000 acres. The smoke from that fire and the fires in Northern California were making breathing difficult. My veteran Curtis and I had both wanted to visit Astoria, Oregon, for different reasons. He wanted to go because his favorite elementary school teacher had taken her entire class to Fort Clatsop National Park to visit the Lewis and Clark museum. In my first blog, I mentioned how Curtis was on a mission to recapture the joy and peace of his youth. Revisiting places where he had made happy memories was part of his journey this summer. I wanted to go to Astoria because I am a massive fan of The Goonies, a movie released in 1985.
On our way to Astoria, a woman got up next to our truck and appeared to flip Curtis off, acting somewhat agitated. We didn't know why she was so angry, but several seconds later, we realized she had been trying to warn us that one of the tires of our RV was smoking. We pulled over to find that the tread had melted off of the tire. We were lucky to get away with only a flat and no other damage to our fifth wheel. It goes to show that the actions of others can often be misunderstood. Who knows what would have happened had the lady not 'flipped' us off. It was a huge relief to arrive at Camp Rilea, an Army National Guard installation outside Astoria. The temperature had dropped to the low 60's, and the air was fresh and clean.
I felt like I was back in 1985 when we toured the beach, jail, and house where The Goonies was filmed. Unless you have seen the movie, it is too hard to explain how funny all of the characters were. Like many young teenage girls in the 80's, I had a huge crush on Cory Feldman, who played a lead role in the movie. Cory never made it to my bedroom wall like Tom Selleck, but he was still a cutie pie making teenage girls sigh with happiness. The Astoria Film Museum had it set up to record yourself in a scene of the movie. I mean, can you get any cooler than that? After purchasing my Goonies hoodie, I was ready to go home to Missouri.
The highlight for Curtis's Astoria experience happened the following day. We had driven our big Chevy dully out on the beach to eat our lunch when we both noticed a Ford truck hung up on a large stump and stuck. The driver was under the front end with a hammer and chisel, trying to get free. Curtis said to me, "figures that a Chevy is going to have to save a Ford." We have learned from previous experiences traveling across the states to carry a chainsaw. Curtis was highly entertained as he ate his lunch, laughing at the guy who had essentially taken a knife to a gunfight. After lunch, Curtis, the nice guy he can be at times, got his chain saw and cut away the stump. I wish I could paint a picture of how comical it looked to see this big burly guy in hiking boots carrying a chainsaw walking on the beach towards an unsuspecting man under a truck. It was a scene straight out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. All that was missing was the hockey mask.
I did not think anything could top getting to visit the town where my favorite movie was filmed, and even Curtis agreed it was time to start making our way back east to Missouri. After a three-day stop in Spokane, Washington, where we visited with our favorite elementary and high school teachers, we were off to Yellowstone.
Written by Justina Lyn, Veteran Caregiver
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