Day 6.3 - Wednesday Aug 9 - End of Day! Finally, I know!

Finally go to the end of Day 6  - just lots of pics and stuff I did.

Headed to other "famous" UofO haunts...

The famed Hayward Field!  

Olympic Trials NOT coming here :-(

Bill Bowerman of Nike fame helped make us famous...

Them's punny words you got there!

While I was taking these pics I really wanted UofO Security to stop me and ask what I was doing. Would have explained Eugene was on my bucket list because Bowerman was my great grandfather and I never met him but wanted to see his legacy. 😼  It is not true, but would be fun to see his reaction!  probably would have opened up the doors and let me take a gander.

Then headed to another Eugene staple, TRACK TOWN PIZZA - I mean, RACK TOW PIZZA! Once again, thank Kody from Kanada for that reminder.  Actually, I may have eaten here only a couple times during my formative years, so this was more for Kody than for myself.

THEN, I hit the Columns on Skinner's Butte.  A place I had spent many of my days climbing during summers between 1991 and 1993.  I had worked in Yosemite Nat'l Park (arguably my mostest favoritest place in the entirety of the world!) in 1990 and learned how to climb - with equipment (believe me, I was proficient as a climber already, as I hear it, when I was age 2 or 3 I climbed out of my crib often).

Basalt Columns of Joy!

Right down off the butte are two things that go together like white on rice, like peanut butter and jelly, like a bear that $#!+$ in the woods, like Batman and Robin, like... OK. I'll stop.  I hear the pleading cries of the masses and I acquiesce. 

ROCK GYM... across the road from...

WHAT!?!

RECREATIONAL FREAKIN' EQUIPMENT, INC.!!!

Then Journey got hungry and ATE THE MOON!  Thought it was fair since Luna was going to eat the sun in a few days!

Mmmm, tastes like... crickets.  

You might have thought I was going to say, "chicken."  

Or maybe, "green cheese."  Nope.

End of Day 6 (FINALLY)

Time to SLEEP... I'm on day 24 right now (Aug 27).  I'll combine some of the blog's coming up days so I can get through day 22 in the next 2 days!  I'm headed to San Francisco on the 28th.  I want to catch up!

OK, Sleep...

Skippy

Day 6.2 - Wednesday Aug 9 - No extra day in Eugene

THIS IS a continuation of Day 6 because there was so much...  There's one more part!

AFTER SY'S I headed to NCC campus to enjoy my second piece.

Love that building

Oops, I meant NCU...

THEN, AT about 9 PM PT, thanks to a FB post by my friend Kody from Kanada, I JUST HAD to go to a legendary Eugene dessert spot!!  I was dark, yet there were 7 people ahead of me in line and over 10 people outside eating and 6 inside!  This is not a big place, but it has BIG YUMMINESS!!

The Prince is IN!  Homemade by Royalty!

If she ever went here, THIS would be Heather's favorite.

Homemade Flavors galore!  FRESH MARRIONBERRY!
(no, not the former DC coke-head mayor!  DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE... )

I spy with my little eye...

...A Double Sundae!  

bOTTOM: Marrionberry ice cream with chocolate fudge,

TOP: Chocolate ice cream with chunks with caramel,

DELICIOUS!!!

PRINCE PUCKLERS in my rear view mirror, I headed to the U of O to wander again the school of higher learning of my youth (actually I never took a class, but spent numerous days riding around on my three speed bike, walking through the cemetery, and even helping out in 1996 on the set of "Without Limits," a story about Steve Prefontaine, the famous Oregon runner.

I'm also actually in the movie, though I have to point myself out to people because the camera was following runners at the time and I am in the background.  OK, so I'm a blur, but I know which blur is me!

Besides being an extra:
:::I also worked as Craft Services (nowadays you take out a cart with snacks for actors/directors/special people, not what the job description was BACK WHEN... (paragraph 6 tells the beginning history of the name)
:::Met the director by accident (He came to Craft Services card and I asked, "So what do you do on the filem?"  He said, "Nothing." Which is what many directors say because everyone else does the hard work, and directors tell someone to call Action and Cut and to do all the other things).
:::Met Donald Sutherland (OK, brought him some fruit with the main Craft Services guy (son of the owners) then stood around as he did a euphemistic magic trick and turned an orange into a peach - Requirements: An orange, a cloth napkin, then say, "You wanna see me turn this orange into a peach?" Then say, "Ain't that a peach?" after holding an extended napkin encompassed orange from one's mid section)
:::Think I had my first drink of alcohol (not 100% sure - one of the main extras who knew my name was on Hayward Field under a tent while his group was taking a break and said, "Scott, have a drink." To be fair, I did say I was thirsty because it was hot out. So I took it and took a drink: it was not a refreshing cool glass of water as I expected, but didn't taste like the beer I had smelled up to that point.  I gave it back and thanked the kind gentleman.  Felt no ill effects and only felt dizzy for 15 minutes (that was a lie).

Well, that was a fun detour. Now back to your regular scheduled programming...

AT THE U of O there is this place called the Fishbowl - a semi circular study/meet up place...

From afar... From my car's window...

Oops, as I turned around, Journey fell out the open window!  

No, ocifer, I'm not as think as drunk you am.

Up close, and personal... Actually named FISHBOWL!

Then stopped by Hayward Field...

famous because coach Bowerman had Prefontain use shoes...

that eventually became the Nike brand.

Famous old covered seats at Hayward, at night...

Here they are during the day!

Coach Bowerman - a building next to Hayward...

RAC TOW USA!!!

There's actually more, but almost done...

Skippy

Day 6.1 - Wednesday Aug 9 - 2nd to Last Day in Eugene - Wrong!

TODAY'S ADVENTURE started as many others do, waking up, getting breakfast (eggs, oatmeal with raisins, banana and milk).  I was ready to help as needed to get them off tomorrow to Elk Lake, then I would join them on Friday, borrowing their car to make the 2 1/2 - 3 hr trek.  Around 11 AM PT I was conversing with the Matriarch of my immediate family and she pointed out there was a $5 a day cost for the car at the campsite.  I was going to leave it there for Madre to drive it back but with this revelation I quickly calculated in my computer-like brain that it was going to be over $50 to leave it there, esp since I would not be there.  I agreed to her demands (OK, not demands, suggestion) and pouted for a while (not really) because I was going to take Thursday to get other things I needed and just have a day to myself.

Soooo...  We (Journey and I) helped with the RV...

Rub a Dub Dub

Spic and Span

Got a shower along the way

Moved the RV out to the road

This is where we will stay... 

Lord willing and the creek don't rise,

and if spot #9 is available :-)

AT ABOUT 3 PM I realized I could sorta do a "day by myself" today, but it was going to be condensed...  So I planned it out and around 6 PM I headed out on my mini adventure...

--Had to stop at the Oregon Duck Store again... Picked up some goodies...

This one was requested by McGruff...

U of O is well known for RACK & FIE!

Eugene is known as "RACK TOW USA!

Relatives Unite!

Team Spirit

Yay Duck Store!!!

--Now travelling through the mall...

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, 

lend me The Force.

Is one mannequin embarrassed, leaving, 

or just showing off her... calves?

Ahhh, poor thing, she's being replaced...  

...by a squatting male.

Boy those new ones are so life-like.

AFTER LEAVING the mall I saw that white trash exist everywhere...

See the squirrel?  

Hint... It won't get wet on a rainy day.

NOW TIME to visit the ol' stomping grounds...

--Sy's NY Pizza!! Across the street from Northwest Christian College (now University) where I attended for a year or so...

Hungry for Sy's!

Counter Intelligence

NY Style is thin, cheeezy, greeezy! 

I usually fold mine.  

Keeps the thing from folding the wrong way.

And keeps the grease in the right location.

"Can I has one, oh pleez, oh pleeeeez?"

"Just look at the Sy's of that thing!!"

Outside Sy's... I wanna see that!

PERMIT REVOKED!!

TOO MUCH FOR ONE POST, SEE MORE OF DAY 6 IN "DAY 6.2"

More Later,
Skippy

Day 5 - Tuesday Aug 8 - Shopping and Such

Today was the same as every other day of my life; that is, if every day of my life I bought entertainment accessories, got my ears lowered, window shopped for outdoor survival equipment, bought plantar protectors, decided urine was not a bad thing, and chauffeured a climber from a different era.  Oh, and researched living accommodations.

OK, here goes... I have been looking for extra space for my XBONE for several months because the free games I get seem to fill up the included 500 GB HDD (640K HDD all that's needed! HA!) (BTW, Gates says he never said that) and I would like to NOT have to remove then reinstall games!  PAIN!  So I got one...

BOOM! (Mic Drop)

JEEP JEEP BLACK!

Sidetracked, I know.  Hey, I'm a diagnosed ADD-er.  Deal with it!

Back to it...

Time for my hair reduction procedure... Mom had the same procedure.  🎶 It's a family affair...🎶

--And apparently, according to some, though it is not unanimous, I now look like a respectable human being.

🎶 I'm sexy and I know it! 🎶

Window Shopping... Walmart (where you go in Huntsville, AL if you want to see someone you haven't seen in awhile).  Looked at tents, sleeping bags, and similar outdoor survival items.  Gonna reside at a campground for zero pesos in Yosemite Nat'l Park when my bag-o-bones arrives.  I'll do similar, even if it is for a nominal fee, as I traverse this great country of ours from California to Colorado.  And then I saw...

OREGON! OREGON!  beavs  OREGON! OREGON!

---Figured these would be at least $15... Might have bought them, but I don't like this type.  And to think there are some out there who will purchase anything, even if it is not their cup-o-tea, depending on the brand!  I know this is a but so many things bought by so many people

Well, found nothing of interest at Walmart and boogied on...

Anybody know where I can get plantar protectors?

--Got me some TEVAs!  $20 and worth a million!

I'm a Little Bird in Big Tevas.  I'm a Little Bird in Big Tevas.

On the way to an organic grocer to pick up a few things for camping nutrition... Parents' church...

In Eugene, OR if you don't bring your own bag to put your groceries in you are charged an extra 5 cents per paper bag used (apparently they do not offer plastic bags).  Mom wasn't too sure a shopping bag that had the word "urine" in it was appropriate to take in... I disagreed!

If someone's looking THAT close, 

they need to get a hobby.

After getting back to the parentals' place, searched for places to stay for cheep or free in Yosemite... This place looked interesting... Not too bad a price, but it is 1 hr from Yosemite Valley!  I wanna be INSIDE Yosemite!

Finally, for today, I was looking at my Facebook Messenger app and scrolled and saw my friend Matt's name.  I recently hooked up with him on Messenger and so I said hello at about 7:45 PM PT. He knew I had recently lost my wife and said, "Hugs old friend".

I knew Matt from Eugene way back when - over 25 yrs ago.  Met him and a guy named Jason as I was an assistant in the high school group at Grace Community Fellowship.  We became the Three Amigos of rock climbing.  There were two or three summers in the early 90s when we were able to go to Smith Rock State Park for three-day weekends (or two-day when we felt church was calling).

There's lots of stories we about climbing, like our first trip to Smith together riding our bikes, lowering them using climbing ropes, riding up the back side and down a gravel road then THROUGH an empty water transportation tunnel that was UNDERNEATH a bridge that spanned the Crooked River Gorge - We will not forget that!

But those stories are for a different time...

Unfortunately I got no pic of Matt, but I picked him up from the airport at 10:20 PM PT.

Waiting on the Mattster

We stopped at a food establishment and he had a frittata, and I had quiche - REAL MEN EAT QUICHE (and frittatas)!  Oh, a frittata is an omelet with the ingredients mixed all together within the eggs, and it is not folded over.

The difference between frittata at and quiche?

I was all set to pay, even took the ticket out of our server's hand, but Matt was tricky... He handed her his card!  To feel better about myself both the server and Matt allowed me to pay the tip.  I tipped $8 - probably a 40% tip!  Our server told us she was a former stripper, and told a couple jokes that were definitely appropriate at a strip bar - one about the female human's upper chest region!  To not be outdone, and because of my quick wit, I told her that her tip was perfect for that joke - and drew it out for her.  One 8 formatted up, one 8 on its side, and one 8 up again.  If you did not get it, too bad, ask your kids 😁   Overall she was a pleasant individual, and it definitely gave us something interesting to remember of our short lived reunion.

I dropped him at his sister's place around Midnight.  His sister was happy she did not have to go get him.  Good times, Matt, good times.

Done.

Skippy