vacay and car troubles

part 1: vacay

I left Seattle and headed south, went through Abderdeen (Welcome to Aberdeen - Come As You Are), hit the 101 and went south all the way to bustling Wheeler, OR pop. 350. I got to see Angelina, who I haven't seen since last October. We hung out, played board games, went to the beach, went to the bar, went to breakfast in a town that starts with an N that I can't remember how to spell.......

this is the cabin Angelina lives in, and next to hers is her mom's, then her grandma's, then her aunt's. They're neat little cabins, and the view is pretty. You can see the bay.



We went down to Short sand's beach. evidently they filmed part of Point Break there. There were lots of hot surfer guys. and lots of dogs running around. Rosie ran around and played in the ocean. Angelina and her cousin Zane were throwing a big chunk of seaweed for her. She went swimming after it a couple of times. Angelina went surfing, here she is getting out of her wetsuit in the parking lot.



she didn't stay in very long because she saw a big shadow of something and got scared of sharks. though it was probably just a big chunk of bull kelp.

here's Ange's cousin Zane holding a wet and tired Rosie (I love how they match!) Zane is the coolest 13 y.o. I've ever met. It's kind of cool to meet smart kids.



We went to a bar called the San Dune in Manzanita. I could watch my car on the security camera. it was pretty exciting. There was supposedly an intercom, but there weren't people walking by very often so I didn't get a chance to say "Don't touch that car, Bitches!" which I really wanted to yell over an intercom. or "Don't even look at it!"



After leaving Wheeler Rosie and I continued down the 101. we stopped in Newport for lunch and to play on the beach. Rosie, like most dogs, LOVES the beach. we play frisbee, and she chases the seagulls. it's hilarious.



here we are on the beach! with my totally awesome windblown hair-do



part 2: car trubs

Everything was going along nicely, I had just been talking to Annalisa and had figured out where I was going to camp and about how long it was going to take to get there and from there to Santa Rosa. I stopped at the Rogue brewery and bought some beer. Then leaving the brewery my car sudeenly would not accelerate. It just kind of stuck, and there were huge black plumes of nasty exhaust. Right before I left Seattle I had my fuel filter changed because I had had a severe loss of power in accelerating. everything seemed fixed until Newport. I called my dad and we decided it was probably bad fuel, (I think there may be some bad biodiesel afoot in Portland) and i should fill the tank with new diesel and add some diesel additive. I made it to Waldport, where I discovered they do not have any diesel but I found the diesel additive. Then a big warning "Emissions workkshop!" came on. when I looked that up it said "reduce speed and drive to nearest dealership." I headed to yachats, 8 miles away. I have never been so happy to be stuck going slow in construction, because I couldn't go much faster than traffic was going anyway. the first station in yachats had diesel. i filled up and added the additive, but still could barely accelerate leaving the station. I hung out in yachats for awhile, calling my dad from a pay phone (yay for business 1-800 #'s) and sitting in my car staring at the ocean, with the car running trying to burn off the bad stuff and get the good stuff flowing. So eventually I gave in to the fact that I had to get to the dealership in Eugene. My Dad talked to the guy at the dealer and he said to just drive it over. It was not a fun time. It was like driving the old diesel vw van that I learned how to drive on that was a total gutless wonder. On hills you just floor it and hope for the best. I was barely making it. It was diesel without the turbo.
Now my car is at the dealer, though they probably won't get a chance to look at it until tomorrow (saturday)

So this is just part of my car curse, i guess. See, i got a new car so i wouldn't break down everytime I tried to take a trip. But I was really really lucky that I was so close to Eugene, and not down in Northern California or something. Now here I am, at my parents house in Eugene for a few days. Which is great, its just out of order from my original plans. But I'm making the best of it, showers and laundry. I'm going to go see my grandma today and then hang out with my mom when she gets off work. I helped her paint one of the extra bedrooms yesterday evening. and I have some boxes of crap I still need to go through, from when I moved to seattle last october. I've no idea what they contain.