Black bird flies

April 4, 2025

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I’m a few days behind on the journal, so on the morning I’m posting I’m sitting in Lovejoy Bakery enjoying their traditional breakfast (protein, eggs over medium, grilled potatoes and multigrain toast) as one of the servers walks by. Today’s staff is the Ukrainian shift - three women that manage the orders and a Ukrainian shift. In other days of the week the American shift is on duty. On the screen is a shot from yesterday, May 5th, the day after this post that will come up next.

Today’s post is a milestone day, but so is the one coming up, shown on the iPad.

Today is an important one that we’ve been waiting a long time for: Shawn and his daughters are flying in to take the Raven off our hands and drive it back to their home in Minnesota. I’ll drive out to pick them up when they arrive at around 1PM, nd after that we’ll begin the process of transferring the car to them.

First though the morning gets tied up with one final session with our financial advisor. It starts at 11, and we scheduled it under the agreement that I need to leave by about noon so I can make it to the airport. That works, barely. By noon they’re done with me and I promptly leave, but Rachael stays behind and is still at it for another half hour or more.

I’m out there in the arrivals waiting lot maybe fifteen minutes before they’re due to land. While I’m waiting I pull out the title and start filling it up for the upcoming ownership transfer. One of the requirements is to record the mileage:

The flight is an hour late and doesn’t arrive until nearly two. Not long afterwards I get the call to pick them up at gate 8 on the arrivals platform, and we’re soon on our way back to the apartment. We drive back on Highway 14 on the Washington side of the river, with Shawn taking the wheel soon after we cross the river and then driving the rest of the way. It gives him plenty of time to learn the car, which doesn’t take long because he’s good with cars and an excellent, smart, safe driver.

And it gives them all a chance to look around in wonder at all the green, the trees and flowers in bloom, and above all the extraordinary snowpack on Hood, Saint Helens, Adams, and some of the lower hills. It’s like the weather when I dripove down to Aurora. They really hit the jackpot in arriving at such a beautiful time.

They aren’t here just to grab the Raven and go though. They’re here for the weekend, with an ambitious, even agressive agenda. Today the plan is to pick up the keys from us and drive south to Salem, where Shawn will drop Ashley and Haylee off at a motel to lounge around the swimming pool while Shawn continues on down to visit his mom, Carol Jo (a name you might recognize by now as CJ Horn, the woman who’s been following along and started using some of my photographs to create digital jigsaw puzzles she solves remotely with a friend. She’s my first wife, and the person we adopted Shawn with when he was nearly two and I was making pizzas on Capitol hill after biking halfway back to from Indiana, wishing I had enough money to buy that beautiful Rodriguez bicycle I just saw a poster for.

Plans change though because they’re an hour late and the girls are starving. We decide there’s time to grab a bite before they head south for Salem, so we pick up Rachael and start restaurant shopping. We end up at a bar and grill facing Tanner Springs Park, and have an excellent visit. Even better and more surprisingly, we end up with meals that all five of us are pleased with. Remarkable because Ashley is a pretty picky eater who really doesn’t like that many foods. And really remarkable because Haylee is an exceptionally picky eater. There aren’t many foods she’ll even deign to allow entry into her mouth. One of them, chicken tenders, is one of her favorites and really the only thing she wants today. And they have it.

And then they’re off. The plan is for them to come back through Sunday morning and have breakfast with us before they head east, so we’ll pick up with them again then.

Everyone gets a beverage they’re happy with. Shawn, who can’t drink alcohol either, tries and approves of his first NA beer.

The ceremonial title transfer, and another reflective shot against the Raven.

So long, it’s been good to know ya’. It’s nice he’s still in the family though. I suspect there’s a reunion down the road.

The Raven came to us in February, four years ago when we took Old Paint in for servicing before starting the long drive back to Portland. The car had over 200,000 miles on it by then though, and the cost of the needed maintenance no longer made sense. We decided we needed a newer car and studied websites in the region for anything close enough that met our needs. We found exactly one - in this lot. Rachael was twenty miles away biking out Julian Wash, so I told her to pedal hard and get herself here by the end of the day so we could buy a car. She made it.

At the time, I put together a Photogallery of the Jetta over the years, as a combination homage and memory book. It seems right to do it here with the Raven also. It’s a much shorter book because we’ve only had the Raven four years and only see it when we’re in America, but it’s still surprising how many memories it brings back and great stories I’d forgotten about. And he’s racked up some pretty impressive Ravenstats in his brief time with us:

States and provinces:

Arizona
California
Utah
Nevada
Oregon
Washington
British Columbia
Alberta
Idaho

National parks and monuments:

Saguaro
Organ pipe
Joshua Tree
Zion
Arches
Canyonlands
Yoho
Revelstoke
Jasper
Banff
Waterton
Redwoods

CycleBlaze meetups (xx):

Tucson: Susan Carpenter, Kelly and Jacinto, Wendy, the Branhams
Carlsbad: Wendy
Half Moon Bay: Canyonlands
Portland: Bruce and Andrea, the Grumbys, the Branhams
Seattle: Mike and Tami
Vancouver: Al and Jacquie
Kamloops: the Biggars
Revelstoke: Betsy
Canmore: Lyle and Kirsten
Boise: Racpat, Kim

Not bad, and I suspect this isn’t a final list for the old bird. The car is still in the family and centered now in a different part of the country. Shawn and the girls will go places, and at some point I’m sure we’ll fly back to visit them again, grab the Raven and drive out to Hastings or Twin Cities or Ithaca to see if anyone’s at home.

March, 2021: Organ Pipe NM, on a day rerip from our overnight stop in Ajo.

March 2021: overlooking Canyonlands NP and the Green River.

February 2021, the transition. We’re back in Tucson to finalize the transfer before heading for home.

Marchl 2021: Warner Basin, by the ‘Glass Elevator’ climbing up from Borrego Springs.

April 2021: Back in Portland at our storage unit, needing a bath after driving up through eastern Oregon. We can see this view today (February, 2025j from our Airbnb apartment across the street.

February 2022: in the coast redwoods, on our way back to Portland.

March 2023, Portland: I’m just returning to the car from Caffe Umbria, just on the left side of the street. I’m puzzled and concerned at why the key doesn’t unlock the car, but then I look up. What are the odds?

November 2003: south on Salem on I-5, on the way to the cutover to Highway 101 and on to Tucson.

December 2023: Approaching , Furnace Creek, Death Valley

Canada

Joshua tree, Canyonlands, etc

Hospital

In Nicasio, parked next to some run-of-the-mill cousin.

In Bandon, parked to protect the Rodriguez and all the other possessions we left behind.

In an unbelievable bonus, my missing drivers license are also returned. They’d been in the car all along, but had fallen into the space between the passenger seat and the door.

On Hayden Island, the day after we offered to give Shawn the Raven, I had a scare when I couldn’t find it and thought it might have been stolen. Phew!

December, 2023: Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley

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Janice BranhamGoodness, you've shared a lot of adventures with the Raven in four years, especially considering all the time you've been out of the country. A worthy tribute to the old black bird.
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