Over the weekend, Mark and I didn’t get to bed before midnight either night. I was staying up late to process the pictures I’d taken each day and to write my blog. I don’t know what Mark was staying up late for. Whatever our reasons, this is not the best thing for us to do.

The day started out well enough. Mark and I got the RV roadworthy and then he went to get gas while I went to pick Mom up at my sister’s house and then we met up with Mark at the gas station. Mom was going to take the first half of the driving. As we were leaving Klamath Falls, we were in a thick fog.

Around noon, Mark pulled over in a wide spot in the road where there was a little restaurant and asked if we wanted to stop there for lunch. In discussing it between the three of us, we decided to go down the road a little farther to Oakridge for lunch. As long as we were stopped, I took the opportunity to use the bathroom in the RV and Mark let Tucson out to take care of business. When I came back out to the car, Mom was firmly entrenched in the passenger seat and said she’d rather take up driving again when we got to civilization. I couldn’t remember exactly why we had agreed that she would drive the first half of the trip, but I was a little unsettled when I got into the driver’s seat. Shortly after we got back on the road, it hit me why we had agreed that Mom would drive all the way to Eugene. It was because, on the trip down to Klamath Falls, I had had to drive through the most beautiful part of the drive and couldn’t take pictures, and Mom had said I’d be able to take pictures on the way back. The more I thought about this, the more disgruntled I became about having to drive and I let Mom know it. She remembered her earlier promise and suggested I call Mark and ask him to stop so that we could switch sides, but we were in an area where there was no cell service. I don’t change gears well when I have a plan in my head and something disrupts it. I was not handling my disappointment well.

We finally got to Oakridge and Mark stopped at a grocery store that had a deli in it so we could find something for lunch. We found some things to eat and had lunch in the RV. With a little food in me, I apologized to Mom for getting miffed with her, and she apologized for forgetting why I had wanted her to drive to Eugene. I had to admit that it was partly my fault because I had forgotten why I wanted her to do so when I first took the driver’s seat. After lunch, Mom drove all the rest of the way home.

When we got close to home, Mark took one exit to bring the RV back to Sherwood, and Mom and I took another exit to go back to her place again so that I could pick up my car. I called Mark and told him I would come and pick him up in the car and he said he wanted to ride his motorcycle. I misunderstood and thought he was just going to bring it over to Mom’s house so I told him not to, that I would be there soon to get him. What he was really trying to say was that he needed to ride his motorcycle (that’s his form of relaxation), so by the time I got to the RV, he was fuming. I had to get onto my computer immediately for a Zoom meeting and didn’t have a chance to talk with him about it. There had been a spill of soiled cat litter that he cleaned up, so in the background of my screen on my meeting, the group could hear a few choice words. Finally, Mark went out and got on his motorcycle, and rode off. I thought he was going to my mother’s house. When I finished with my meeting, I called Mom and she told me Mark wasn’t there.

I hung up from talking with Mom and a few minutes later, Mark pulled up and came in. He was still pretty ticked and I couldn’t understand exactly what was wrong, so we talked about it. That’s when I found out what he had meant when he said he wanted to ride his motorcycle. We got things patched up, but we definitely need to get to bed sooner tonight!