Oregon Visitors And Covid-19

Years ago while traveling with our fifth wheel and truck in Mexico we met a couple from Coos Bay, Oregon, Beryl and Ainslie. While they have continued to travel to Mexico we’ve not gone back since the year we met them–2009 or 2010. We’ve visited them in Coos Bay and they’ve been to Montana. Beryl is a proper English lady and Ainslie is a giant of a man who worked in the oil industry all over the world as a geologist. They have started their trek back to Oregon and stopped in to see us for a few days. As usual we’ve been eating well and doing a bit of touring.

Friday evening we invited other friends–Louanne and Dan plus Larry (our Montana friend)–for a lovely dinner party. The food was so good–I even made an apple pie–and the company totally entertaining. Saturday the guys went ATVing; Beryl and I braved the Safeway store in Benson. We tried to enjoy lunch at the Horseshoe Cafe in Benson but the place was overwhelmed with people (what happened to social distancing) and the service ridiculously slow for one bowl of soup and a salad. Back at home Ainslie made a delicious fajita dinner.

The Safeway store in Benson had so many bare shelves–no hamburger meat along with no toilet paper or bottled water. The pasta, rice and bean shelves were also almost empty.  It was disconcerting to say the least. Our good friend Nina of Wheeling It blog fame has written on one hand a totally scary, panic inducing post and on the other hand, it’s what we all need to read. I was amazed and overwhelmed with the amount of information contained in her post. Read it here–Decide Where You Want To Be And Go There.

In between reading scare inducing news reports I’m reading one of those books I find hard to put down–really hard! It’s American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Oprah received a lot of flak for placing this book on her 2020 Book Club list but I haven’t even bothered to read about the reason for the uproar. Our librarian briefly alluded to the controversy when I borrowed the book. The book is about a woman who with her young son must escape Acapulco and the entire country of Mexico. Cummins can write and I’m so engrossed in this book–I’m more than halfway through and only borrowed it on Thursday plus I’ve had guests so my reading time has been limited–it’s a good book!

Church for me Sunday morning where the message was, “Fear Not”–appropriate in these times I would say! Late in the afternoon we ate once again–steak, shrimp from Mexico, wedge blue cheese salads, Pioneer Woman smashed potatoes and leftover apple pie–we do eat well! After all that eating we enjoyed happy hour with Dan and Louanne on their porch–it was a beautiful Arizona evening. Louanne feeds the birds and it’s always entertaining to watch the finches and quail as they feed.

Stay well and safe dear readers.