Sadly, even though we had one more night on the ship and then two nights scheduled with the October Bunch in Walla Walla, Kathleen and I decided to leave the ship on our first day in Clarkston, rent a car and drive home. Kathleen has our regular travel cold starting up and has been coughing and sneezing for about the last four days.

I’m having some serious trouble with the after effects of my prostate cancer radiation treatments I thought were behind me last spring. These started while we were driving to Portland, and I’ve stayed in touch with my doctor the whole time (even doing some tests while we were still in Portland). The symptoms would improve, then worsen again. After a particularly rough night on Thursday, we remembered that, on other trips when we felt terrible, two things were true: we made others we were traveling with feel miserable, and we always wished we could be at home in our own bed. Usually, that’s not possible because it would mean flying home and dealing with all the hassles, but since we were somewhere we could drive home, we did (it was a LONG five+ hour drive but worth it). So, I finished the Pendleton post, and now I’m writing this one from our living room in Redmond. 

I do plan to finish this trip with my review of the entire cruise, including the service, little problems and, of course, the food. Please look for that in the next few days. For today, it’s just a matter of returning a rental car, going to the Kaiser clinic for some tests and hopefully medication, and just resting. More soon.

The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. —Robert Burns