Early this spring my friends Denny and Linda ask me to go with them to Long Beach Wa. to a 3 day car show and rod run in September. I had originally balked at the idea but eventually decided to go. It turned into a 5 day trip witch was the best 5 days I have had ever had I honestly believe. One of the different aspects of this trip was that they were taking there toy hauler to stay in which meant that my bedroom was the car hauler part

Well this worked out quite well I must say, who needs a wheelchair lift when your whole wall drops for a ramp

The double doors leads into the living quarters which when the slide out is extended is very roomy. I can go on and on on how exciting the weekend was but to give you an idea, just getting to my bed was e-ticket ride its self

the top got REAL exciting

yeeee haaa, whoop-n-spur

The trip started for me on Thursday when I motored over to Hermiston and met D&L at the hanger where Denny and I made some test runs up the wall and made sure there were no glitches in my new accessible digs.  Denny having been around me forever and knowing what is wheelchair friendly and what ain't had it pretty much perfect so all I had to do was move in.

FRIDAY

Friday morning we headed for the Washington coast in a mini caravan, Denny on point with the toyhauler, me and the van tucked in behind him, Barbara and Tom with a big Dodge and gooseneck trailer and Linda with the Charger bringing up the rear.  It has been 20 years or so since I had been down river past Arlington so from there on it was all pretty much new country for me and the day was all sun and no wind, a real nice driving day.  Through Portland I hung onto Denny's bumper so close a couple times he got on the radio ( we had 2 MURS radios) and ask where I went...hee... I wasn't about to let him make a turn I miss it.  The drive up through Astoria was beautiful and that bridge over the river was rather intimidating, you wouldn't catch me on that thing if the wind was blowing for no kind of money.  Sure a lot of green over there. 
After zig zaging all over the place we finally made it to the Long Beach Peninsula. About Llwaco the hot rods started to become more numerous by the mile and by the time we got to Long Beach they were bumper to bumper going both ways.  We made our way through LB at a snails pace and the people were all lined up along the street in chairs, benches standing,one group had a car trailer parked there and had all there shade, coolers and goofy hats on.  It was a carnival atmosphere from there on. 
AT the beach

Denny checking out where the best place to get stuck at

After we got parked at the campground and all set up we decided to go check out the beach which was a 100 yards or so from the campsite.  There was this trail that made its way through the weeds but the problem was the sand was so soft that we almost got the wheelchair and me stuck. I never made it all the way to the hard pack and on the way back it took Denny pulling and Linda pushing to get back through a couple of soft spots.  On one little dip I hit as fast as the chair would go ( so it would have enough momentum to get through a soft spot) and as I crested the hump me and chair almost went airborn.  Reminded me of the old motocross days, catch air, cross it up and just look cool....well 400 pounds of wheelchair....bad idea.

I wanted to go out there where Tom is

CHAPTER 2
SATURDAY--CARS CARS AND MORE CARS (click here)