June 29, 2009 - Mama and I thought we were on a multi-night trip to Lincoln City. Little did we know that her heart had other plans for us.

We did get to see the beautiful Pacific Ocean from outside our nice room at the Ester Lee when we got up after spending our first night there.



We enjoyed watermelon before getting ready to go to the Chinook Winds Casino to play the penny machines, one of Mama's favorite ways to spend time when out and about.



Mama and I cleaned out half of that little Dulcinea Pureheart Seedless watermelon in no time flat.



See what I mean?



Here's Mama after she put her face on and a great big smile of anticipation. She's ready to go have some fun! Although I didn't look nearly as put together as she did, I was ready, too.

We won some, we lost some, we were just about ready to head back to our room because she said she wasn't feeling well when Mama had what I guess you could call a spell, but to tell you the truth, I'd never seen anything like it. Her little ol' self got rigid and shaky when she stood up off the stool in front of the slot machine. I got alarmed and asked for the casino to get us some help, so they sent their security people with a wheelchair. After checking her out in the first aid space inside the security office, they highly recommended that she get go to the local hospital ER. She wouldn't let them call an ambulance, so I quit wasting time trying to convince her to change her mind and got directions--it was not a long drive. At the ER, where they didn't have her records, of course, the EKG alarmed the doctor enough that he ordered her an ambulance for the ride back to Portland, straight to her primary care doctor's affiliated hospital. So, she left in an ambulance with the siren going, and I went back to the Ester Lee to put all of our stuff back into the car and check out. We lost our Christmas present coupon for the cost of those nights that my brother and his wife had given us, but it couldn't be helped. At least, that's what the management at the Ester Lee told me. And I had to call Lamont and Leland, not only to let them know what was going on with their Gma, but to also tell them that our plans to spend the two more nights there with them as our guests had now been cancelled. Luckily, they hadn't left Portland yet, so they went to the hospital just about the time that Mama should arrive by ambulance. When I got to the hospital in Portland, she was doing OK because they had her previous EKGs and such to look at and knew that what was going on could be controlled with her medication. She stayed overnight and came home to recuperate just fine. We enjoyed her company for another year and a half.

Just goes to show that we don't know what's next in life. Mama, both of my parents actually, that my brother and me and my sons that one should always be ready for whatever comes your way, to handle it the best you are able, and with a smile on your face if the situation warrants.

Mother's Day Mini-Vacation, No. 5 - riding Highway 26 into and beyond Warm Springs, Oregon.

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Just before we arrived at the place where I took this photo, off in the distance a little bit, I could see a cut in the earth. A deep cut.
 

I said out loud, "Are we going down there?" "Yes," they replied. "Do we have to get up out of there to go to Bend?" I asked. "Yes," they replied. All I could think about was how much I hoped there wouldn't be too many curves, not too steep a drop into the cut and not too steep a rise out of it on the other side. And then we were in it.
 

Warm Springs sprawled before us as we continued downward on Highway 26.



Not too steep. Not too many curves. My fear of heights, not debilitating, just there. My acupressure motion sickness bracelets kept that under control. Down here at the bottom of this drop, on the left, is the Indian Head Casino. I had asked to make a pit stop and to play the penny machines for a few minutes when we arrived in Warm Springs. We left 20 minutes later, me $10 ahead. Yes! I hit a three-ball scatter jackpot on the Tiki Torch, a machine Mama and I liked to play at the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi, back before we moved to Portland in June, 2006. I think I bet 40 cents, but I cannot remember for sure. All I know for sure is that was the shortest visit I've ever made to a casino. Well, until Sunday afternoon when all we did was make a pit stop, no penny machines for me that time. I'll tell you how I spent my winnings in an upcoming post.
 

We're about to go up and out of the cut. Isn't the countryside beautiful?
 

My first sighting of the Deschutes River. I read online that the Deschutes is a major tributary of the Columbia River, that it flows through a rugged and arid part of Oregon, that it provides irrigation for Central Oregon, that it provides a cultural heart for that area, that is is popular in summer for whitewater rafting and fishing. After if passes through Bend and Redmond, north though the Central Oregon desert, it carves a gorge, bordered by large basalt cliffs. At Madras, it is nearly 300 feet below the plateau. Warm Springs is 14.8 miles northwest of Madras, and the best I can tell from looking at terrain maps, Warm Springs itself it at some spots 700 feet below the edge of the plateau. Yep, that's a deep cut. I don't think I saw any basalt cliffs. Still and all, I enjoyed the Deschutes' gorge very much.