The Tale of the Missing Keys
I was really looking forward to exploring Salem, OR, by bike so I signed up for the Petal Pedal. Keeping an eye on the weather, I counted the days until Memorial Day Weekend and the event. Marcus, Haylee, and MJ were joining me again for another family weekend. The Willamette Valley is known for their wines, so they were looking forward to visiting some vineyards.
The drive down took around five hours due to heavy traffic and accidents. It rained just about the entire drive. Along the way, I made two pit stops at the interstate rest stops.
I got to the hotel before the kids since they had to stop at Trader Joes. After getting my room keys, I went to unlock my bike and take it to our room. I pulled my keys out of my pocket, but the ring that had the keys to both my bike rack and the bike battery were gone! The ring they were on was open and I didn’t notice it. In frustration I figured I must have lost those keys at one of the rest stops.
I called Marcus to see where they were. They weren’t that far from the last rest stop so they turned around and went looking for my keys. Once they were at the rest stop, they turned on Messenger Video so I could see and direct them where I walked. No luck!
So I called a locksmith. I told him I had two locks and that the one actually needed a blank key for a Honda motorcycle (people in the Rad Power Bikes Facebook group said those keys would work on the batteries). He assured me he could help and it would be around an hour until someone arrived.
It was closer to 90 minutes before someone showed up. He tried to pick the lock on the hitch rack, but wasn’t successful. He kept calling his boss, would try again, and then wanted to cut the cable to the lock. I told him no unless he had a blank that would work on my batteries. I knew I had spare keys back home so I didn’t want my cable cut for nothing. He tried a few keys after I showed him which blank I actually needed, but he didn’t have any. Even though he couldn’t help, I still had to pay him $90 since it was after hours. That really sucked!
I looked up all the places to get keys made, including Home Depot (we went in), but nobody had the blank I needed in stock. I resigned myself to not riding the next day in the Petal Pedal.
We had a late (8:30pm) dinner at a Mexican restaurant before going to bed. I hated eating heavy food like that before bed, but was starving and didn’t have a choice. The whole fiasco with the locksmith was during our normal dinner time.
The next morning, I got up and drove to the start site to pick up my packet even though I wasn’t going to ride. I at least wanted my bib since it was custom with my username on it (I use SeaAnitaOutdoors on Instagram and some other sites).
I headed to breakfast at a little place called Breakfast & Burgers that wasn’t far from the hotel. The biscuits and gravy were really good! After I ate, I headed back to the hotel.
The kids were just getting up and moving. Even though I wasn’t riding, included in my registration fee was a free buffet lunch with entertainment and an open bar for beer, cider and wine. I had also paid for the kids to partake in the lunch and we were shooting for 11:30am when it started.
When we arrived at The Oregon Garden (where the event was being held), it was drizzling a bit as we walked through the garden to the pavilion of the event. The gardens were lovely and I wished it wasn’t so wet so I could explore further.
The buffet lunch included several salads, rolls, potatoes, smoked/grilled chicken and pulled pork. The chicken was especially good! I also got a cider even though I rarely drink alcohol. It was a dry one, which I prefer and quite tasty. The kids (minus MJ) drank severals beers and wine as an old hillbilly band entertained us (complete with a washboard, spoons, jug, and other old time homemade instruments).
When we were finished eating and drinking, the weather had gotten worse with pouring down rain. We got quite wet as we raced back to the car.
Since the weather was so bad, we didn’t want to visit vineyards or other outdoor activities. MJ was getting sleepy, so we thought it was a perfect time to go to the movies. He slept through the majority of Top Gun: Maverick. He was a bit fussy when he woke, so I popped out and got him a popsicle.
After the movie, MJ and I hit the photo booth and took some goofy pictures.
We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant close to the hotel. The food servings were huge and everything was very delicious.
It was chilly and wet as we drove home the next day.
The weekend didn’t turn out like we imagined, but it’s always great to spend time with family!
