Tillamook fires it up for us!

5-18-08 -- Tillamook, Oregon -- Here we were for our third official visit with our Tillamook heroes & friends, and it was a great day for it!

The biggest difference was that for the first time we actually showed up early.  Oh darn, guess we have to go visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory, hehe.

A little background for the reason for this visit.  Had the medical situation not occurred, we would have visited Tillamook as the first visit on the fifth annual tour across North America.

We had scheduled this tour to coincide with Armed Forces Day, and Police Week, and hoped for a beautiful sunny day.  You know that old saying about being careful what you ask for?  Well, it wasn't just sunny for our start ... It was nearly (and eventually) 99 degrees!

This year there is no official tour.  Normally we would be on the road for 6 weeks, driving 12,000 miles, visiting 55 cities to honor our Fallen & Wounded Heroes and their loved ones.  Due to  situations out of our control, we have had to make changes to keep everything moving forward.  So we are now furiously working on "Plan B", and all will be even better.  But in the meantime, this version of the tour is gonna be different from anything we've ever done.

Our decision was to do the first day of the tour as we would have done, sans the sendoff, aka "Hannity's Crossing".

Another difference is that we are trying to have the entire Core Team make the visits, as possible.  Larry is in the final days of his Army career as part of the Medical Boarding process.  He, Chani and Leta will be moving back home to Albuquerque a little later in the summer.

So the whole crew piled into the Murano and we headed south.  We had been invited to spend a weekend just outside Portland, with the family of the Marine we honored with the most recent Wounded Hero coin, LCpl Matthew Luke at their cabin.  So we spent the first night enjoying great company, great food, a beautiful view, and lots of laughter with them before we headed from the main house down to the cabin.  OMG!!!  This cabin is three times the size of my house!

It was obvious that this home was a true labor of love, and not a touch was missed in its design.  I will attach a couple photos of this amazing home to try to share what we experienced.

Thank you so much to Shawn, John, Matt, and the entire family for their generosity and friendship.  All of us had a wonderful time, and it was a perfect start to our trip in to Tillamook.

The road was pretty clear, traffic moving smoothly -- probably the effect of seriously rising gas prices -- and we headed west through some classically northwest scenery.  The road gets windy, and is a lot of fun to drive -- and at no more than 55 miles per hour, you have a chance to see the things going by.

At last we knew we were coming into Tillamook when the pastures and cows made their presence known.  It was sunny with a light breeze and about 20 degrees cooler this close to the coast.

Realizing we were early we happily enjoyed our time at the dairy, shopping, browsing, and of course, sampling the "squeaky cheese" ... Sorry, you'll have to come visit to find out what that is!  ( ;

At last it was time, and we pulled up to the place we had been to so often over the past few years.  Local faces, familiar faces, friendly faces greeted us, and it felt good.

Pat Kelly was manning the barbecue grill.  Pat has a special way of putting fire in everything he does, and he was most certainly fired up that day.  Good burgers, too ... But guys, where was the Tillamook cheese?  lol  Pat, you're fired!  Nah, nevermind, we love all of you ... Nobody gets fired.  ( ;

So we enjoyed spending time and talking with folks we have met over the past visits.  But there was another special reason for this visit.  We were there to present the long requested Honor coin for a Fallen Hero, John Schneidecker, of the Tillamook Sheriff's Department.

John's family was all there in attendance, and it was with much pride that the coins were presented to his wife and children.  There were tears, but they were happy tears, and cameras recording the moment.

The John Schneidecker Fallen Hero coin is available for a limited time, but Tillamook has first dibs, and there are very few remaining.

Next thing we needed to do was to present a very special book that we had made to commemorate our last visit.  It was fun for everyone to take their turns looking at the photos and laughing at what was inside, and it brought back a lot of the memories we share.

We want to thank the Chief for laying out the welcome mat for us once again.  TFD always rocks it for us, thanks Rick!  ( ;

The bbq was all cleaned up, our tummies full, official responsibilities finished, it was time to relax after the drive and get cleaned up before dinner.

We headed over to the Best Western, courtesy of the Tillamook Sheriff's Department ... Thank you to Sheriff Todd Anderson, and all who had a hand in making arrangements for us.  The rooms were great and the staff as friendly as everyone we have ever met in Tillamook.

We were looking forward to dinner later on.  Our host, from the fire/ems/ambulance side of the house, Mark Torrance has been very supportive, and was actually the first one in Tillamook to give the very shirt off his back.  (Great story, and even better when we got to hear his wife's version of the call she got that day telling her that he needed her to bring him a shirt since he had just given his to two women on the side of the road ... ROFL!)

Mark, and his wife Yovonda led the way after a brief visit to their beautiful home -- Which was another peaceful, quiet locale surrounded by trees and hills and a creek  No wonder people live here.

We headed off to Pacific City to the Pelican Bay for dinner.  Pelican Bay is way cool.  It sits right on the beach, and has a great view, surrounded by sand dunes and large rock formations in the ocean.  There was some discussion about the rock directly off the coast, but we decided to leave that to the locals.  Mark assures us this is one of the Haystack Rocks, and since he lives there, we're going with him till we find out otherwise.

We passed on the beer sample tray, tried the shark bites, and had a delicious meal as the sun set on the end of a perfect day.

During the visit we had received a call from the east coast, it appeared that right after our return, I would be heading to Washington DC for Memorial Day weekend.  Yikes!  I had already taken this out of my calendar and was not prepared.

We do not visit our honor stops empty handed, and so the team pt or heads together during dinner to decide what we could make happen on short notice.  What would we bring to the Pentagon?  We had ideas for our Local 2068 friends, but wow, this one was gonna be tight.

A sword!  We would contact our Fort Lewis Army Museum heroes and get their support.  But a light lit in Mark's eyes, and he told us he had the perfect idea.  We had to wait till the next day to see if it could happen.  We were all excited.  What happened?  You'll have to read the upcoming posts.

Thank you, every one for making our visit a warm, welcoming and memorable one.

lj

Tags: Tillamook Fire Department, Tillamook Police Department, John Schneidecker