Home Again...44º

I awake this morning, comfy in my own bed but my head is stuffy and eyes swollen...Pat was bothered the two days we spent at Wildhorse with red, scratchy eyes...She doctored with artificial tears and didn't let it slow her down..I didn't notice any ill effects until this morning...Casino's are known for their smoke filled rooms and tout some smoke free spaces to entice non smoking people to these resorts...This resort claimed a smoke free passageway from the lobby desk to the opposite side of the resort to the brand new 5-theater cineplex...Pat and I traveled this path many times as we attended events, over the next two days, not only was it very confusing but not smoke free...Really the only place we couldn't smell the smoke was outside or in our comfortable room on the 4th floor of the hotel...The room with two queen sized beds offered us most of the comforts of home, the usual fridge, micro wave and free wifi was at our fingertips...But we weren't there to stay in the room except for sleeping, so we braved the smoke filled atmosphere.

Now the reason for our trip on this cold, snowy weekend was a new event centered on Writing and books...Word Roundup was hosted by Wildhorse and Libraries of Eastern Oregon...Pat and I left Joseph at 7:30am Friday morning and amazingly had clear, dry roads the entire 120 miles over two mountain passes...We arrived in time for the 10am class that we planned to attend only to find that the room was filled to capacity...A check with reservations and yes we could check in to our room and get settled and catch the next class...Confusion reigned for the next two days as for some reason Wildhorse had double booked the meeting spaces and "Word Roundup" was continually bumped to another smaller venue or no venue at all...So for the next class Pat and I joined others in a "hallway" to learn about Libraries to Go, where on line we can check out books or download audio books or ebooks, all for free from this huge library in the sky...The two day schedule was jam packed with readings, workshops, mini classes, guest speakers, live music, a used book sale and books for sale featuring Northwest authors...We took several classes, navigated our way around the casino, even lost a few nickels, sampled the food, made new friends, visited with people I haven't seen in many years...But the confusion reigned for the entire two days as events were moved and/or rescheduled for a different time...I think next years "Word Roundup" will be held in a different venue....Our return trip was made on clear but wet roads, a little fog thrown in and we arrived back in Wallowa County before dark...Another enjoyable trip to add to our memory book...Hugs To All...OWAV:)