Daily Didactic Our day started with a hard decision. Brian's cousin Cindi had invited us to join her and her boyfriend in Portland for the John Kerry rally. We are not hugely political folks, but it sounded like a fun experience. On the other hand, it sounded like a traffic snarl and a parking challenge. The decision eventually made itself, as it became obvious we were not moving nearly fast enough to get to Portland in time. We called Cindi and bowed out, lashed some Heckart family artifacts John and Bev had been storing to the roof rack, and headed down the hill from the farm house, toward Theresa's mom in Stayton to grab a birth certificate for the border. As we headed down the hill, as if on cue, the bus proceeded to do a herky jerky dance indicating something new was problematic under the hood. It got slightly better as it warmed up, so we drove to VW to pick up some real Bosch tune up parts instead of the cheapo parts that we often have to feed the bus on the road. Amusingly enough, the VW dealership didn't stock the vintage parts and sent us to a smaller competitor's shop. After picking up a replacement set of points and a condensor, we headed to Stayton. Theresa visited with her mother, while Ken replaced the parts and timed the bus. Like so often happens, it ran a bit better but still wasn't 100%. We headed back to the parts shop and managed to get them to look at the bus on a Friday afternoon. After three hours, a good lunch, and the smallest repair bill we have ever seen, we were back on the road with a new fuel injection component we would have never suspected. Ironically, we were also exactly on time for getting to Seattle at our target time of 9:00.We tooled north on I-5, skirted around Portland on 205, and crossed into Washington around 6:00. After an uneventful, albeit exciting, freeway event, we came into Seattle. Seattle is great to look at all lit up at night, and we were reminded how much we appreciate it compared to so many of the other bigger cities we have visited. We veered through downtown on I-5 and took a wrong, but functional, exit toward the suburb of Ballard. While it is the wrong exit, it also seems to be the only one Brian ever takes, and after a bit of bobbing and weaving around we found Mike and Glenda's. Brian and Mike have been friends since grade school and no visit to the northwest would be acceptable without a stop. Mike married well, and his better half always makes this one of the most comfortable stops on any trip. We arrived shortly after the family returned from a swim meet, had some pizza, some late evening catching up and way too late called it a very eventful day.