Lunch at Les Schwab's

Lizzie and I ate out at Les Schwab’s in Enterprise.  A bacon blue cheeseburger with chips for me and Science Diet Dental dog food for her.  Afterward, Lizzie circled once and lay on the cool linoleum floor. 

As a restaurant, Les Schwab’s decor resembles that of a White Castle burger joint – white and spotless clean.  The smell was of freshly made tires.  The service was gracious, quick, and friendly. I don’t often eat at Les Schwab’s (unless it’s their heavily salted and buttered popcorn), but when I had a flat up Lostine Canyon in the Eagle Cap Wilderness area in Oregon, I didn’t have a choice.

I have camped in Lostine for almost twenty-five years and this was only the second time that there was a snafu.  I was due for another.  

The very first time that I camped in the canyon, I forgot the cooler.  My daughter and I had to make do with peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  The error was rectified when a neighbor offered unlimited quantities of smores to supplement our slim diet.  It was a wonderful and memorable trip.  

On this year’s trip, the flat tire was complicated by having recently gotten new wheels and the Subaru lug wrench did not fit the new lug bolts.  I could not even put the spare on.  Lizzie and I wandered the dirt road outside the campground while waiting for the Les Schwab tire repair guy to rescue us.  I took a few photos of Russian thistle with my clip-on phone lens.

  I had intended to spend the morning hiking with friends who were going to be camping in the mountains.  I was sorry to miss the opportunity.  But just like the first year, there was a compensation.  First, I got to eat a relaxed lunch of that left-over burger purchased the evening before from Terminal Gravity in Enterprise.  Second, I had plenty of time to pick huckleberries on the way home off Balloon Tree Road in the Blue Mountains. 

               The Science Daily had a recent article about how people who are optimistic live longer.  “Optimism refers to a general expectation that good things will happen or believing that the future will be favorable because we can control important outcomes.”  I have gotten increasing good at looking at the bright side of unfortunate happenings.  Having a flat way up a rough canyon road, gave me one more opportunity to be optimistic, cheerful in the face of adversity. 

               And maybe even contribute to my living a little longer!