Portland OR to The Dalles OR

A short mile day, 93 miles. Now 3864miles trip total.
Dad and I enjoyed the day in downtown Portland while the Benz was pampered at MBI Motors, Inc., a fantastic shop that works on only Mercedes-Benz and specializes in the older models. Oil and filter change, replaced some transmission linkage fittings that were getting wobbly, replaced a breather line fitting from water pump that might have been related to our warm running conditions. And, because our previously cold-weather-only speedometer squeal yesterday had become a frequent intermittent squeal that we thought might become maddening over the next 6000+ miles..... they replaced our speedometer with another one of similar vintage. Thank you Brandon, Keith, and Rich!! Those guys devoted themselves to the Benz and our adventure on short notice and we really appreciate their interest and help.
We've kept the old, original speedometer and plan to have it repaired and re-install it because that's the one that Grandpa and Grandma looked at so many years ago. These are some of the issues when you grow to love an old car. We want the original 140 mph speedometer, not the 160 mph one, and the sixes look different on the replacement. OK, OK, it's not logically important... but it is emotionally important. But for now, we accept the replacement as the best choice for sanity. This now necessitates some mileage calculations to adjust for the changeover, and when we get back home, we can't just do a simple subtraction to see total mileage nor take another photo to show an end mileage to compare to the start mileage. But we know a math teacher who can help us get all of that figured out! In case you've wondered, all of our posted mileages are based on Benz's odometer, yet we know that the original one overread by close to 10%. We think the replacement will misread by about the same amount.
While our new friends worked on the car Dad and I lounged at Tiny's Coffee, next to MBI Motors during the morning, which had very tasty coffee and croissants. Then we bicycled along the Willamette River Trail to downtown and had a delicious lunch at La Terrazza, a casual Italian restaurant. Stopped at AAA for a map of the city, then rode to Washington Park and strolled through the Rose Garden. Everything is in bloom and it smelled and looked beautiful! I was reminded of Grandma Phyllis and her practice rose paintings while we were there. We rolled from MBI around 6 pm and headed east along the Columbia River to The Dalles where we are staying. Tomorrow we plan to make some big miles as we head for Big Sky country. During the next few days, we will most likely have bad or no service, so don't worry if there are no new posts.
And in case you didn't notice, we have new pictures up! If you didn't get a chance to look at the first album, click on the link to PicasaWeb, where you'll find both of our albums so far.