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November 6, 2004

Lucky 13

Since there's no field story to tell today, I'll tell another story.

I have been getting great and consistent comments for the last year or so from the guys at Lucky 13, Firestation 13 in Albany, Oregon--particularly from firefighter/paramedic Rob. He made the mistake of saying that they'd always have a pot of chili on, and that I should stop by any time I was in the area. Well, it so happened that I was doing field work in Oregon in August and early September, and that Albany is just south of Portland, where I was going to return my rental car. So, I decided to try pay the station a visit.

Simple. Except that, of course, I was running behind schedule--no fixed schedule, just running later than I wanted to be since I wanted to meet up with some friends in Portland at a reasonable hour--and I had no idea of where the firehouse was. I had e-mailed Rob the day before, saying nothing more than that I might be through that way. I didn't have a chance to check e-mail to see if he'd written back.

I hadn't eaten since the morning. It was past 4 o'clock. I grabbed some...um..fast food...and ate it mercilessly in the parking lot of a K-mart, where I called my friend Rachel up in Portland. I was loopy. Hi Rachel! I haven't eaten since this morning! (This is pretty significant--I'm a big eater.) Hi! How are you! I'm going to try to visit a firehouse! Have I told you about this? Um! So! Yeah! ...I don't know how to get there!

She suggested I try the phonebook. Rachel is smart.

So I went into the K-mart--a SuperK, probably--and asked to see their phonebook. I couldn't find phone numbers for the individual fire stations, so I wrote down all the numbers that looked like they might be able to get me somewhere close. But when I tried calling the numbers from my cell phone in the car, after hours, the first was just a recording from City Hall or somewhere saying it was after hours and the second was just a recording giving burn info. As in, whether and where fires were allowed in residential areas.

The third and last, luckily, got me a person. I don't actually know who he was or what he did or what the purpose was of the number I called, but the guy on the other end was able to tell me how to get to Lucky Station 13. And it turned out that I was already pretty close.

It only took me two tries to get there. (The first took me back onto the highway heading south, away from Portland, the way I'd come.) It was raining. Did I mention it was raining? A mostly light, northwestern rain. When I arrived, after hours, the front door was locked. But firehouses are always staffed. And one of the firefighters heard me tapping, so he came and amiably opened the door. "You must be here to see Bob," he said. "Come on in."

I hadn't even thought about the number of circumstances that had to be right in order to randomly meet up with Rob. I knew that I had to get there early enough that I had time to stop through on my way to Portland, and I knew that I had to find the place. I somehow hadn't completely thought through the part about how Rob would actually have to be there. The part about how firefighters are on a few days and then off a few days, and about how firefighters actually go out on calls and save people. Maybe because those parts of the equation were out of my control.

As it happened, I was in luck. At Lucky 13. Rob greeted me in the hallway with a big, friendly hug. And then proceeded to give me an energetic tour of the firehouse. And introduced me to the rest of the crew. The best part was getting to sit in his workplace--the back of the medic truck, where he responds as a firefighter/paramedic.

The next best part was the end of the tour, when I got to eat. There was no chili in the firehouse that day, but there was a pot of elk stew, made with elk hunted by one of the other firefighters. So over butter bread and stew Rob told me about his lovely fiance, Lisa, and their plan to potentially come on down to the Ice after an early retirement. Kudos to Rob for finding someone with an equally adventurous spirit.

I know the words I'm using are cheesy, but it was really, really neat to get to meet Rob. He is energetic, interested, enthusistic, and postitive, AND, hopefully I'll be able to see him and his fiance Lisa down here working in a season or two! How crazy.

Thanks, Rob!

[Me 'n' Rob, at Lucky 13.]

Posted by beth at November 6, 2004 2:48 AM

Comments

Posted by: rob at November 9, 2004 1:28 AM