A Funny thing happened on my way to visit Joe

On Sat I went down to visit Joe at the camp.  A friend of mine Jon joined me.  Joe, Jon and I are all part of the same men’s group at a local church. 

We left at 4am from Woodinville, WA figuring that would give us enough time to get to Sheridan by 8:30 am.  Joe called us a couple times on the way to make sure we were coming.  I think he was excited we were coming to visit.  After stopping to pick up some breakfast at McDonalds in Salem, OR and then driving for what seemed like forever we were concerned we weren’t going to make it. We arrived around 8:45 am and felt good that we made it in time.  The camp starts letting people in between 8:30 and 9:00 am.  At approx 9 am or just after the doors are closed for a lock down and prisoner count.  The doors then open again around 10.

I talked to Wendy a few times before going down making sure we had all the correct info so we would be able to visit Joe.  She mentioned that we can only bring in our ID and some money for the vending machine in a zip lock bag. 

So we get out of the car with our handy little zip lock bags, money, ID and Joe’s prisoner number feeling really good about ourselves.  We walk up to the door and read the rules posted in big read letters on the door.  No tank tops, no sweats, no shorts.  Well guess what I was wearing on a beautiful summer day.  Ya, you guessed it.  Shorts.  Now what do we do.  Jon was wearing pants so he was good to go but I was screwed.  Since Joe was waiting for us we decided Jon so just go in and see Joe and I would figure out a way to get some pants.

Now the pressure was on.  It was 9:00 by this point and I had no clue where to even go to get pants.  I figured there has to be something in the huge metropolis of Sheridan, but no.  There wasn’t anything, at least as far as I could see.  I then called Wendy all frantic.  She was great and assured me that I could get to McMinnville OR in time to pick up some pants.  McMinnville is 12 miles away and I had approx 50 minutes to get there and back.  I ended up at Walmart, which is on the north side of town (Sheridan is south of McMinnville).  I must have it Sat morning rush hour in McMinnville because there was lots of traffic and of course I hit every red light along the way.  Finally arriving at Walmart at 9:30 I was a little stressed considering how long it took me to get there and only having 30 minutes to get back to the camp.  I got out of my car and ran into the store.  Quickly I found the men’s section looking for almost anything I could find. The only criteria was that they had to be cheap.  I wasn’t going to spend time looking and trying things on.  I saw a pair of khaki’s for $18. I thought that was reasonable.  I walked around a bit more and found the mother load.  Khaki’s for $9.63.  I quickly found my size but wanted to make sure they fit.  I tried them on over my shorts. I’m sure I looked funny plus I was expecting security to show up any second to take me away for shoplifting.  I ran to the self checkout and paid and then back to my car. I was in and out of the store in 5  min.  That is a record for me since I take forever to make decisions.  I was quite proud of myself to say the least   I headed back to Sheridan as fast as I could go on a 30 mile / hour road with cops everywhere.  I made it back to the camp at 9:50 and felt really good.  I pulled up to the checkin point and they informed me that they were still in lock down and wouldn’t open up again until 10:30 – 10:40.  So much for making good time on my pants buying expedition.  I drove into the town of Sheridan and parked my car and waited until 10:25.  As I pull in to the camp driveway again I see a line of cars waiting at the checkin point.  So I park and wait 5 min.  An prison guard or officer pulls up and stars walking to each car.  He gets to mine and asks if this was my first time and I said sort of but that I had been there earlier and had to leave to go get some pants.  He then says that the khaki’s I’m wearing are not allowed in visitation since they are too close to the prisoners colors.  Now I was stressed.  I’m thinking can this day get any worse. He says they may let me in but they don’t have to since those are the rules.  It turns out that khaki isn’t even close to the dark green colors the prisoners wear.

Anyway I finally made it in to visit Joe.  We had a nice visit.

Sept 12th – Joe’s Birthday –

Joe’s birthday is Sept 12th.  Please send as many cards and birthday wishes as possible.  I know he could use any support you can give. 

Also you can go to joe-lavin.com to see his book wish list.  He is reading approx 1 book a day so he’s going through them pretty fast.