Even more cars . . .

Click on the photos to enlarge.

It was interesting that I saw more cops (per capita of the rodders) than I saw in Sturges. It seemed really weird as the rodders are all older (our age) and there was very little showing off. They just wanna show and look at the cars!

Cars, cars, cars, oh my goodness, cars!

Don't forget, you can click on the photos to make them larger.
You can even click multiple times to make them huge.
Enjoy!

River Pilots, Hot Rods, and Civil War Fife and Drummers

Cheryl: Yesterday we said a salty goodbye to the ocean at Long Beach and turned our rig toward Fort Stevens, not too far from Astoria. And speaking of Astoria, we made a return trip there on Friday to see the Flavel (Flah-Vell) House, a striking Queen Anne in downtown Astoria and the new Film Museum next door in the old city jail.

Capt. Flavel became the first offical river pilot at the mouth of the Columbia River shortly after falling in love with Astoria and deciding to make it his home. He came to Astoria by way of a ship around the “horn,” and we wondered who takes over for the captain when he decides to jump ship and stay in Oregon. River pilots traditionally are hired to board vessels not their own to take them through treacherous waters, and the mouth of the Columbia where that mighty river meets the ocean has been dubbed “the graveyard of the Pacific.” I think the area around Cape Hatteras has that distinction on the Atlantic. We learned about “crossing the bar” and of course remembered the poem by Tennyson. A build up of sand and debris at the confluence of a river where it empties into the ocean creates a bar and the force of the two waters colliding causes treacherous sailing conditions. A river pilot trains rigorously on all aspects of “his” river and knows its “underbelly” like the proverbial “back of his hand.” This is not an occupation for the timid, shall we say! In his later years, Flavel became a successful businessman and then moved into politics in Astoria. The house he built for his family reflects his wealth in it’s hardwood floors, handsome woodwork, and indoor plumbing. It’s a spacious home any of us would find comfortable even today. The film museum highlights the hundreds of films made in the area in and around Astoria and for some reason focused in particular on the Goonies film, which we’ve never seen. Basically, the tiny museum isn’t worth the $4 admission, but we did buy a list of all the movies dating back to the 30s!

When we returned from Astoria, we found Long Beach in the midst of a 50s style cruise down the main drag! It looked like Sturgis with hot rods instead of motorcycles! Really! Frank took lots of pictures as we wandered around downtown watching the “parade” of “old cars on steroids.” By the time we dropped into bed on Friday night, dreamland arrived quickly. I almost forgot to mention that on both Friday and Saturday we noticed “bunches” of people with their folding chairs, hot coffee, and snacks set up at intervals along the highway to watch the hot rods go by! Some people actually sat in the same spot watching all day long! I’m not sure they even took “potty breaks!” It made me think of that phrase from an old tune, “a hot time in the old town tonight!”

Saturday we drove and drove and drove down narrow beach town streets crowded with people, people, people. Our quest for “smashed penny” machines for Frank’s grandchildren’s collection took us places we’d never dreamed of going! We zinged through Cannon Beach avoiding the crowds, but long enough to understand why people rave about the place, it’s lovely. We hunted down one machine at Pirate’s Cove grocery and another at the Picnic Basket store. The one in Seaside took us to the aquarium right in the middle of all the action beachfront and center where kites flew and children swung on swings out on the beach. We ate lunch at a fancy place and had a terrific view of people passing by on the “boardwalk” and gathered on a large cement “pier” outside the window. The big U.S. flag hung at half-mast in remembrance of 9-11 and the patriotic colors of the flying kites seemed a fine tribute to those whose lives were cut short that day. I’m glad we got to see that after parking the rig and walking 10 blocks to get there!

We had a sort of “frantic” search for an RV Park for the night since we don’t have Internet coverage in the truck this time. (Frank: We WILL next year!) Fortunately, Capt’n Frank magically saw a sign for Shorewood RV Park just outside Tillamuck. Wow! What a great place to stay! As Frank would comment, “Sometimes you win!” We have a lovely spot within a few steps of the ocean beach with no dune grass to trudge through! A lovely spot with Adirondack chairs sits by the sea wall where I watched the sun go splash, sizzle into the ocean last night! What a light show with the afterglow lighting up the wet sand on the beach like an iridescent painting of cream, silver, and rose, so, so otherworldly! “I’m lovin’ it,” to steal a phrase from MacDonald’s. And thinking of food, my sweet husband just clanked a skillet on the stove, so I think breakfast soon will appear.

Frank: The cars! Oh my, the cars! They were everywhere, not just in Long Beach but also in the surrounding small towns. Gorgeous street rods and hot rods (is there a difference in the two?) all over the place. Thank goodness for digital cameras as I shot about a ba-zillion photos. I’ll post ten or so.

Fort Stevens was neat. It was built during the Civil War to protect the shipping at the mouth of the Columbia River but was finished and commissioned the day after Lee surrendered. None the less it was an active protector of the river’s mouth all the way through WW2. The gun emplacements and powder storage rooms are massive. I’ll post a couple of those photos also.

Shiver me timbers, Matey, that’s all she wrote for today.
Love from Capt’n Jack, Tinker Bell, Long John Silver, and the parrot

Still in Long Beach . . .

Wednesday and Thursday Revisited

Cheryl: Forgot to tell you there is a hot rod convention in town for the weekend, so we’ve seen stunning color schemes on 40s, 50s, and 60s Fords, Chevys and others parked in town and going down the highway with us. The name of this group is the Rod Runners and there are welcome signs all over town.

Friday:
Frank: I'm sorry about how small yesterday's photos are. Don't forget that you can click on any image to make it larger. I hope today's photos are bigger.

Yesterday we drove the 16 miles over to Astoria to visit the Maritime Museum and the Astoria Column. The Maritime Museum is chock full of sailing history in general and also local Oregon sailing history. It is another of those “Let’s spend a couple of hours” that could turn into a full day museums. Perhaps we need another acronym, “ANM” for “Another Neat Museum.” The museum includes access to the Lightship Columbia so we got a two-fer for our admission cost. The duty on the lightship can only be described as horrible. The docent said it was six-weeks on, two weeks off, on a boat that was literally shaped like the bottom half of a football cut half-in-two lengthwise. It didn’t ride the waves as much as it bobbed and rolled around like a ping-pong ball. I can’t imagine being on it in one of the area’s many winter storms.

After the museum we drove up the hill to the Astoria Column. It was built in 1926 and has 164 (I counted them) steps to the top. The view is fantastic although I was gasping so hard it was hard to focus on anything farther away than the railing around the observation deck.

Those attractions pretty well took up the day so we drove back to the RV and rescued the puppies. By the way, Cheryl is right about the hot rods and street rods in town. The Rod Runners Rally doesn’t even start until Saturday and already there are dozens of beautiful rods all over the place. I expect it will be huge when they all arrive. We got the last space in this RV-Park when we checked in and the rest of the town is plastered with “no vacancy” signs. I’d love to stay a bit longer but also think it might be best to get out of here lest I go into Hot Rod overload.

Oysterville Photos

Long Beach, Oysterville, and Astoria

09-09-2010 – Thursday –
Cheryl: We’ve left the Seattle area after a well-attended memorial service for our son-in-law, Nathan. The piper my son hired was phenomenal, calling us to the service, playing Amazing Grace half-way through the service, and piping us home at the conclusion. Our son-in-law, John Gallagher, was also amazing with his rendition of Neil Young’s “Long May You Run” on guitar and harmonica with vocals. My son, Michael, led us through a thoughtful service filled with poetry, quotes, and introducing remembrances from so many of Nathan’s friends and family. When my grandson, Rowan, 11, stood up to give an impromptu talk about his Uncle Nathan, many were touched by his unexpected testimonial, including the piper. I’m very sure Nathan’s spirit watched with pleasure at seeing so many come together to honor his life and support his family. We came away from the day feeling at peace even through our tears.

Now, we have returned to “vacationland” and spent yesterday packing up the trailer to be road worthy again, and driving three hours from Kent, WA, to Long Beach, WA, where we parked the RV at our favorite spot at Anderson’s on the Beach. We got here around 3:00 p.m., and I was on the beach by 3:10 p.m. with the puppies in tow. Cleo had never seen the ocean, but seemed nonplussed by it. We played in the sand, watched the waves crash the shore, and thanked God for the reassurance that this timeless pounding of surf will continue long after we have left the planet.

Today we’re going over the four-mile bridge to the Maritime Museum in Astoria and then visiting some of the historic sites there. This morning we took another walk on the beach and watched eleven pelicans soar over the waves looking for breakfast. Last evening we drove north on the peninsula all the way to Oysterville, amazed at how large this spit of land really is. There are wonderful old Victorian houses up there and other ancient sea-worthy cottages along the bay and on the ocean front. At the very "top 'o the pennisula" we ran into the entrace to an estate and will include a picture here. Looked to us like "old money," so we decided it must have some connection to the oyster industy hereabouts.

Then, we found our way back to Long Beach and enjoyed dinner at the 42nd Street Café in a former house decorated with twinkle lights outside. We both decided, however, that after eating out quite a lot recently, we’d prefer “a potato in our own pot” instead. We both are at the stage in life where rich food may look delicious, but doesn’t satisfy or digest the way home-cooked seems to.

Pictures Along Green River Path

Hi Everybody!

I took pictures with my cell phone today, but alas I haven't been able to get them off of there yet! Here are some pictures I took with my camera the other day of an historic house right along the path where I walk the dogs. Evidently this house has been there since the late 1800s and this spot on the Green River had a grocery, and a post office. It was a popular dock to stop by when you were floating down the river. I loved the front porch with the tree limb reaching the entire length of the porch railing. In a picture from the 1890s this tree was just a little sapling. The gingerbread trim is just the same now as way back when. I'll try to get some pictures of Green River, the amazing golf course, and Russell Park tomorrow and post them.

Misty, Misty Mornings

Hello Followers,

My beloved has flown and here I sit at this historic mobile park created especially for the 1963 Seattle World's Fair. Really, I have the post card to prove it. It shows its age as I do. I graduated from high school in 1963 so I understand it's delimma. So far Circle K has been very kind to me, and I'm grateful for the grass to walk the puppies and the proximity to shopping and lovely Russel Road Park and Green River walking trail. I'm taking advantage of the area and loving exploring a new place when I'm not down in Bonney Lake with Stacie, Nathan, and the kids.

I'll take the camera with me next time I'm walking with the fancy golf course on my left and Green River flowing along on my right. Russel Road Park is also worthy of a photo with it's many baseball diamonds, huge trees, and grassy lawns. My canine companions and I love going to the park. It's fun watching the city league guys play baseball. They are a dermined bunch, and yesterday I got to see the pitcher leave the mound and tag out the guy stealing third. When was the last time you saw a pro game where that happened! These guys are truly "the boys of summer."

Miss all of you! Write soon!

Love, Cheryl and company

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig...

I'm back in Phoenix. I flew in Saturday morning. The photo shows Mt. Saint Helen out the plane's window as our pilot buzzed it. I was really surprised to see him come as close as he did.

I finished the sprinkler project on Friday. The photos show how it turned out. I expect (hope) it will hold up to cold weather much better now, especially with the heat tape installed under the insulation.

Being here at the house alone is weird. No puppies begging at my heels when I fix a snack, the house feeling empty and echo-ie as I rattle around in it.

Cheryl remains in Seattle, living in the camper, in the trailer park and helping her daughter through this dark time in her life. I will fly back up there and bring her and the puppies and the trailer back to Phoenix when things settle down.

Later,
Lonesome Frank

Chipping away at PVC

As I said yesterday, it’s now my job to replace the broken PVC pipe in the Sprinkler Valve Assembly. So today I went forth, did battle, and conquered!

The problem I faced was a straight splice connecting two ¾” pipes between the valve assembly and the old ball-valve shut-off. The splice was flush up against both the valve assembly and the ball valve so there was no way to cut the pipe and re-splice it. My only recourse was to remove the in-line splice. The good news is that Nathan had a Dremel Tool (a small hand grinder) for which I was able to buy a small rotary cutter bit. I used the bit to cut a slot lengthwise into the in-line splice without going deep enough to damage the internal pipe. Then I stuck a screwdriver into the slot and twisted it thereby causing the splice to breakaway from the pipe, or at least partially break away. It actually came away in pieces, but with careful chipping and prying it did come away.

Once I had the splice off I was able to clean up the surface of the pipe and install a new splice to which I connected the new pipe and new ball valve. I know this sounds confusing so the short version is: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” The sweetest part about this victory is that when I explained my plan to the experts at Home Despot they all assured me it would never work as PVC glue ”melts” the parts together like welding and they would never come apart in any usable fashion. Ha! So much for experts! I spit on their expertise! I’ll post a couple of photos showing the pipe stub and how I connected a new, relocated shut-off ball valve to the valve header.

Tomorrow I’ll hang the heater tape and the insulation and the job will be done.
Gee, isn’t this fun! Well I had a good time.

Later,
Fixit Frank

Waiting for Electrons

Frank: It’s Wednesday and I’m supposed to be in Phoenix but I’m not. I’m still in Seattle (Kent) Washington as SOMEHOW the air ticket I bought to Phoenix is for this coming Saturday instead of yesterday. I truly do not understand how I did that as I have purchased tickets online before and not screwed up so. Oh well, it gives me time to do some work at our daughter’s house and it lets me be here today to supervise the installation of the Comcast HDTV & Internet service. It’s about Noon:15 now and the installer is supposed to be here between 1 and 3 PM. We’ll see. (Late update: He actually showed up at Noon:45 and you are reading this complements of Comcast Internet! We’re back on line!)

Here’s a catch-up. Last Sunday we met our daughter Kimberly and her kids, Rowan (11) and Hailey (6) at a “Pioneer Farm” about 30 miles south of Seattle for an afternoon of civilization decompression. The farm has a collection of actual cabins and farm building collected from the surrounding areas. For the adults there were the histories of the families and insights of how they survived in the pre-everything world. For the kids there were dozens of neat “let’s go back in time” activities like dressing up in pioneer clothing, touching and feeding farm animals, a ride on a horse, and best of all for both a grandfather and grandson the chance to operate a blacksmith’s forge and heat red-hot and pound on and bend some horseshoes! OK. I gotta admit that I had as much fun as Rowan did, maybe more.

Sunday we took the ferry to Vashon Island and had a laid-back afternoon at Michael & Shannon’s house. We took Peanut and Cleo with us and their two daughters Daalny (6) and Aine (4) had a ball “walking” the dogs and chasing them around. In the meantime their dog, Teak, a beautiful Golden Lab sat around looking bemused at the antics of the two little yappy-dogs.

Monday and Tuesday we went over to Stacie’s house and I got a chance to make myself useful for the first time in too many days. It seemed her sprinkler system blew out a section of pipe last winter (it froze) and sent water cascading out into her back yard. A neighbor crawled under her house and found the source pipe, cut it off and capped it nicely, restoring water service to her and her kids. So yesterday I learned the joys of “crawl spaces” which are great examples of architectural humor. Believe it or not the builder built the house about 18” off the ground (OK, maybe 24”) on pilings and called the empty space a “crawl space.” HA! Can you say “Slither Space?” Anyway I was able to slither in to where the pipe was cut, reconnoiter, and decide on the parts needed to repair same. Then I slithered out and did a Home Despot parts-run. I repeated this process three times and eventually was able to replace the pipe all the way from the source connector to the sprinkler valve box. That’s when I found that the original burst pipe was actually in the sprinkler valve box. I have no problem with the neighbor who cut and capped the source pipe because it would have been next to impossible to cut out and cap the broken section in the valve box. But now it is my job to replace said burst pipe. I’ll work on that part tomorrow. I think it’s gonna be “fun.”

Cheryl: There are many reasons for our lack of attention to the blog, but the biggest one got solved today. As Frank already mentioned, we now have High-Speed Internet access at the trailer though our TV cable provider, Comcast, (giving us 998 Channels of which we’ll probably watch 12),. Other reasons include laziness, going totally crazy on the Seattle freeways, and taking long languid walks with Peanut and Cleo in the various tree-lined parks in the vicinity of Circle K Mobile. Oh, yes, and playing Gin Rummy in Bonney Lake with my daughter, Stacie.

On Monday on the way to see said daughter, we saw a sign for the Meeker Mansion, so we stopped there only to find out it’s open Wed. thru Sun. each week. Hopefully, we’ll make an official visit before Frank takes off for Phoenix. Years ago, Frank stayed a night in Meeker, Colorado, while on a m/c trip with his buddies. I think he has posted this story before, so I won’t tell it again here. At any rate, we’re just interested to find out if there is any connection between this Meeker guy in Seattle and the one in Colorado. It appears not, as the little informative sign outside the Mansion tells of Meeker’s travel on and promotion of the Oregon Trail as his primary legacy. I also found the Neely Mansion on one of my walks down by Russell Road Park and hope to get a tour one day soon.

All in all, I’m loving staying awhile in this small suburb of Seattle called
Kent. The parks here have wonderful ball parks, playing fields, trails, dog runs, picnic tables, nice people and Green River running through them. An interesting aside: there are huge sandbag berms on both sides of the river because there is dam upstream that is about to fail and has been declared not repairable according to local doomsayers. Kent also has all the things a vagabond like me needs: Laundromat, BIG K, hair salon, MacDonald’s, Starbucks, and a Farmer’s Market every Saturday in old town. We’ve hunted down each one of them with our handy dandy Garmin GPS. It has a battery and we can take it in the trailer and program it with places we need to find next as the notion hits us. I’m set. The weather up here is delightful right now with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s. SeaFair is scheduled for this weekend and the Blue Angels will have to fly in the rain and 68 degrees, but on Monday we’re back to sunny and the 70s again. Go figure.

I’m pretty sure this whole area runs on Espresso and Teriyaki chicken. There’s a coffee kiosk on every corner and a Teriyaki chicken take out behind every second coffee kiosk. Frank brought home two orders of Teriyaki chicken the other night, and we had at least 3 meals each out of it. This morning we followed “Jill Bitch” (back to her maiden name) to the local IHOP and had a terrific pancake breakfast (read here, two senior specials) at 10:00 a.m. This being retired shit is really groovy.

So long for now,
Slithery Sam, Gin Rummy Mamma and two pooped pups

More Photos . . .

Underground Seattle, 1200 Crappers Up a Steep Hill, the Smith Tower and Otis the Elevator

Cheryl: It sure seems like a very long time since Tuesday when we last blogged! Today screamed by as we signed on the dotted line for a mobile space at the Circle K Mobile Home Park, Space #10 right next to Jeff Pennington, a good guy who knows all the ins and outs of RVs. Christine, the park manager, gave me the scoop on the tenants of the small park. She’s nice and has three BIG cats! Oscar seems very big, glossy, and black until you see furry black and white Bear! The other one, who shall remain nameless, hides under the bed. One of the reasons I chose this “park” rests with this scrappy lady from Montana. I feel like she’s honest and has a good heart. She has been very helpful to us in our search for a spot to park Ali-the-Gator and about general area information. Tomorrow morning we make the big move. Frank will hang around here with me until Tuesday or so.

Cheryl and Frank: Another reason today seemed to scream past at light speed involves a tour through the Seattle underground. The underground tour shows you some of the original store fronts which are now the basements of some of the oldest buildings in Seattle’s City Center, Pioneer Square. Seattle burned down in 1889 so the city fathers decided here was their chance to solve the perennial flooding problems by raising the height of the whole city 16 feet. In doing so they moved more dirt down from the surrounding hills into the city than was excavated during the construction of the Panama Canal. The whole project took over 20 years! However, the business owners couldn’t wait 20 years to rebuild, so they built new fireproof buildings in full knowledge that the ground floors would be underground eventually. So they simply built their buildings with two ground floors, one above the other. Now the former second story floor is the ground floor! The old ground floors are on the underground tour.

An interesting side effect of building the buildings before raising the level of the land was that for a dozen years the streets were raised 16 feet above the level of the sidewalks. REALLY!!!!! To cross the streets the residents had to climb up ladders to get to street level, cross through heavy traffic and then climb down ladders on the other side to the sidewalk. We’re not making this up! This is true, we swear it!

If your mental image now is of dusty glass-fronted stores filled with antique mercantile items, then it matches what were our expectations. The actual store fronts underground are not that pristine, but the dusty brick, twisted plumbing and generations of reinforcing supports still make the tour both creepy and fascinating. Besides, the guides are excellent storytellers and funny as all get out. They kept us regaled with stories of shady ladies who called themselves seamstresses, mayors who stole the city blind yet were reelected multiple times, and business leaders who would literally do anything to make a buck. Add to that mixture the rudimentary sewer system that was fed by 3000 of Thomas Crapper’s modern sanitary toilets feeding one wooden sewer box down the hill, through the center of town and directly into the bay. The fact that reverse pressure from unexpected high tides backed the whole system up regularly, created a recipe for people being blasted off their toilet seats on a plume of poop. To avoid the back surge, and we’re not making this up, some people put their “Crappers” on pedestals as high as 15 feet above the floor. All and all we had a ball walking through these ghostly corridors from the past, and listening to a bright young man telling us incredible stories.

We topped off the day by taking Otis the elevator to the top of The Smith Tower which is just up the hill from Pioneer Square. The tower was built by Mr. Smith (of Smith-Corona Character Processors) in 1914, and at 42 floors was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River for almost 50 years. The building even included six of the new fangled Otis elevators which are still operated by real live human beings and are still smoothly powered by their original DC motors.
Well, it’s 10 o’clock at night and we’re tired, so good-night.

Drowsy Frank, nodding Cheryl, and already asleep Peanut & Cleo.

KOA Sux, Garmin Sux, Cricket Sux .....

Cheryl: It’s almost 10:00 p.m., and we’re safe and snuggled in at the KOA in Kent, Washington. The price here is outrageous, up $30 from last summer! The sign out front says UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. Well guess what, they just lost a couple of good customers. We’re here for a couple of nights because I’m looking for a RV Park with monthly rates where I can stay for a month or two. I want to be with my daughter right now as she goes though a family crisis and I can use our camper as my home base if all goes well with the RV Park search. Hopefully we’ll find a spot tomorrow and move into it on Thursday. Then after we do some sightseeing and visit with kids and grandkids, Frank will fly home to Phoenix leaving me, truck and camper here with the two puppies. He’ll use my truck back in Phoenix and fly back to pick me up . . . eventually.

We’d like to do the Seattle underground tour while Frank is still here and make more visits to kids in Carnation, Bonney Lake, and on Vashon Island. With six grandchildren among the three families, we keep very busy when we’re in town!

Today we drove here from Leavenworth over some staggeringly beautiful terrain. Of course, Leavenworth looks like an amazing Alpine Village, and the mountains around it make that idea seem very real. We gasped at the craggy snow-capped mountain next to a rushing river on our way out of town. Then we drove miles through very lush conifer forest. It was a lovely, read NOT BUMPY WITH POTHOLES, road, it seemed newly paved, and there was room to pass other cars and trucks. We love the USA!!! Ok, so Canada was amazing, but so is home. God bless America.

Frank: Our old Garmin GPS died last year so we bought a new one. It’s a Garmin “Nuvi something or other.” Naturally it was the top of the line when I bought it. We used to refer to the old Garmin as “Jill-Bitch” after she took us 10 hours and about 400 miles out of our way. Today we adopted my brother’s name for his Garmin as our name for the new unit. It’s “BIB” and stands for “Bitch in the Box”. That’s what I called her after she took us within spitting distance of a requested Walgreens Drug Store while carefully guiding us into the far left traffic lane with four lanes of rush hour traffic between us and the Walgreens over on the far right side. It all had to do with our requesting that she take us from point “A” to point “B” “via” “point C”, where the Walgreens was point “C”. It’s a new feature where you can add a “via” point to an existing stored route. What we didn’t realize that “via” doesn’t mean (to her) that we wanted to stop at the mid-point. To her it just meant we wanted to drive past the mid-point. So I guess we’ll try to get back to that Walgreens tomorrow, and do it as a direct one-stop trip. Gosh, ain’t technology grand!

While I’m complaining about Garmin, I wish they had three additional buttons on the main display. The first one would be a “Mute” button so I can shut the BIB up easily when she gets to being obnoxious about me being off course, the second would be a “Speak” button that would cause her to speak a course update, or repeat the last direction she gave, and the third button would be a “Reassurance” button that would make her reassure me that everything is OK and that we are on the right path to our destination, with words such as, “You’re OK big guy, you’re right on track and right on time, so just relax and I’ll get you there OK.”

Yeah, that’d be nice.

Oh yeah, about my Cricket 3G "go anywhere" modem. Doesn't work. No service anywhere, not even here in Seattle! Cricket Sux and I can't find a way to contact them to cancel the service! Clever! They let you buy and sign up but don't have any way to complain or cancel. Ya gotta love those marketing guys!


‘Til later,
Love, Grams, Pop Pop, and the Kissin’ Cousins Peanut and Cleo

Folsome or Leavenworth, six of one, half dozen of the other

07-26-2010 Monday 6PM

Frank: We’re in Leavenworth. Not the prison, but Leavenworth, Washington. We took the much-talked about ferry ride (ho-hum, small open ferry, short ride, and boring) and ate at the Mushroom Restaurant (totally underwhelming, terrible food, but interesting photos on the wall.) We left Lumby, followed a circuitous route, drove for what seemed forever, and finally found a spot in Castlegrub or Castledorf or some small town like that. We left Castleding this morning, crossed back into the US in Oroville, had Customs confiscate two tomatoes from our refrigerator, picked up the guns from the pub where we left them, had two terrible hamburgers and greasy fries at said pub, and found our way to Leavenworth. The roads are great, the signs are in American, the scenery is beautiful with lots of ABL’s and ABM’s so I’ll let Cheryl add some pretty words here.

Cheryl: The little town was Castlegar, a nice town I’m sure, but we were both tired and grumpy. Tonight we accidently zipped past a KOA – “missed it by that much.” - and landed in Alpineland – not so good.. Anyway, did you guess the movie from yesterday or will I have to wait until Madison gets home from Paris to get a winner for the Name that Movie game? Ok, here’s another one for you – “Ees for goat” – a Tom Hanks winner of a movie called ____________.

I saw mountain goats today on a hillside just above the highway – Mom, Pop, and several little ones! What a sight. Frank missed the whole family show, but he was trying to drive the truck and trailer around a curve at the time. To be fair he saw a deer I didn’t see out of several deer we spotted on this trip. Canada seems to have more than its share of deer who just HAVE to get to the other side of the road. Really, we must have spotted at least a dozen or more deer on our trips from the campground to town, but the biggest thrill of all was seeing a big black bear cross the road about 200 feet in front of us. Wow!

It was my first time to see a bear outside of a park or zoo and Frank’s second time to see one. The first time, Frank told me, the bear was coming toward him, and he was on his motorcycle in a long line of traffic caused by people feeding the mama bear and her two cubs. He and his buddies finally pulled into the oncoming traffic lane to get away – better to be flattened by a Greyhound than a black bear, right? Right! We enjoyed seeing all the wildlife we did, including the friendly squirrel in the campground and the big hawks perched in huge nests made of sticks on top of electric poles with parallel crossbars at the top. It made me sad, however, that I didn’t get to see a Canada MOOSE. Oh well, next time, and I intend to get my tomatoes back, too!

And now we must require you to fill in the blue form, hold up your right hand and promise to really, really love your goat.

Mr. & Mrs. Navorski and our two goats

PS You can never count on having TV in the remote places where we travel so we bring along our own DVDs of old movies. “Ees for goat” has been our favorite phrase for the last couple of days after watching __________________, everything good “Ees for goat” and everything bad “Ees not for goat.”

Answers to the last two movie quiz questions will be forthcoming, but only if you email and ask what the answers were.

Darth Vader's RV, and Nortons

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Ferry, ABL, Pioneer Home, and Politics. #1

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