Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July

After listening to the Mariners beat the Tigers (this is a treat as I have been out of the state for a while and not able to listen to Niehaus), I got the bike out of the trailer and headed out on the open road (an overused phrase I know).

I turned left out of the RV park towards the series of lakes that make up the Sun Lakes State Park. Just beyond the lakes that are the lower Grand Coulee system, is Dry Falls. I won't go in to how the falls were formed, you can look them up, or watch for the National Geographic show that discusses their formation. Very interesting.

When I left the park, I had no idea where I was going. I remember thinking this would never do for Dave. I didn't even have a map, just the general knowledge of the area. I decided to turn west for Waterville and gas. The I remembered the wonderful six miles of twisting, turning, 6% downgrade to Orondo and continued west. What a fun stretch of pavement. I rode beside another lake (Entiat) formed by another dam (Rock Island) south to Wenatchee.

Sharing e-mails with Steve after I got back to the park, he hit on one of the things that I noticed as I was riding - the smell of wet fields and orchards and dirt in the country. Every irrigation sprinkler head had its own rainbow halo. I took advantage of the sprinklers whose wayward sprays reached the two lane.

The final leg back to Ephrata and Soap Lake was uneventful, but enjoyable. I was looking forward to throwing a couple of burgers on the grill.

The park is filled to overflowing when I return. The empty spaces on either side of my RV are occupied with tents and families in preparation for the fireworks on Saturday night. A newborn announces it's presence from time to time. The malamute tied to the tent trailer hungrily eyed my burgers. They parked too near to my fire pit to be safe (to make room for three cars!) but if it burns down it's their problem. I think I'll have a fire tonight. I imagine that when they set up camp, they thought my coach had been abandoned for the weekend. I think my bike awoke the baby when I pulled in to my space. Maybe if I keep it awake this evening it will sleep all night. For some reason every guy in the park with a diesel pickup thinks he has to leave it running all the time or drive up and down all of the rows at five m.p.h. I don't get it. They aren't going anywhere, they don't leave the park. I guess it's the only way they can drink and drive.

The good news is they will have to go to work on Monday.

1 comment:

Scott said...

I didn't set fire to their tent trailer - I didn't get the chance. The park owner came by and told them to move 2 of the cars to the overflow lot and move the trailer to the center of the site. I didn't say or do anything to cause this to happen, but I got some dirty looks.