More of our Harley Weekend

OK, I want to quickly recap our Saturday, as it was a very full day. We got up and had breakfast in the hotel dining area. Then we took off and got some shots of the other bikers on the way, witnessed a crash, went to the hospital, ate at a Subway / gas station in Goldendale. We continued on to Stonehenge, stopped for more pix on the way back to town, went to the bike event, then back to the motel, put on our swimsuits and went in the hot tub and pool. Then back to the room for the last of our sandwiches from Subway. Whew! A lot crammed into that one day.

The next morning we all went our own ways. Rick and I opted to go back over Chinook Pass which had just opened that week, so there would be lots of snow on the pass. But before we got there we had to find some grub. We ended up stopping in a little diner in the town of Naches . It was a very simple place with no frills, just busy, busy, busy and good service and good food. It turned out to also be a great place to people-watch. I saw 3 people in particular that just stuck out. First there was the waitress with a little too much makeup and jewelry and looked a lot like her name should have been "Flo". Then Rick spotted a real rugged lookin' cowboy type, with the leather skin and grubby clothes. The only problem was he wasn't wearing the right boots. Then a very tall thin fellow walked in who could not have been known by anything other than "Stretch". He was tall and thin and had the longest neck and head I think I've ever seen.

After breakfast we got back on the road up to Chinook Pass. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Warm and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. There was still about 5 feet of snow at the pass but it was about 70º so everyone was there in their shorts and tank tops. One family had laid a blanket down in the snow and were having a picnic. And with all that sunshine and clear skies the mountain was just stunning.

When we got to the town of Greenwater we stopped at a tavern for all the usual reasons and bumped into one of the couples from our group. We had also run into them at the diner in Naches. We were on the same wavelength I guess. We had a nice break there and from there went straight home. It was a very pleasant ride.

All in all a great first bike weekend.

Our First Harley Weekend

As I mentioned in my previous blog, that weekend was anything but mundane. Rick and I and a few of his buddies took a motorcycle trip to Toppenish in eastern Washington. It was the "spring opener", whatever that means. We met up at a couple different places, stopped at a couple taverns on the way and took about 7 hours to make a 170 mile trip.

I'm learning about the whole biking world in little bits. You stop often to warm up, rest your butt and relax the vibrating. I imagine the driver needs to rest their driving hands as well. And the best place to do that is a tavern for a quick brewski. It was interesting also to see the reaction from observers, being dressed all in the black leather, like true biker scum. I noticed everyone looking at us at intersections, on our noisy Harley and in our leather and goggles, etc. We got lots of waves and thumbs up. One old guy yelled at us that we were "lookin' good!"

The ride out was nice, the weather was good, the roads were dry. One of the bikes had a problem though, when it would crest a pass it would spew oil out the breather. Anyone behind them got sprayed with oil. So they had to stop and let it cool, then we could go again with no further problems until we had to crest another pass.

We stayed in a nice motel in town, unlike the one we stayed in in Walla Walla. But the town itself was a far cry from Walla Walla. There's really no reason ever to go to Toppenish for anything other than some event as we had. It's known as the "town of murals". There were interesting historical murals everywhere. That was interesting to look at but not enough to be a reason to visit. You could hear sirens all the time, and they weren't at the biker event.

Speaking of the event itself, we only got to go for a very short time, one evening for a couple hours only. It was interesting people watching. But we missed most of the games, parade and other events. What was left was mostly just a lot of people milling, visiting, drinking, etc. No trouble, just goofing around. One thing was kinda comical. They sold beer and had a "beer garden" which you weren't allowed to leave with your beer. But everyone who was at the event brought beer in with them and drank everywhere. Silly.

Saturday morning we all planned a ride to a nearby site, Stonehenge. It's a replica of the one over the "pond" in the UK. On the way we got the chance we were waiting for. We finally hit some 4 lane road so I got out my camera and passed our other riders and got shots of them as we passed. Then we slowed and let them pass us and took more pictures. Just a few minutes after taking those great shots I got to experience something for the first time, and on my first bike trip to boot - a bike accident. The oil spewing cycle did it again and as usual he was up front again. He pulled off and the following bike did also but too fast and it forced the guy behind him off the road and into the gravel. They were almost stopped but caught on the edge of the pavement and fell over onto the asphalt shoulder. Ouch! The EMT and police ended up coming out. She just had a bad case of road rash all up her leg (she was wearing shorts and sandals) and he broke 3 ribs. The bike survived fairly well. Turns out the driveway we were all hanging out in was the fire chief's son's place and he let the damaged bike stay there, one less hassle for them to have to deal with on that particular day. It wasn't pleasant but it could have been so much worse. We went to the hospital until we found out everything was taken care of and continued on our day.

The Stonehenge was interesting but not nearly as photographic as the surrounding area. It was overlooking the Columbia river and flanked by orchards and vineyards. Across the river were train tracks with what looked like long toy trains traveling on them. There was a town with a beautiful bridge crossing the river and Mt Hood was beyond that. A photographers' heaven.

On our way back from our trip we stopped at a few more spots for more photo opps. A burned out woods with thick greenery below gave the right amount of contrast and then a graveyard of rusted out model A's and T's was quite the sight as well. You can check out all these sights on our smugmug site by clicking on the "my pictures" link at the top left of this page.

I'll pick up the next day in my next blog, it took me almost 2 weeks to get this one done! Check back in soon!

A Blemish on our Weekend

Well, this last weekend was anything but mundane. There is so much to write about, I'll have to break it up into chunks to get it all. I think I'll start first with the lousy part. I guess there were actually 2 lousy parts but this is the one that affected me the most.

My father had one sister who died when I was a teenager. And my mother had one brother who never married nor had any children. He just passed away this weekend.

Mom emailed me that he was sick last week and it sounded pretty grim. She left Kauai Wednesday night, got into LA Thursday AM and finally got to the hospital to see Uncle Eugene about noon. He was in the ICU, he couldn't breathe. His breathing was so bad that he found it difficult to lay down, walk or talk, virtually impossible actually. So Mom got to visit him Thursday and Friday evening he went home after the doctors admitted there was nothing to be done for him and the DNR issue was resolved.

When he got home they set up the bed in the dining room facing the window so he could look out. They put a picture of Kathy's cute doggy on the wall and he got to visit with the 4 dogs that were there at the house. I'm sure that comforted him, he always loved animals and seemed to get along better with them than he did with people.

Apparently he had cancer all over and probably a blood clot on his lung. Sounds like it was a fast way to go. He was 72. He died quietly in his sleep when Mom finally left the room to go in the bathroom Saturday morning about 9AM. Kathy and Edith (my sister and 2nd cousin) got to see him right after he died, Edith had the guts to touch him and said he was still warm.

Now poor Mom has that huge job of taking care of the estate. At least she's done it before so she knows the ropes.