A Right Wrong Turn

Rick heard sometime during the week that the fall colors in the North Cascades were showing well recently so we chose to do that drive yesterday. We managed to get up and out a little earlier than we usually do on Saturdays, we have a tendency to veg in front of our 'puters til noon or so.

I took my Watchtower and studied it in the car as I do. Then I started some practice crocheting. We made it to Everett in no time.

We turned east at Arlington and headed toward Darrington. Along the way we were already seeing some interesting clouds mixed in with the trees in the lower hills. The fields are all much greener than usual, due to the rainy late summer we've had.

We turned off the main drag and headed toward a river that I could see to the north on a road called Fortson Mill Rd. It wasn't long and led to an old paper mill with the dam and mill pond still flowing.

We continued on to Darrington and came to a fork in the road. We followed the sign that pointed toward the "Mountain Loop Hwy". After not too long we found ourselves on a very nicely maintained dirt highway. With the rain it was a nicely maintained mud highway. But, needless to say, it had some nice views along the way.

We continued on and finally got back on pavement. By that time Rick said he was hungry so we were looking forward to getting to Rockport and having some lunch. It was to be 10 miles from Darrington so it should be any minute.

We drove on, past tiny towns, one named Silverton, then Verlot, then another area called Robe. Where is Rockport?

We decided something was screwy but kept on. I couldn't find any of these towns on the map, it only showed Darrington, then Rockport 19 miles away. Finally ... we hit a town - Granite Falls!?!?!

That's like way south and west of where we were headed! Oh look! on the map! there's Silverton and Verlot! We turned right in Darrington and should have gone left!

So we found a Subway, ate and drove around the Everett Boeing before heading homeward. A camera-bag-research trip to Fry's and we were done.

Not the day we had planned but fun nonetheless.

Are we that old?

'Bout Time!

OK, OK ... time to get back to bloggin, I know.

My last days in Hawaii were exhausting but worth the exhaustion. The folks' place looks way better, they feel like they can keep things under control now and the place is much healthier since we all decided the debris that had been accumulating for the past 7 years was causing all kinds of problems. That is a part of the past, the debris is on its way out and will not collect again. Maintaining a yard is much easier when its cleaned up to start with, they got a fresh start now. Regular schedules of lopping, hauling and spraying will keep the place beautiful. And hopefully the dying chickens will become a thing of the past.

Since my return home I've been playing catch-up around here, after all, I was gone 3 weeks! Yardwork, checkbook, bill paying, etc. A big thing on my mind has been an ongoing feud in the family that has yet to be resolved. Hopefully just some more time will fix it. We've always been close and enjoy each others' company, we do things like rent a house and all go to Leavenworth in the winter or Ocean Shores in the summer and would hate to see that all end. And let us not forget our traditional camping trip at Lily Lake.

It's nice to be home and enjoying the early fall weather. Days have been decent and nights cool. It's been great to soak in the hot tub again. the other night Rick and I spotted 14 satellites and I saw a shooting star! Rach and I have established a new weekly soak while watching Survivor. Over the last few years we'd watch "Lost" in the hot tub but that's gone now so we had to find a replacement. This works. Rick and I may end up watching Amazing Race in the hot tub as well, although we enjoy our hot tub time to just talk, a TV show once a week is OK, no?

While I was gone Rick rounded up more firewood so we should be good for the winter. He's been bringing home scraps from work and that's all we've burned the last few times we've had a fire.

Kevin jokingly said the other day "and you thought you were done with school". Joe is in school and now get assignments that parents (and grandparents) sometimes have to help with. Well, Joe has a "Reflections" project that Shirley wanted him to do that involved taking a photo with the theme "Together we can". I came up with some ideas and we all headed to the school last evening to do some fun stuff while Joe pushed the shutter button, first we all jumped, then we made a human pyramid. It was a lot of fun.

OK, I think that about brings things up to date. Now I can start looking for a part time seasonal job. yuk