I like people and most return the compliment. Visiting my former home of 18 years brings history and friends to the fore. So many to see, such a small amount of time to spend w/ each, and keeping some for myself. For those that i missed there is next year. And for the adventurous ones, join me somewhere on the road.
On Monday i spent a parking ticket’s worth of time w/ Dennis making money plans. For the lack of a quarter it cost me a $15 parking ticket on a downtown Spokane street. Don’t send cash. I have no checks. I will pay cash b4 I leave town. Today is a rest day. I catch Bill & Jennifer early in the evening. I volunteer to let their dogs out of the house and put them in the pen after daylight.
Tuesday AM I walk up to their door and Jennifer is home sick w/ mondo cold. The dogs are under her control.
Tuesday I plan a monster Riverside ride in preparation for Bend 70 mile ride. I parked @ 7 mile and stitched a 35 mile 4 hr ride in the park w/ just a few repeated pieces of trail. I rode all but several nasty switch backs under Sharp stick in the eye trail. Good preparation. Riverside SP is a Ponderosa forest which is open and free of underbrush. Big sight lines. Trails can almost be ridden in. Part of the ride goes thru a military reservation left over from WWll training. It was also the site of a CCC camp, many of the trails were built by those guys. Few structures remain from their work. Building material was basalt. Finished the day w/ a chilled beer, a shower @ Bill & Jennifer’s, and sleep in their driveway.
Wed. Les put together an after work ride group, only he and I were the only ones. Plan is to meet up on High Drive & Bernard intersection. Trails here run across a long steep side hill made of sand left over from glacial floods 12,000 to 8,000 years ago.
B4 riding I went downtown to pay my ticket and check out Aunties bookstore. I plugged all my change into a meter and walked to Spokane City hall. Problem w/ that location was the fines are collected on Mallon st, not Post. Back to Aunties where i have store credit from selling all my old books there b4 I left town. A window display was on forest fires. Displayed was Timothy Egan’s The Big Burn about the 3 million acres fire east of here back in August 1910 mostly on the ST Joe drainage. It is still known as the big burn today. I bought it. Turns out he is giving a lecture in Spokane tonight which i will attend w/ old friend Tom.
Drove to city court to pay my fine. Mingled w/ cast of characters you find in the under belly of America, the ones that burst the bounds of social control that The Man knocks down w/ criminal fines. I was told to remove my watch for the metal detector, at least I kept my shoes on. The clerk knocked $5.00 off my fine because I had no priors. I need to be clean for 2 years to either receive the same discount or maybe assessed the discounted $5.00. I didn’t ask which one applied.
I made the ride location b4 Les was to arrive. I gave him the intersection and told him to look for my van. I hung in my van just around a bend in the road S of said intersection ready The Big Burn. At our agreed upon meeting time I rode around the bend and there was Les waiting for me. Ever an engineer, he held to the actual intersection. He wondered why i was late. We rode the trails from top to bottom and climbed back up. Skinny side hill trails. The session in Larry’s box proved successful as I rode the side cut trails like they should and not out of fear. The side slope is easily a black diamond ski run and aver the years during deep snow falls these slopes are great for yo-yo skiing down to a waiting car ride back to top.
I invited Randy to join us and act as a guide. he called back bummed out he needed to keep his nose to the work grind stone. He arived after work catching Les and I just finishing. We adjourned to 27th street Public House up on South Hill for beers and stories. Randy previously said he would invite me over for a fish dinner, feasting on fish he caught on his Alaskan fishing trip 2 weeks prior. Oh, and a shower. Good dinner and conversation.
I split back to Bill’s as today was chore day to let out the dogs. Quiet night. Just about sunup I heard rain drops on the roof and my bikes were uncovered. I pulled my merino wool poncho over my head and stepped out into the cold and sprinkles to put the cover over the bikes. Then I crawled back under the covers putting off getting up in the chill. I executed my assignment securing the dogs in their pen.
My primary health care DR wrote a script for Albuterol. I stopped @ a pharmacy I used over the years hoping to visit w/ this wonderful sweet pharmacist. She was on duty and recognized me after 2 years absence. Ah, be still my heart, she is spoken for.
Rain fell most of the day, just fine for rest, reading, and doing my wash. My damp riding clothes are hung on my clothes line at the back of my van, inside of course.
Caught up. Sat I am off to Oregon where the filling station attendants pump your fuel and there is no sales tax.