Suzie already blogged our Saturday adventure and she did a good job of it. I'll just touch on a bit of it here and there.
We had been talking about a little road trip to the top of Chinook Pass for a little while, and for one reason or another it never got going. The whole idea was to take Mark's family up to proudly show them part of our most beautiful scenery: The Cascade Mountains, featuring Mount Rainier. Our timing had to do with the arrival of the plethora of wild flowers that hits the summit every year. As Suz noted in her blog, we were too early. All there were to see were buds just sprouting here and there like in the picture. The weird weather we've had lately even screwed up the arrival of the "spring flowers" on top of the mountains.We opted to take them in our two cars so there was no financial burden (aka gas) on them. My car held myself, Mark and Markie. All the girls rode in Suzie's car. As much talking as me and Mark did in our car, I can only imagine how much jibber-jabber was going on in the girls' car. Our day of driving lasted a lot longer than we thought it would and we got to learn a lot about each other. It was a very good visit.
We should have just turned around after our visit at the summit (which was excellent, wildflowers or not) and gone home. Instead we opted to drive down and around and come home a different way. The episode we had in Packwood where we got separated from each other was outlined very well in Suzie's blog post, but I'll just add a little extra from my perspective. Let me just say that it was weird, frustrating, and scary. At one point they were behind us (a couple cars back) and then POOF they were gone. We immediately turned around to find them and couldn't. We backtracked, zigzagged, and even stopped a couple times to see if they would find us. Nothing. How could someone disappear like that? And why? This whole thing was compounded by having our cellphones with us--The cells that all said NO SERVICE. My mind was running all kinds of frantic scenarios. It was good to have Mark with me to collaborate with, but neither of us could figure it out. When we finally did decide to press on it was with trepidation. After all, if we drive 50 miles and finally get cell service then find out there was some sort of emergency, it would have effectively cost us 100 miles with the backtrack, and add the time involved as well. As you know, it all worked out. When we did finally get our cell service back and found out that they weren't all that far ahead of us, that's when I made my costly mistake: I decided to detour down to the Orting valley to see if I could pick up speed. That cost me $124 for going 45mph in a 35 zone. My frustration was just compounded by that. It was totally deserved though--I go 10 over almost everywhere I go and have for quite a while. I'm not mad about the $124 (okay, maybe a little), but rather, the fact that it erased my one-ticket "buffer" that the insurance companies let you slide with. Now I can't get another ticket for 3 years. Dang. I'm going to have to force myself to slow down, and that's going to be tough. Funny thing too--I had just finished my AARP online driver's safety course last week too. At least I got it finished and was able to truthfully answer "no" to whether I had any tickets.
I had a good day at home yesterday. I got the frame for our new driveway gate all put together. Well, almost. Because I put the corner joints all together with glue and screws I wanted to give them an overnight to dry thoroughly before putting the diagonal braces in. I also got some sunning in the yard worked into the day too.
Back to work this morning. Yawn.
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