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 Tales from real life |
| Well, if they're not true, they oughta be! |
This post, like the topic of the trinket below, is slightly out of alignment with the summer solstice. But better late than never! My wife and I drove from Seattle to Portland in 2006 to attend a wedding. We'd done the drive on the I5 freeway enough to become boring, so I suggested going the 'long way around' on the way back. This meant driving east along the scenic Columbia River Gorge, turning north on highway 97 toward Yakima and Ellensburg, then returning to Seattle via I90. I convinced my wife that it was a reasonable day trip and off we went early in the morning. The Gorge is well worth the time, with numerous waterfalls and beautiful views of the river. But I also had an ulterior motive. I'd read about a full-scale replica of the Stonehenge monument that had been built on a bluff above the river by an eccentric railroad tycoon. That was what I really wanted to see. We stopped to admire the 600-foot drop at Multnomah Falls and also at several other scenic viewpoints along the river. At one spot we watched kite surfers 'catching air' in the strong winds that blow along the Gorge. I'd intended to eat lunch somewhere near the Stonehenge monument, but the remote area has no services worth mentioning. We spent some time admiring the incongruous sight of the stones standing literally in the middle of nowhere and then visited the Maryhill Museum a couple of miles away. By midafternoon, out tummies were rumbling, and we pressed on to find something to eat. It was almost an hour before we finally found a diner in Toppenish. I've rarely seen such empty country. But it did match well with the feeling in our stomachs. By the time we'd eaten, it was almost dusk, and we were still three hours away from home. It was a long, quiet ride in the dark with my exhausted and annoyed wife. Today, it's just another funny story about Dad holding up his thumb and index finger saying, "It's only this far on the map." But at the time, I was in the doghouse for a couple of days until Deb forgave me. Here's a trinket to celebrate the summer solstice:   |
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