My daughter had a camping event at a small private school campus in Spangle, WA this weekend. I volunteered to drive her there and took the middle seat out so I could sleep in the 80 and tossed in the road bike. While she did her things, I rode around this pure and undeveloped farming county for two days. I'd forgotten what it was like to see 2 cars an hour, have to pull off to let a massive farm machine squeeze by, and have my nostrils filled with growing crops for hours at a time.
At day's end, she opted to sleep with me after noting the roomy(6ft+) cargo area, the rear sliding windows for cross ventilation, the reading lamps, and how quiet it was compared to the rabble of kids out in the dark tents running and yellling. The fan with the rubber blades was the kicker and she begged her way in with grinning Daddy. As soon as we each got settled with our books and such, I pulled out a bag of Cheeto's - her all time favorite snack - which I'd been hiding against precisely this scenario. We quietly chomped and read for an hour with a gentle breeze.
What made it extra special and truly a memorable experience was making a wrong turn as the sun was settingon the evening I arrived and stopping to talk to a farmer. He was on his tractor in the field and saw me stop my bike, so he shut the machine down and we chatted. From 50 yards apart. Yep, it was that quiet. Topping this, the next day we left and my daughter asked me to take "the back way home" staying off interstates (chip off the block, to be sure) so we wandered around back roads for 40 miles (1/3 of the way home) before stopping in the nearest town for a late lunch. There were about 15 businesses in a block long row, then....nothing but fields again. A sign let us know there was en estate auction in town so we delayed food to go into a 150 year old wooden building to look things over. Felt genuine to be looking at cast iron kids toys, boxes of quality books and such. Clearly the deceased owner was a man of varied quality interests.
At the diner, we were the only customers on a sleepy spring Sunday and the cook was out front in stockinged feet planning to close in 15 minutes. We ordered a 2 egg breafast with hash browns and toast, plus a banana milkshake to split. An older couple came in and asked if they could also order an subsequently did. After they were sitting for a minute I asked the guy why he looked familiar and then suddenly was quite sure he was the farmer on the tractor. Yep, and he was also amused that we'd meet again so far away.
I pointed at a photo on the wall showing the diner's former life as a bank with vaulted cielings an asked if he remembered it. Yep, he said he'd lived there 69 years and used to patronize the bank. In fact the teller in the picture was the president of the bank and that's who's estate sale we'd attended. You could hear a pin drop... It was all so surreal for these coincidences to keep coming on.
Anyway, that's the stuff bikes and LandCruisers bring our way and I for one am a better person for it.
DougM
At day's end, she opted to sleep with me after noting the roomy(6ft+) cargo area, the rear sliding windows for cross ventilation, the reading lamps, and how quiet it was compared to the rabble of kids out in the dark tents running and yellling. The fan with the rubber blades was the kicker and she begged her way in with grinning Daddy. As soon as we each got settled with our books and such, I pulled out a bag of Cheeto's - her all time favorite snack - which I'd been hiding against precisely this scenario. We quietly chomped and read for an hour with a gentle breeze.
What made it extra special and truly a memorable experience was making a wrong turn as the sun was settingon the evening I arrived and stopping to talk to a farmer. He was on his tractor in the field and saw me stop my bike, so he shut the machine down and we chatted. From 50 yards apart. Yep, it was that quiet. Topping this, the next day we left and my daughter asked me to take "the back way home" staying off interstates (chip off the block, to be sure) so we wandered around back roads for 40 miles (1/3 of the way home) before stopping in the nearest town for a late lunch. There were about 15 businesses in a block long row, then....nothing but fields again. A sign let us know there was en estate auction in town so we delayed food to go into a 150 year old wooden building to look things over. Felt genuine to be looking at cast iron kids toys, boxes of quality books and such. Clearly the deceased owner was a man of varied quality interests.
At the diner, we were the only customers on a sleepy spring Sunday and the cook was out front in stockinged feet planning to close in 15 minutes. We ordered a 2 egg breafast with hash browns and toast, plus a banana milkshake to split. An older couple came in and asked if they could also order an subsequently did. After they were sitting for a minute I asked the guy why he looked familiar and then suddenly was quite sure he was the farmer on the tractor. Yep, and he was also amused that we'd meet again so far away.
I pointed at a photo on the wall showing the diner's former life as a bank with vaulted cielings an asked if he remembered it. Yep, he said he'd lived there 69 years and used to patronize the bank. In fact the teller in the picture was the president of the bank and that's who's estate sale we'd attended. You could hear a pin drop... It was all so surreal for these coincidences to keep coming on.
Anyway, that's the stuff bikes and LandCruisers bring our way and I for one am a better person for it.
DougM
