So this weekend was fraught with fun. Well sorta. We did manage a 6 mile bike ride, which my butt has yet to forgive me for. I was whipping along at a pretty good pace when someone whooshed past me, the retired Pullman Police chief! Two thoughts immediately entered my head, 1) He's retired and kicking my butt on a bike...uh...loser! 2) Should I yell, "Hey Hellion!! There's a speed limit on this trail! Slow it down grandpa or I'll call the police!!" But thanks to my inner governance I kept my wheezy mouth shut. However, I was triumphant when we caught up to him at the 3 mile mark where he turned around. I rode 20 extra feet just to be able to say to myself that I beat him....ha!
We also went to see the railroad speeder cars in Potlatch. Koiboy really wanted to do the long run to Princeton...ID. So we bought tickets but could not ride until 3:30. It was 11:30. Now with a name like Potlatch, it is not a stretch to conjure images of a town that consists of a bar, post office, Harvest Foods and a city hall. So needless to say, we did not have much to do to amuse ourselves and quite frankly I can only hang around and talk train for a little while while Koiboy visited with everyone like a Walmart greeter. So I amused myself by standing for a long time by the old photos of Chinese labor camps building the railroads whispering things, like..."Geez!" or "That ain't right" Not to many people took a look and just went around wondering why I was there. It is for this reason, I believe, that you don't see to many Asians at train events. But nonetheless, I made a few people uncomfortable so mission accomplished.
So to pass time we went to "Dad's Cafe", again...I'm sure certain images creep to your mind with a name like that. The last time I was there was with a bunch of multicultural students on our way out of town. One of the student's wondered aloud if they had brown gravy, to which another promptly said, very loudly I might add, "Girl, the only brown gravy in here is us...get the hamburger!" And somewhere a dog barked and the crickets chirped, at least until we all burst out laughing, making all the other customers strangle out a nervous hee hee as well. But lunch was good and uneventful, we were even good enough to go back inside and pay for the pie the waitress forgot to put on the check.
The speeder cars are little cars, (no more than 2-4 people) that they used to use to run up and down the railways to fix problems. We got Merlin as an operator. Now these things are small and you have to wedge one ass cheek in the chair and squoosh the rest in someplace, so down the track we bumped with Merlin. He didn't talk much for an old coot. I kept looking at him wondering if he were some magical immortal carnation of THE Merlin and how he got to riding these mini steeds of steel. He had longish white hair, didn't talk much but had an mystical aura about him, all that was missing was the pointy hat and cloak. So I amused myself with different Arthurian scenarios while Koiboy got his rocks off taking photos and mini movies of the ride.
We are trying to get out and live life again instead of confining ourselves to yard and home. It's nice, but not without it's hazards. It's a crazy world out there!
While we were waiting to board the speeders, we had a few minutes to venture over to the open rail car Theee-ater and listen to some folk music. It was the typical "old folk artsy" type of 3 three person band. A concertina, fiddle and guitar. The concertina player was wearing a pair of very loose fitting tye-die shorts. He seemed like he was the leader of the band and really got into his playing and at one point he shifted in his seat as he enthusiastically concertina'd away. Lesson number one to all your folk artsy free luvin people; when enthusiastically playing the concertina in shorts...wear underwear!!
Cause, my ears may have been hearing "Appalachian Betty" .... but my eyes were seeing "Turkey in the Straw."
Waaaay too much fun for me. I'm done.
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