Day 10

Mile 2003; 12:05 PM
We bid a fond farewell to Warm Springs Bed & Breakfast (apparently, the "Warm Springs" part refers to the hot tub). Laura wandered off to church this morning, which she reports is a very nice church. Robert sat around trying to wake up.

It's hard to believe that only a week ago we were getting snowed on. Here, in the wonderful hinterlands of Wenatchee it's well on its way to reaching 80 degrees today. This is yet another nice thing about the US, or at least this part of the US.

Philosophy in Cle Elum

Outside the restaurant, there's a sign board that, after deciphering the misspellings and broken English, seems to say, "Hey! How 'bout that Constitution, huh?" We check to make SURE that this is the only place that's open and cautiously walk in.

The proprietor, an older Indian guy, greets us with, "It is a beautiful day, is it not? Of course, every day is a good day when you are right thinking!"

Apparently, right thinking involves having Christmas decorations up and playing lots of Christmas music. Or maybe right thinking means not worrying about things like calendars.

Robert had a pizza-burger, while Laura had a hot-dog burger. We wonder what we would get if we ordered a hamburger and decide that it would probably come in a hot dog bun.

Mr. Right-Thinking favors us with a few more platitudes ("Enjoy every second of your life, because you cannot be turning back the clock") before we escape back to reality.

We must be home, it's cloudy!

Mile 2143; 3:15 PM
Whew! We finally pull The Brick into its natural environment (the garage) and drag ourselves up the stairs to OUR natural environment. We've been on the road for 10 days, and boy--do our butts feel it!

It's good to be home, even though it's cloudy and cool (at least it's not snowing). We'll get to sleep in our own bed, drink our own coffee, and use full-size bars of soap. We can even recklessly use hair-dryers in the bathroom!

We read our mail one last time

Laura and Robert,

Thanks for another laughable side-car ride with you on this year's vacation! I've been on the road almost the entire time you've been gone, but it's clear that your trip was much more fun than mine.

Please send me the newsletter version of these messages (I'm assuming you're doing that again this year). I'll keep them for the laughs--and, of course, for the educational content on paleontology (in case I ever need it).

Yeah, we'll be putting together a hard-copy version of the trip reports. We'll also be putting the trip reports (with pictures!) up as a web page. We'll let everyone know once that's in place, so you can see the pictures that we took. (This year we took along two cameras, so Laura could get scenic shots of the mountains, and Robert could take pictures of the "Look Out For Artillery Shells" signs.)

I'm sure glad I wasn't along on your trip! I'm sure I would have just exploded and died from the laughter -- I mean if just reading about can cause near-terminal laughing attacks, personally witnessing the perplexities that gave rise to the laughter would have been just way too much to bear. Three thumbs up, and I think there's a market out there just waiting for your zany analyses of things cultural, which leaves political, religious and historical several subjects for other trips.

Sounds like you had a great time; given any thought to becoming tour guides?

Yeah, but we're not sure how many people would want to hear, "Oh, and that's some mountain or another over there, but check out that road sign! Is that surreal, or what? And for lunch, we'll be stopping for a heaping platter full of platitudes at the only Indian-Italian restaurant serving hamburgers this side of the Rockies!"

Bye for now!