11/4/2015
The roughest weather of the trip just happened to dump buckets of water on me for the greater part of my penultimate run of stage 3. I sloshed and splashed towards the town of Monroe. The day began with plenty of sidewalk space. When that disappeared the shoulder of the road provided enough room to jump away if a car slid in my direction. The rain was subtle at first. I could have dealt with the drizzle but, when I could not see my hand in front of my face I darted towards shelter. I found myself in the town of Monroe, under the roof of a couple gas pumps. My bones knocked about under my blue plastic poncho that Crystal had saved from Niagara Falls. As luck would have it, Crystal had been parked across the street in a shopping center. The truck flew in like a plane. She blasted the heater and blasted away my discomfort.
The trailer had been left at the campground. This meant I had no dry clothes on hand. I put the irritation out of my mind and enjoyed the warmth. When Mother Nature provided me with a small window of opportunity I jumped out of the truck and never looked back. The rain fell in spurts on my route but I continued to push through. The rain accented the scent of Christmas until I hit the areas with dairy farms. The familiar aroma of cow manure mixed with rain soured my nose. That of course was the least of my troubles. The one inch shoulders, thorny berry bushes, and wet roads posed much more of a threat. Crystal stayed within three miles of me. I navigated with caution and we called the day by the town of Duval at seventeen miles.
As luck would have it, John was also in the town of Duval conducting business. He invited Crystal and me to have lunch at a close by Chinese restaurant. I had a dish with lots of eggs and vegetables. I stuffed the dish into a Chinese tortilla and topped it with a sweet and tangy plum sauce. The portions were generous and the leftovers made a great dinner. The end of the day’s run ushered in our long awaited break from the road.
The downpour continued through the night. I woke up to the sight of full grown trees floating down the river. It was Halloween and we had plans to see the sights of Seattle. A few hotels had arranged rooms for our time in the city. Of course the problem was that Crystal refused to lug our beast through the congested streets of Seattle. Again John helped us out. He asked a friend with a large piece of property if we could drop our trailer for a couple of days. The property sat on a quiet country road. A marijuana farm grew the medicinal plant nearby. At the entrance of the property a sign advertised the sale of freshly hatched eggs.
We checked into the Bellevue Comfort Inn but we didn’t have much time to lounge. I sponged and painted my face while Crystal fixed her costume. As we prepared for the show we had planned to see, Crystal informed me the tickets had been sold out. It was hard to believe since we had seen the group in a small venue in Los Angeles and it was far from sold out. As luck would have it, she had a backup plan.
We found ourselves in a place called Aston Manor. We were told it was the hottest new spot in town. The people were packed together like sardines but everyone seemed to be having a good time. We danced and chatted with many people until Crystal felt tired. We left the festivities behind in favor of a large inviting bed.
Awesome Treatment!
Crystal woke up feeling under the weather and I had made plans for us to hang out with an old friend. We used a hot bowl of Pho to make her feel better. Afterwards Crystal headed to check into our room at the Westin http://www.westinbellevuehotel.com while I was picked up and taken to a house not too far away. I walked into a home furnished with a tiki bar and man cave. All the guests were in their Seahawk apparel. The people were festive and it got even louder when the game ended and the Karaoke session began. I called Crystal to see if she felt like coming over. She arrived after a couple of songs but the party had begun to die down. Many folks mumbled something about work but of course for Crystal and me, we were on our break. We had the pleasure of enjoying several songs before heading back to our luxury room at The Westin Bellevue. I never expected we would have so many things to do on our downtime. It was great to be off my feet.
Leave a reply