October 18, 2001
We're late. Leaving, that is. We were late leaving Florida and took a nearby lightning hit during a storm, and we're late leaving the Pacific Northwest as you'll see below.
But it's worth being late when we get visits from good friends. Bill and Carol joined us for an evening and morning when we were in Seaview, WA, and other than family, they're one of the few friends we've had from a past life who chased us down for a visit. And then another Bill joined us for breakfast as we went back through Federal Way on our way to Colville. The Bill on the right is a pretty important man in my life. We met in 1975 when he conducted a sales training seminar and I was an attendee. Our meeting then was just a taste of what the future held for the both of us. Briefly, it was largely because of Bill that I came to know Jesus in 1982, and it was because of Bill that I got a job at Weyerhaeuser after going broke with my own business in 1987. Bill was kind enough to let me become the second member of the successful Golfing Gourmet (a private club for public golfers) that Bill started and still operates. As you might guess, it was important to both Barb and I that he'd take the time from his busy schedule teaching at the University of Washington to meet us for breakfast. We were sorry that his lovely wife Maelyn wasn't able to join us. We did get to talk to her on the phone, though.
On the way to Colville, we spent a couple of nights at the Thousand Trail preserve in Leavenworth, WA. Beautiful place, and a real treat that the manager, DeWayne and his wife Joanne were able to spend some time with us explaining some of the details about our membership as well as their plans for this particular preserve.
One of the three lakes with the main lodge in the background, and our parking place. Too many trees for the satellite dish, but with the town of Leavenworth and beauty like this around us, who cared.
On the left is a picture I took from the truck while Barb was mailing some letters. Yes, that's SNOW up there on the mountains. The other shot I took was of one of the colorful Bavarian buildings in what used to be a quaint little town in the Cascade Mountains. Now's it's about 3 or 4 times the size it was when we first visited sometime in the mid-'70's.
Yup, even the "main chains" get into the spirit of things in this town. Cute, eh? Hummmmmm.
Some of the attempts to replicate the Bavarian Alps are pretty clever. That's a putting course on the left, under the waterfall I'm walking toward past the shaggy goat. And then there's the golfer (in the picture on the right, the figure on the left) with his perpetual smile. The other figure is me with a wool shirt on over my T-shirt. Complete with long pants and no sandals.
Oh, did I mention that the big fast food and slow food chains get in the act here in Leavenworth? Pretty nice, actually.
This is a pretty fancy miniature golf place. Fountains, beautifully detailed little buildings, and what appeared to be a fairly challenging course. If it hadn't been so cold, we'd have had to try either the grass putting course or this miniature golf course. The cold helped our budget!
A lot of work went into the painting on these buildings, and the "main" street reflects the distinct architecture. Mostly tourist shops, and mostly offering European type wares. No surprise there, eh? Still fun.
One last picture of a painted building, and then it's off to spend one more night before heading to Colville enjoying the fall colors. Last year at this time we were on the East Coast enjoying the colors, and this year it's the West Coast. Wonder where we'll be leaf-peeping next Autumn.
Whoa! What's that stuff on the ground? Wauconda. Who ever heard of Wauconda, WA? Oh, man, I really don't think this is going to do anything for my tan. Or the fact that the rig already needs a bath.
Good grief! The snow gets deeper, we're gaining altitude, and it's actually beginning to snow on us when, "Hello!" what's this? Cows? Can this possibly be any more fun? Are we really sure we really, really want to visit brother Ken and his wife?
Is it true? In spite of the slush are we heading down? And look at that. There's a tree with no snow on it. How'd it do that? Maybe a cow or truck or something ran into it and knocked all the snow off.
Well, we finally made it to Kettle Falls, near Colville, and that's a little pile of slush under one very dirty Road Abode. And my brother is a true Jenkins. He'll drag his lovely wife Nancy anywhere for free food. We'd invited them over for dinner, as I'd done all the driving I wanted to for that day.
Breakfast the next morning at Cookies was great, but it was Jim's barber shop that really caught my eye. Jim has managed to collect an incredible amount of fishing gear and most of it ancient. Split bamboo rods covered the ceiling, no telling how old that canoe is.
Have you ever seen anything like this? I sure never have, and I've seen some fishing stuff in my time. What surprised me as much as anything was that there was hardly anything I didn't recognize, and what didn't surprise me was the amount of gear waiting to be put someplace. Kinda like my own collection.
And that's Jim the barber. If you have any old fishing gear that you're not using, he'll take it. And on the right is the street fair in Colville. Yep, all one block of it. The hippy chick was selling her hand made handbags, the farmers wife was selling squash and pumpkins, but it was the Native American explaining how buying and wearing his solar jewelry would increase your strength that made me break stride.
And then off to Ken and Nancy's place where we enjoyed the wood stove, Cody (the dog) the newest addition to their family, and some good story telling. Ken had promised me some trout fishing, and even took us to show us some of the lakes where we'd have been able to fish if I hadn't been such a wimp about fishing with snow on the ground. In the picture on the right, just off-center to the right is a beaver den with snow on it, and a couple of ducks swimming in the foreground.
On the way back to Ken and Nancy's, somebody in a truck stopped us on the road and told Ken that he had a doghouse if he wanted it; Ken had been looking for one. So that afternoon I got roped into doing some work. That doghouse is heavy! It is built using 2X6 lumber, fully insulated and carpeted. Cody didn't appreciate the work much, but enjoyed just hanging around while we wrestled the house into its corner.
I was fishing out some plaster or something, not trying to get into the house. I spend enough time in the doghouse as it is without crawling into one. And then one of the two cats came to check it out. Cody has already been in it and expressed his approval.
And it's not enough that Cody objects to the one cat in there, the other cat has the gall to go check it out as well, while Cody just looks around for somebody to help him out.
Ah, yes. Roofing the new shop. That's one of the reasons we came to visit. As it was, the weather prevented us from doing much work. One afternoon we got a little done, but other than that we just went sightseeing with them. On the right is Douglas Falls. There is a campground there, and one of the places we might have stayed if the weather hadn't been so cold. Our furnace will drag the battery completely down in one evening at 30 degrees, and we didn't want to chance it so we stayed in a campground with full hookups instead.
Douglas Falls in the background, and where we were parked while in Colville. Douglas is a common Jenkins name. It was our dad's middle name, which he used rather than his first name. It was our oldest brothers name, as he was a Jr., it's Ken's first name, and it's my son's middle name which he uses rather than his first name as well. There's a bunch of us, including me, who use our middle name rather than our first name (it's a Jenkins' thing). Who knows why.
We spent that first night out of Colville at the Elks lodge in Hermiston, OR, and then headed to Bend following the Columbia River through the Columbia River Gorge. Beautiful country!
Mount Hood (is it? Barb thinks it's Mt. Jefferson) really looked like it was steaming, but we knew it was just the clouds. But the hot-tub here at the Bend/Sunriver Thousand Trail preserve is steaming for sure. Yeah, the sun is bright, but when I got up this morning, it was 27 degrees, and the local fellow who filled my propane tank said it was going to be 15 tomorrow morning. Like I said, we're late.