Northwest Pacific Trip 1/15/2020
I have been back from Bali since November 5th 2019, made one or two blog entries and got out of writing habit as I settled back in to Tucson routines and holiday madness which really wasn’t because missus and I were determined to keep it enjoyable low Key - mission accomplished, duties of a householder, reconnecting with friends and family and all things domestic which includes crazy wacko politics. There, I spoke the P word - don’t get me started, so I won’t, but no guarantees!
Two and a half months of homebodyness was maybe not a record, who’s counting, but here I sit at 36,000 ft. on an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle as if time at home was but a dreamscape illusion already. A lifetime of travel familiarity and routines is already propelling me across time and space, in knots not light speed, yet again, but towards a winter storms landscape that Washitonians are wishing to flee towards where I am coming from and certainly very different from Bali. I am already flying over snow covered mountains just after leaving Tucson.....
......where it will be 73 degrees today as Carol meets up with Audubon Society birders trolling the Sweetwater Wetlands for migratory birds fleeing the winter I am going towards - go figure, crazy or just lucky 🤷♂️😊!
https://www.tucsonaz.gov/water/about-sweetwater-wetlands-and-access
Since I started a blog as a way to primarily chronicle my travel experiences in Bali at the behest of several people and as a reconnection to a period long ago in the seventies when I kept a journal, I now find myself pondering about David Byrnes song “how did get here, where am I going?” going through my Talking Heads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8 and..... “what now” do I write about? I guess the answer to that will be - whatever strikes my fancy since I have no
clue beyond putting pointy finger to iPad keyboard and wading in.
Confession. I’m afraid I have succumbed to technological advancements after I halfway thought I would dial back on that never ending frontier, gather my mind back into some preconceived fold of stay “back on the farm agrarian” security that lingers from those brief periods and glimpses I was fortunate to have during my wandering and mucking about life - I bought the new iPhone 11 Pro Max with three HiDef lenses that take pretty close to professional quality pictures and more photographic options like back in the day when I delved into photography and dark room developing in earnest. I have yet to learn how to take advantage of these capabilities after a months time so that is on my list of things to learn on this trip away from home where I in fact, had plenty of time to do so but distracted by.....well, just plain being distractable. This thought has prompted me to look out the window and voila, it is a completely white landscape below so why not point and shoot to see what this baby can do!
Well, you tell me 🤷♂️ That was just point and shoot with no other input from me, doesn’t look significantly different but that’s why I have to bone up, read how to make whatever adjustments it will let me make. Perhaps a little better pixel quality if you zoom in but that also may be under my control and have to manipulate. One reason to photograph for me is to not only capture the moment but to, in a way, be “in the moment”, develope a way of honing perception and awareness, awaken the inquisitive mind. Photography means many things to many people, from who cares to the sublime - much has been written about whether it is worthy of even being an art form or just a lazy way of capturing reality but I’ll leave that broader discussion to the pundits. Ever since I learned basic dark room developement in the hobby shop available at Misawa Air Force Base in Japan as a 12 year old, thank you American tax payers for supporting the troops, I was mesmerized by that magical moment when you put a blank piece of photographic paper into a vat of intoxicating chemicals and watched a ghostly image emerge of a previous distant moment captured! There is MAGIC, brought to you by same said technology......WOW!
The pilot has just announced we have 30 minutes to our Seattle destination and once again I’m reminded of and feel the magic, there’s that word again, of being lost in writing ✍️, time flowing and evaporating effortlessly, the mind carried along in the moment of no worry no hurry, collecting thoughts as they arrive, leading to other thoughts.......seemingly no end. I just finished John Le Carres’s latest spy thriller and was lost in his world of intrigue through the written word and the same thought of the creative process, as in photography, moves me to ponder how best to put these various creative processes into a cohesive whole cloth rendering. Well now, my earlier quests into philosophy, psychology, religion, history, etc. can’t help but to surface as it has been announced - time to land and turn off all devices....
SATURDAY-TWO DAYS LATER........
Well, the pilot made a great landing, told him so, walked through down and around that crazy Seattle quilt patch of a terminal to the inter terminal train to take me to another terminal where you go up before you go down and around to shuttle buses for rental complex a mile away where there’s more up downs around - again! I’m dizzy just thinking back on it but did manage to pick up my midsize SUV Thriftys rental vehicle. However, I rented one thinking it would be all wheel or four wheel drive in expectation of driving in a snowstorm soon to be starting right after my arrival, only to find out right after I was half to the downtown ferry to Bainbridge Island that it had neither - just plain old two front wheel drive. Oh well, assume nothing, confirm what you want and expect. This trip was about to get more interesting because of this “minor” mix up.
Seattle has to have some of the worst convoluted roads and signage I have ever driven on and I’ve driven in places like Boston, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Guatemala City- you name it! I do take advantage of the great ferry system they have in the Pugent Sound area in order to avoid same said roads as much as possible, especially to avoid driving down and around the Tacoma area, where the roads are under a major redo for years, to then go north again onto the Olympic Penninsula to Port Townsend area. The ferry from downtown Seattle is only a twenty five minute drive from the airport and then only 35 minutes across for a mere $13.71 senior discount vehicle and driver - best deal going plus the ride across is peaceful and beautiful. I always get out of car and go up on deck of the multi deck ferry in order to take in the exquisite water and mountain views. Today it was really socked in, the water choppy and cold winds were blowing hard but felt invigorating and bracing, nice contrast from warmish desert sun I had just been in and I was in a great mood for driving in the blizzard projected for rest of day - maybe a little less confident without that four wheel drive I was expecting but oh well, charge ahead and handle whatever comes up! Right now no snow and thought maybe it wasn’t going to happen but just wait five minutes up here in the Northwest and weather will be completely different. And within minutes of driving off ferry so it was and possible disappointment was whisked away by the snow beginning to fall and just a few miles later blowing, swirling and almost whiteout conditions........yay 👏 🥴! By the time I got to the Hood Canal Bridge you could barely see the water and maybe only three car lengths ahead as we all started slowing - 50, 40, 25, 15 and at times 5 mph, with that hallucinating visual effect from horizontally blowing gale force snow and vague blurry tail and headlights going in and out of focus. Creeping along I came upon some number of poor souls slid sideways into a ditch buried up to the wheels in snow awaiting a tow truck or good friendly four wheeler able to help as I was preoccupied keeping myself from joining them. My confidence was starting to go into the red zone now as conditions actually began to worsen but there’s nothing left to do but forge ahead and make the best of it and enjoy bringing back any long dormant previous snow driving experience, hoping you still had it. I was now just another pearl on a necklace, a circus elephant nose to tail, an Indy racer in the loop but only going 10mph with no choice but keep from slipping into the truck or car in front of me and hoping the guy behind was equally paying attention.
Someone reading this is probably scolding me about now for taking pictures while driving but rest assured these pictures were taken in between the really heavy stuff so no problemo.......😉. Wait to you see the videos - then you can chastise me in earnest and after your scathing comments I will attempt or feign the appropriate contriteness and promise to never again do such foolishness!
Somewhere on the road which is still visible at this point and a moment to point and shoot.....disclaimer: no other vehicle were run off the road due to my actions!
Latcho
Barbro & Michael
Barbro
Two and a half months of homebodyness was maybe not a record, who’s counting, but here I sit at 36,000 ft. on an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle as if time at home was but a dreamscape illusion already. A lifetime of travel familiarity and routines is already propelling me across time and space, in knots not light speed, yet again, but towards a winter storms landscape that Washitonians are wishing to flee towards where I am coming from and certainly very different from Bali. I am already flying over snow covered mountains just after leaving Tucson.....
......where it will be 73 degrees today as Carol meets up with Audubon Society birders trolling the Sweetwater Wetlands for migratory birds fleeing the winter I am going towards - go figure, crazy or just lucky 🤷♂️😊!
https://www.tucsonaz.gov/water/about-sweetwater-wetlands-and-access
Since I started a blog as a way to primarily chronicle my travel experiences in Bali at the behest of several people and as a reconnection to a period long ago in the seventies when I kept a journal, I now find myself pondering about David Byrnes song “how did get here, where am I going?” going through my Talking Heads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8 and..... “what now” do I write about? I guess the answer to that will be - whatever strikes my fancy since I have no
clue beyond putting pointy finger to iPad keyboard and wading in.
Confession. I’m afraid I have succumbed to technological advancements after I halfway thought I would dial back on that never ending frontier, gather my mind back into some preconceived fold of stay “back on the farm agrarian” security that lingers from those brief periods and glimpses I was fortunate to have during my wandering and mucking about life - I bought the new iPhone 11 Pro Max with three HiDef lenses that take pretty close to professional quality pictures and more photographic options like back in the day when I delved into photography and dark room developing in earnest. I have yet to learn how to take advantage of these capabilities after a months time so that is on my list of things to learn on this trip away from home where I in fact, had plenty of time to do so but distracted by.....well, just plain being distractable. This thought has prompted me to look out the window and voila, it is a completely white landscape below so why not point and shoot to see what this baby can do!
Well, you tell me 🤷♂️ That was just point and shoot with no other input from me, doesn’t look significantly different but that’s why I have to bone up, read how to make whatever adjustments it will let me make. Perhaps a little better pixel quality if you zoom in but that also may be under my control and have to manipulate. One reason to photograph for me is to not only capture the moment but to, in a way, be “in the moment”, develope a way of honing perception and awareness, awaken the inquisitive mind. Photography means many things to many people, from who cares to the sublime - much has been written about whether it is worthy of even being an art form or just a lazy way of capturing reality but I’ll leave that broader discussion to the pundits. Ever since I learned basic dark room developement in the hobby shop available at Misawa Air Force Base in Japan as a 12 year old, thank you American tax payers for supporting the troops, I was mesmerized by that magical moment when you put a blank piece of photographic paper into a vat of intoxicating chemicals and watched a ghostly image emerge of a previous distant moment captured! There is MAGIC, brought to you by same said technology......WOW!
The pilot has just announced we have 30 minutes to our Seattle destination and once again I’m reminded of and feel the magic, there’s that word again, of being lost in writing ✍️, time flowing and evaporating effortlessly, the mind carried along in the moment of no worry no hurry, collecting thoughts as they arrive, leading to other thoughts.......seemingly no end. I just finished John Le Carres’s latest spy thriller and was lost in his world of intrigue through the written word and the same thought of the creative process, as in photography, moves me to ponder how best to put these various creative processes into a cohesive whole cloth rendering. Well now, my earlier quests into philosophy, psychology, religion, history, etc. can’t help but to surface as it has been announced - time to land and turn off all devices....
SATURDAY-TWO DAYS LATER........
Well, the pilot made a great landing, told him so, walked through down and around that crazy Seattle quilt patch of a terminal to the inter terminal train to take me to another terminal where you go up before you go down and around to shuttle buses for rental complex a mile away where there’s more up downs around - again! I’m dizzy just thinking back on it but did manage to pick up my midsize SUV Thriftys rental vehicle. However, I rented one thinking it would be all wheel or four wheel drive in expectation of driving in a snowstorm soon to be starting right after my arrival, only to find out right after I was half to the downtown ferry to Bainbridge Island that it had neither - just plain old two front wheel drive. Oh well, assume nothing, confirm what you want and expect. This trip was about to get more interesting because of this “minor” mix up.
Seattle has to have some of the worst convoluted roads and signage I have ever driven on and I’ve driven in places like Boston, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Guatemala City- you name it! I do take advantage of the great ferry system they have in the Pugent Sound area in order to avoid same said roads as much as possible, especially to avoid driving down and around the Tacoma area, where the roads are under a major redo for years, to then go north again onto the Olympic Penninsula to Port Townsend area. The ferry from downtown Seattle is only a twenty five minute drive from the airport and then only 35 minutes across for a mere $13.71 senior discount vehicle and driver - best deal going plus the ride across is peaceful and beautiful. I always get out of car and go up on deck of the multi deck ferry in order to take in the exquisite water and mountain views. Today it was really socked in, the water choppy and cold winds were blowing hard but felt invigorating and bracing, nice contrast from warmish desert sun I had just been in and I was in a great mood for driving in the blizzard projected for rest of day - maybe a little less confident without that four wheel drive I was expecting but oh well, charge ahead and handle whatever comes up! Right now no snow and thought maybe it wasn’t going to happen but just wait five minutes up here in the Northwest and weather will be completely different. And within minutes of driving off ferry so it was and possible disappointment was whisked away by the snow beginning to fall and just a few miles later blowing, swirling and almost whiteout conditions........yay 👏 🥴! By the time I got to the Hood Canal Bridge you could barely see the water and maybe only three car lengths ahead as we all started slowing - 50, 40, 25, 15 and at times 5 mph, with that hallucinating visual effect from horizontally blowing gale force snow and vague blurry tail and headlights going in and out of focus. Creeping along I came upon some number of poor souls slid sideways into a ditch buried up to the wheels in snow awaiting a tow truck or good friendly four wheeler able to help as I was preoccupied keeping myself from joining them. My confidence was starting to go into the red zone now as conditions actually began to worsen but there’s nothing left to do but forge ahead and make the best of it and enjoy bringing back any long dormant previous snow driving experience, hoping you still had it. I was now just another pearl on a necklace, a circus elephant nose to tail, an Indy racer in the loop but only going 10mph with no choice but keep from slipping into the truck or car in front of me and hoping the guy behind was equally paying attention.
Someone reading this is probably scolding me about now for taking pictures while driving but rest assured these pictures were taken in between the really heavy stuff so no problemo.......😉. Wait to you see the videos - then you can chastise me in earnest and after your scathing comments I will attempt or feign the appropriate contriteness and promise to never again do such foolishness!
Somewhere on the road which is still visible at this point and a moment to point and shoot.....disclaimer: no other vehicle were run off the road due to my actions!
Once I got near Chimacum where I would be staying in the hills outside town, maybe 5 miles, things had really deteriorated and ended up on roads not yet plowed, barely discernible in real white out conditions but I was able to find Egg & I Road by knowing the terrain and third tree from the right sort of flying by your short tails instinct. Something I didn’t consider was that this approach had a steep incline as it tops the ridge the Carters live on.....oopsie 😳. I plowed about half way up the hill, started sliding off not really identifiable road into a ditch, able to stop in time but now what?! No traction whatsoever so only option was to try and back down. That was a real learning process as there was ice under the snow so I had to literally inch my way stopping and starting in reverse, sliding and slithering back down about a quarter mile where I could turn around. Took about twenty minutes to accomplish that and then called Michael C. about which other of several approaches I could try and once again on the move. There was two more hills to bust but was able to charge up them and barely made into the Carters whose cars were completely buried in the snow and soon mine would be but I Arrived!
I was immediately greeted by Latcho the Wonder Dog, tail wagging as we exchanged our hellos and then inside the warm inviting house and further hugs with familiar friends, the time between our last visit seeming but a day or two as we picked up right where we left off.
Latcho
Barbro & Michael
Barbro
Well that was entertaining! Well done on your driving.
ReplyDeleteReminded me of 45 years living in WI and how glad I'm not anymore.
Thanks for your blog energy. Keep on travelin' to quote RS.