. . . . barely.
I’m sitting in bed instead of a tent, because I got here much earlier than anticipated, and another reason or two. Today was going to be a wasted day, since I was told I couldn’t attempt to cross the border before 11pm, and truly wasted because, while it was a beautiful drive, there wasn’t much to waste time doing, other than just wasting it. I stayed in Moses Lake, the home of the watermelon. There were trucks selling melons everywhere, and while I briefly considered buying a few for the drive, I wasn’t interested in doing the Master Cleanse Watermelon style. . . . plus watermelon is really just a slighly more interesting way of consuming a mixture of wood fibre and water. Before leaving, and just after eating toast, corn pops, yogurt, a banana, a boiled egg and some orange juice (chunky orange juice?!?), I headed to another Walmart to get some more hot sauce. First, don’t judge me. These stores (I hate even uttering the name of this store), that aren’t killing my community, and I know they stock both the tomatoes and sauces I’m looking for. The store in Kennewick had only the one kind, and I wanted the other as well, but Kennewick clearly has a higher Hispanic population, since 1. the Hispanic food section was cleaned out, and 2. they all work at the super centre and a too lazy to restock the section. I keeed!
Sauce in hand, but taco stand sighted, I headed for it. These two ladies ate 4 plates of food, and I mean serious plates of food.
Since I had just finished the aforementioned list for breakfast not 45 minutes ago but cannot pass up that chance for some good tacos, I waived the beans and rice and went straight for the fish tacos.
After that, I hit the already very hot road. It was already over 30º at 9am. It got up to 40º at it’s highest. Anyhow, I didn’t have far to go, and lots of time to get there, but sadly, other than a dam and a fair, there was not much to do. I stopped at a lake some people were swimming in called Soap Lake, but it was super shallow, and I never made it past my knees. The was a lady quite a ways away from me up to her shoulders, but it turned out she was sitting down. The bottom was also razor sharp gravel, and my tender toots weren’t havin’ it.
Wait, what?? A fair? Yup, there was a fair. No fence, no admission. Sadly, it wasn’t going to be open until much later, so I just wandered around, and ate more food. Now it’s clear to me why I’m so fat. Food is awesome! I had a super yummy elephant ear, and a pulled Pork sandwich for desert. The ear was way better than the garbage we get at our stampede. I wasn’t as sweet, and was very thin, but also the perfect mix of chewy and crispy. The food vendors were chuffed that they were told to be operation a good 6 hours before the fair actually started. I believe I bought the first elephant ear and the second pork sandwich served. This fair was a lot more home grown that the stampede, which makes me even more excited to go to a big state fair one day.
Find the dude sleeping in this shot.
I’m tired, and I’m going to sleep now, but I should clarify the ‘barely’. After leaving the Okanagan, there is the connector highway over the top, eventually taking you to Merritt. I was so used to just driving around with the cruise on, I barrelled up the pass at 115km/h. This was to much hill climbing for the beemer, and it had enough. I shuddered to a stop within sight of the summit. I opened the door and was treated to the stench of just a generally hot car. It had vapour locked on me when I let of the cruise to roll into a pull out for fresh (now finally cooler) air and to clean out the car a little. I waited a bit, fired it up, but only made it a few hundred metres to another, but very unofficial pullout. I called RB, but I wasn’t really concerned about any real issue with the car. I didn’t really wait long enough the first time, but now I did, and was rewarded with a smooth running car. I made it to Kamloops at 9:45pm, which was roughly 7 hours earlier than expected. I showed up early at the border, and despite my asking them twice on the phone about the 72 hour thing for exporting vehicles, where they said if I was even just a couple hours early, I would be turned away. It turns out it really doesn’t matter at all. It went off without a hitch, and I was outta there in 20 minutes, and wicked early!
I decided it was early enough to see Nes and Steph, so I’m going to enjoy this bed tonight as a bonus. I pulled up to the house at 9:45, we had a few drinks on the deck, and now. . .
I’m out. Too tired to proof read. Forgive me.
It took me awhile to find the guy sleeping at the fair grounds. Kicking it George Costanza style. NICE!!