TRAVELING REDNECKS

It's hard to believe it was a week ago that Mike and I were packing up and getting ready to visit Hallie – and Nick, of course – in Seattle. "You know you're an Idaho redneck," laughed Mike, "when your suitcase is a box." It wasn't quite that bad – our suitcase was a backpack. But extra shoes and toiletries, snacks, gifts, and our projects go better in boxes.

One of my last activities before leaving for Seattle was to charge my iPod, and when I disconnected it from my laptop, it wouldn't come on. I was upset. It seemed an evil omen to me. I wanted to cancel the trip and crawl in a hole. "I love good things," I said to Mike, "but let it be mine and there will be something wrong with it." Mike tried to reassure me that I really don't have more trouble than anyone else. Well, I was disappointed because my iPod was loaded with interesting podcasts to entertain us as we traveled, and now I couldn't use it, but something told me to pack it along anyway . . .

Mike and I picked up five geocaches on the way to Seattle. One was located outside the sheriff's office in Othello. The sheriff, who had placed the cache, came out to greet us. We finished one of our audiobooks but the battery was dead in the second one. (Another disappointment -- so I prayed harder.)

"Did you have any trouble getting here?" asked Hallie when I called her from the motel room. "Oh . . . not really," I replied. "But you ran a few red lights?" was her comeback. How does she know these things? We then walked from our motel room and met her near her workplace. She showed us the "Mod Pizza Parlor" where her wedding reception will be held, and then she drove us to the West Seattle Park where the wedding ceremony will be held.

And when I mentioned my iPod, Hallie said, "I can fix it! You brought it, didn't you?" So she and Nick reset it and advised me to read the manual. (I don't like to read manuals.)

Hallie's condo is a studio with bonus room – 635 square feet, or something like that – and half the "livingroom" is devoted to the bottlecap project. So, we didn't spend a lot of time there. We ate at a family-style Chinese restaurant the first night and at a Mexican restaurant the second night. Mike introduced Nick to geocaching while Hallie and I were occupied in selecting her wedding gown.

Saturday night we said good-bye to Hallie and Nick, and we left Seattle early Sunday morning. As we approached the pass, winter came again – blowing snow, fog, and slush on the highway. It was tedious driving – not really frightening but we were glad to drive out from under it. We took the southerly route at Ellensburg and picked up three more geocaches. Near Waitsburg and again at Pomeroy we saw snow accumulation. We were home at 3:00, thinking the trip had been very successful. Mike started a fire in our little woodstove while I made an oatmeal cake. Then we took a rather reluctant Nellie for a walk. A friend had looked after her and exercised her well while we were gone. She didn't much care whether she had a walk or not. KW