Posts published in March 2016

Met Chuck at Klamath Falls airport per plan. We walked to Denny’s, had dinner, then went over to the yards. Arrived about midnight. Slept there for a few hours and then got 173 out at daybreak. We had the only open boxcar on the train. Each of us slept for several hours as we headed toward Bend. The train stopped for only a minute in Bend then headed toward Maupin and the Deschutes river valley. Nice ride – beautiful day. Saw a coyote and a number of deer along the way. Arrived at the Columbia River about 6 PM. We walked through a long dark tunnel and then to the bridge. As we crossed there was a strong wind blowing up river. We had dinner in the Wishram Lunch room; four beers in the bar then slept that night along the tracks.

We’ve had quite a series of storms this past week and the rain is continuing to fall. Several huge branches came down from the giant redwoods near our house, and we are fortunate none of those branches struck home. We’ve had two power outages, one lasting an hour, another five hours. In the absence of electricity to power our kitchen stove, we cooked an evening meal on our woodstove, and with our computers and lights kaput, I wrote a few letters by candlelight and Marcia practiced her cello.

When I was a boy of 10, I got into a fight with a French kid on a playground in Paris. It started over a line dispute at a playground installation. See, France, at least…