Simple pleasures

Life can get real simple on the road.  Yesterday and today we focus on the very basics.  I am writing this entry early Friday morning.  We have spent two nights in Sultan, WA.  It's a one stoplight town, which for us means it's pretty big.  We are at the Dutch Cap, the only lodging in town.  It has a clientele of environmental consultants and the like.  It is the greenest place we have stayed at:  fair trade organic coffee, recycling bins in the rooms, everything printed on "100% post-consumer hydrogen peroxide -beached white copy paper."  Flowers everywhere.  Logging was big here in the past, they say this tree was 1000 years old:

Some of the simple pleasures in no particular order:

Seeing the truck on the lift at the repair place made us happy knowing that the red bomb will be fixed!

I took a walk down to the river (in the rain) and saw some graffiti under the bridge and a real pretty green plant (haven't bothered Daniel to ID it.)  Looked like kids hung out there and drank around a fire.

Last night we did laundry and after the heat wave we drove through in the plains (no AC!) we really needed it.  Everything stunk.

Here is the barn that was next to the laundromat.  Pretty.

We watched a couple of old movies on demand in the room.  Both Westerns to keep the vibe going.  One was "Comes a Horseman" with Jane Fonda and James Caan.  And "Cheyenne Autumn" by John Ford.  So you can see we have been lazy.  Napping too.

No numbers from yesterday.  Daniel calls each specimen a "number" since each one has its own number.  A good day is 25 numbers.  A day like day before yesterday with 50 numbers is great.  A day like yesterday with 0 is a recovery day.  I get anxious that the averages will go down.  Don't know why, it's not my job.  But I am a type A botanists assistant and I am always pushing for us to get more and stop at more places.  So far we have collected over 1500 numbers from all our trips combined, including Texas  and upstate NY.

We have been following the weather back east and some of the news.  For those of you in New York, we see you will have a heat index of 120 today.  Been there, and done that.  We feel for you.  Drink gallons of water.  And don't collect wildflowers in the mid-day heat.  Just to make you jealous, I just paused to put a cashmere sweater over my Chili's.

And for my fellow rowers at NYRA -- I read about the disaster at the sewage treatment plant.  How awful, especially in this weather.  I saw the warnings in the Times to stay away from the water.  What a bummer. And the emails that rowing is cancelled.  So do laundry!  Go to the movies!

When the truck is done at noon (we hope)  we head to Glacier National Park in Montana.  I think I already mentioned we are taking a northern route home.  Route 2 goes halfway across the country.  Glacier should be interesting.  It can be 90 degrees and snow in the same day.  I have read up on what to do if confronted with a bear.  Stay away from them (duh).  Don't act like prey.  If confronted, try to appear large.  Don't make eye contact.  If they come real close go face down on the ground with your hands clasped behind your head to protect your neck and face.  And if for some reason they attack you when you are standing, fight back.  Yeah, like that will work.  Oh and a tree offers some protection but no guarantees.  I saw a nature show once where this couple encountered bears on a trail and the bears ate their faces off.  Really.  And the woman saved herself by flicking the bear on the nose while it was ripping her face off.  I hope I don't have to try that one.  You all know how vain I am.