Road Trip No. ????
They're never very long, but they're oh so therapeutic, and sometimes the sights along the way range from odd to exquisitely beautiful.
I did not expect the latter yesterday when I set out through the Selle Valley and around the Sunnyside Loop.
After all, the blue sky could be seen to the south. We had one of those quilt-like gray cloud coverings.
So, I knew my eye was going to have to be on high alert to find anything worth photographing.
When there's a will, there's a way. I found lots of odds and ends, all with a charm of their own.
And, when I drove past that Pack River mud flat on the east end of the Sunnyside Loop, I thought of the fun times we had out there this past summer when there was water covering up all that mud.
My cousin Rich, Annie and I spent some time out there in August, as did Debbie, her friend Tammy and I when I took my maiden run in my very own kayak.
Our arms got some good use on both of those excursions as our eyes continually beheld the sheer beauty of that opening into Pend Oreille Lake.
Not very pretty now.
Right now, I don't think I'd set foot out there, but the little "Pack-it-in, Pack-it-out" park next to the road allowed me to leave the car and walk on a boulder bed in between the shore and the mud.
Old stumps along shorelines always offer interesting details, so, of course, I experimented with a couple of photos.
This was a trip where flora, fauna and unusual roadside features take the lead in giving my camera something to do.
These "road trips" are serving as better escapes than ever during these times. Plus, they're fun, and I love the excitement of coming home, sitting down at the computer and seeing what I captured.
 |
We kayaked here a few times this summer. It's a lot prettier when the lake level rises in the spring. |
Twas a nice evening at Les Rogers Gym last night as both girls basketball teams earned impressive victories against their Kellogg opponents.
Fun to watch via Facebook too.
This doting mom just wishes Willie would stand somewhere else besides the corner pocket off camera so I could see him. Without crowd noise, at least, I CAN hear him.
Congratulations, Bulldogs.
If only Greg McFarland had asked me to dance rather than Karen Arndt, who was sitting right next to me--- life may have been very different.
At that time, his "oversight" may be one of the disappointing moments in life, especially after I had bought him all those boxes of Good and Plenty's from the Whatnot Shop.
Greg apparently wasn't into bribery.
It was seventh grade, and a boy-girl dance in the gym of what is now the Sandpoint Events Center.
Girls sat in bleachers on one side; boys, on the other.
Sometimes girls asked the boys, but in my overall goals, I was just looking for A BOY TO ASK ME.
Twas not fun being a wallflower.
So that wish was important back then, as we adolescents listened carefully to the words of Connie Francis as she sang "Where the Boys Are" on the radio and in the jukeboxes.
We gals were in the hunt. In my case, the "hunted" changed from time to time.
At this dance, my mother had probably just given me the lecture of how important it was to marry a rich man, so I took it to heart.
When intellectual Greg McFarland, often wearing his argyle sweater, sat across the aisle from me in seventh grade English----Esther Weaver's class, I knew I'd found pay dirt.
And, when I learned that he liked Good and Plenty's, I also had heard, probably from my dad, that the "closest thing to a man's heart was through his stomach."
So, a few of my precious nickels and dimes, probably earned from selling beer bottles and pop bottles, went over the glass counter at the candy shop in return for a box of Good and Plenty's.
When English class came on those afternoons, I handed the pink, white and black box over to Greg, secure in the knowledge that he would repay eventually.
Not to be.
It was certainly not the best candy investment I ever made, so after that dance, I moved on to another "victim" in my continued pursuit of "where the boys are."
Fortunately, a decade or so later, there were plenty of boys aka young men at the National Boy Scout Jamboree and no need for Good and Plenty's.
I think my knowledge of the outdoors may have helped lure Bill in. No regrets.
AND, many years later, Greg even bought me a glass of wine at a class reunion. We have chuckled for year about that potential romance that went awry. He has a lovely wife Melanie, and I have a wonderful husband Bill.
Still, those days way back when are filled with nostalgia. Twas definitely a "This Is Us" time in our lives.
And, I just learned this morning that one of my beloved contemporaries and the "boy" she found are celebrating their 50th anniversary today.
So, Connie's song today goes out to Ellie and Bob and to all who may have vivid memories of their own, regarding this song from 1960.
Happy Wednesday and Happy Anniversary, Bob and Ellie.
No comments:
Post a Comment