Dispatches from the Basement

Position: WEST Coast Hazy

Having committed to a nomadic lifestyle, we have been land-based for the past three weeks running errands and living off the largesse of friends and family alike. After arriving at Solomons, Maryland, we placed Aleta in the care of Zahinser’s Marina for some maintenance and headed west, back to Oregon. Our goal: prepare for an epic road trip (ERT) back across the country by minivan.

First on our agenda was celebrating Tai’s emancipation from Oregon State University. Tai graduated (Magna Cum Laude) with a BS honors in Chemical Engineering. Somewhat recklessly, but on balance wisely, she has decided to join Aleta’s crew and recover from graduating.

Next was to tie off some medical ‘opportunities’, including a polyp in Mike’s colon large enough for the doctor to get excited about. Benign though it was, the brutish thing held on with a possum-like tenacity until help was called. Only then was it successfully snared and whisked away for analysis. That’s probably more information than a family blog like this needs or wants, but a couple of sighs of relief were breathed when the results came back negative. Carol, on the other hand, remains in robust health. Notwithstanding the loss of her eyeglasses. She replaced them only to find the original pair in a hiking boot at the bottom of the closet.

Chads

A couple of hanging chads on the task list included what to do with Tiger Lily, my Triumph 800XC? Lily and I went to Alaska a few years ago and she’s taught me a lot about motorcycling. Things like risk management and the simple joys of riding across vast, remote areas of the world uncaged. Tom, aka The Commodore, mentioned in the Bahamas that he still wants to ride to Patagonia (as do I). He happily agreed to house Lily for the interim. At least until when we can make that grand adventure happen.

The other chad was my Reynolds carbon fibre racing bike wheels, harvested off my road bike before I sold her. Deserving of a keen rider’s appreciation, they are now bound for the UK where they are eagerly awaited by my eldest daughter Katie’s partner Aron. Safely shipping bike wheels is tricky. They are delicate and prone to twisting in shipment. But there’s a company in Chicago that swears they can do it for a reasonable price. We are stopping in Chicago on our way east.

Hermione, our 2001 Honda Odyssey, has been getting some love in the past couple of years. She’s old enough that she needed new engine mounts and a timing belt – the pro’s did that work. Meanwhile, I tackled the light bulbs in her dash and put in a new radio while I was at it. As soon as all that was done her air conditioning compressor failed. Anticipating how steamy three people and two dogs might become as we crossed Illinois in July, we sprung for a replacement. It failed in Minnesota…

Chasing Tails

Our friends Lauren and Wade generously gave us the run of their basement for far longer than the standard guest’s three-day sell-by date. Their pretty craftsman’s house was built in the 1930’s and sits on a quarter acre lot. They’ve done lots of very attractive landscaping recently, including laying winding stone paths between flower beds and around a canopy of shady trees. Central to their garden is a 100-year-old raspberry stand that was in full production and producing two to three quarts of fruit each day. Lauren and Wade kindly agreed to babysit some of our lawn art, which, quite honestly, looks even nicer at their place than it did at ours.

Nessa and Woody, Lauren and Wade’s two long-haired Chihuahua crosses, had met our dogs, Annie and Marlon, only once before at our house. It didn’t go well. Woody and Annie are generally pretty chill, but Nessa and Marlon are both fairly highly-strung. Time moves on and dogs mature, and even become more relaxed with age. On the night before we left, all four dogs met again. This time things went much better. Marlon and Nessa exchanged a few woofs, but not enough to get Woody and Annie wound up and dragged into their territorial negotiations. By the end of the evening they were all nearly on speaking terms.

Points North

Finally, the morning arrived when we bundled what belongings we thought we might need for our nautical future, along with the bicycle wheels, into Hermione. With the dogs and Tai loaded up, we headed north. (North? Well, I had to drop Lily at Tom’s, but from there we started working our way east…)

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