I did get off early Friday. : ) Once you turn in your computer, phone and badge, there's not much to do. Saturday, Judd played Tetris will all our belongings in the U-Box. He's a wizard at stacking, knot-tying, re-arranging.(Just like in the dishwasher!) Turned out everything fit AND we got to put back empty plastic storage bins which we were willing to purge had they not fit. We delivered some left over furniture to friends, drove the U-Box an hour to U-Haul Pasco and returned to Walla Walla to put the camper back on the pick-up. We felt we had enough packing chores done to go for a picnic dinner at the local college's Shakespeare in the park production of Twelfth Night. It was a warm sunny evening for a picnic and there was popcorn, but otherwise the play was difficult to hear and follow (yes, we brought our own wine.) Our house was empty except for camping gear so we slept in the camper. Good thing we have that Pendleton wool blanket and flannel sheets. It was COLD. WW went from 94 one day to 49 the next. The blackout eye masks have already come in handy and helped us sleep in a little but they're an epic fail when it comes to blocking out the rooster crowing at 4am.
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| Totem pole at Whitman College |
It was not until Sunday morning (departure day) when, while stocking the camper, we found the error of our ways. I'd heard periodic s _ _ _ words throughout the packing/cleaning process but I knew it was bad when I heard the BIGGEST CAPITAL S_ _ _ ! word. Judd discovered the tailgate to the pick up truck in the back of the garage. This somehow did not make it to the U-Box to ship home to Maine for when we actually need a pick-up truck and not a camper. He spent the next 30 minutes on the phone with U-haul trying to get through to a local number to see if the Box was still accessible in order to add one more item. I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning toilets and the fridge wondering how much it would cost to mail a truck tailgate to Maine or how to strap it to the top of the camper and tule it through Alaska. We must be living right. The U-haul dude never called back so we just loaded up the tailgate in the camper and proceeded north. We stopped by U-Haul, Pasco and they did still have the BOX, right where we left it not 20 hours ago. We popped one plastic bin out and popped one truck tailgate in and were on our way toward a vineyard in Yakima.
We spent the afternoon listening to music and watching families play at Wilridge Vineyard. The pinot grigio grapes are still tiny on the vine--about the size of peppercorns. You can see from the pictures what the hillsides look like without water. The vines are sprinkled with a continues drip control system. A 14,000 foot, snow covered mountain looms in the background--we believe it's Mt. Rainer--seems like the wrong direction for Mt. Baker.
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| view of Yakima valley from Natches Heights |
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