This is a reanimation of the Vicaribus blog as lived by Miro Kazakoff and Ehren Foss in 2004 and 2005. The photos may be spotty.

Sunshine, Lollipops, and Daisies

Posted by ehren

More details that I think I've forgotten to relate:

On the way up to the springs we saw a skinny old man with a long, long gray beard coming down the path with a gigantic rainbow umbrella. Sean said "looks like you know how to do it" and he said "huh ho!" as Santa might.

The best pool of the hot springs featured a PVC pipe for temperature moderation (you could use it to bypass either the hot or cold trickles beyond the pool).

One of the bicycle shop employees from Eugene was converting his VW bus into a bicycle-racing-support wagon, heading for Utah in a few weeks. If you're a farmer, you meet farmers. If you're a nurse you probably have no trouble meeting other nurses. If you have a bus conversion -- trust us on this one -- you wouldn't believe how many vehicle/residence conversions are out there.

Sean and Rana were, in fact, hanging around in Forks, overlapping with us for at least an hour, but we just didn't see one another. They must've missed the bus going down the main drag, we didn't see their car, and nobody's voicemails made it through. Sean called finally once they had given up and found a campsite in Mora, 2 miles from the beach, and we drove to meet them.

The campground was beautiful, old growth forest on the edge of a riverway (the Sol Duc?). Miro, predictably, got to cooking a fine meal of fire-baked potatoes, steak, and asparagus, but I skipped the initial serving in order to catch my first sunset over the Pacific. Though we've been close to the ocean since early March, due to bad timing and bad weather, I'd never seen a proper sunset over the beach. I grabbed my bike and -- a hummingbird just flew into the bus...that was amazing -- rode down to Rialto Beach, where I shared the sight with around 20 other people, half locals and half travellers whose cars I'd seen at the rest stop. Huge piles of bleached driftwood backed the beach, some longs 10 feet across. The immense supply of skipping rocks kept me busy until the actual sunset, at 9:02. Oh, and on the way back I saw a bald eagle totally ruin a Salmon's day. A quarter mile farther up the river a mother duck and four ducklings were high-tailing it away from the eagle, but I have some doubt they will all live to maturity.

On Wednesday we took it easy, car camping style. Sean waterproofed equipment (using the bus roof at times), studied maps, and planned most of their route to the Arctic Circle and back. Rana went for a run, read, and fed input into Sean's route planning. I waterproofed my jacket, reworked our summer itinerary (if I remember to upload the new file, note that Seattle to Banff has shifted by a few days, and the route is a little different, and also that our visit to the ND State Fair has been extended through the 24th, meaning we'll intercept RAGBRAI late, after Minneapolis, and leave early to hit the Foss family reunion in Chicago at the end of July), split wood, and in the later afternoon Sean and I went for a walk / rock-hop along the beach. We wandered around and discussed all the important stuff -- Sean and I never communicate electronically except to set the date and time of our next adventure. Wednesday night Miro roasted a chicken, Sean cooked pasta, and we spent the rest of the night around the campfire.

Thursday (STILL SUNNY!!! Thanks for taking the rain off our hands, East Coast) we packed up camp, and left before Sean and Rana, who would take the Port Angeles ferry to Victoria. We'll hopefully meet up again with them in Squamish, just north of Vancouver, for some rock climbing -- everything is still far too wet in Washington.

At Innisfree in early December, we visited Miro's friend John, who was perpetually engaged in a battle with one of his charges, a schizophrenic man named Tom whose whole energies and intellect (fearsome when not medicated) were dedicated to manipulating John into taking him to Dairy Queen.

"John?"
"Yes, Tom?"
"Can we go to Dairy Queen?"
"Not today, Tom."
"But you said we could go."
"I didn't say we would go today."
"I feel that I have been lied to."
"I'm sorry that you feel that way Tom, perhaps we can go tomorrow."
"But I'm not sure they'll be open tomorrow. How could you break my trust?"
...etc...

For the last 9,000 miles, every time we pass a Dairy Queen whoever sees the sign first will ask the other "Can we go to Dairy Queen, Miro/Ehren?" and the answer will always be "Not today, Ehren/Miro."

UNTIL TODAY...I asked if we could go to Dairy Queen, and Miro said "Yes, today we can." so I yanked the bus into the exit lane of 101E and we had Dairy Queen and now I feel ill, but satisfied. After the meal I walked up the road to Napa autoparts and bought 2 gallons of power steering fluid (the leak has gotten much worse with warmer weather), and Miro went to Albertson's to buy foods depleted during Sean & Rayna's visit.

The rest of the sunny, sunny drive across the Olympic Penninsula was uneventful. We caught the 5:10 ferry from Kingston and amused ourselves with lots of photos of the bus on a boat, and spent about a half hour finding internet. The connection is fast, but it's one of those "sensitive guy with a guitar" nights.