Saturday, September 7, 2002 - Pine Hollow Lakeside Campground near Wamic, Oregon
I slept okay. The bed was comfortable enough, although I woke a few times in the night. Daylight came in the window, I turned on the wall heater, put on a shirt and pants, washed and combed, put on my moccasins and went outside.
Already up and around and enjoying coffee were Hoppy & Patty, on the patio of another travel trailer in a nearby site, along with Snarl & Jeanne, Evelyn from Alaska, and Randy & Sandra.
A few of us went over to Lexie's Restaurant for breakfast. I met Tina (and later Dickhaid, who were in a cabin near mine), and had a good time talking with Evelyn. The service was much better at breakfast than we'd had the night before, although the crowd was a little smaller.
Later I went to the store to get some paper towels and milk, and to pre-pay for the afternoon barbeque. While talking with Dave & Pan and Jon Morgan on the porch, Chuck drove the car over and several of us helped unload the corn so it could be prepared.
Somewhere along in here I tightened the horn on the Road King by hand, but it wasn't good enough, I knew I needed to get in there and do the job properly.
Evelyn wanted to go for a ride, so Derek #147 offered her a ride on his 86(?) FLHS. She borrowed a jacket and helmet from Pandora. Dave & Pan and I wanted to take a short ride to Washington for ABCs pictures, so when Derek and Evelyn got back, about 11:45 a.m., we headed out to Wamic Market Road, then onto some other road to U.S. Highway 197 about 32 miles to the state line. We avoided traffic in The Dalles by just a few miles. We rode across the bridge (over the Columbia River) to the Washington State sign, took pictures, and returned.
Lunch was to be served at 1:00 p.m. and we didn't get back until about 1:35 p.m., but it turned out that this was not a problem at all. I didn't even ride the bike back to the cabin, but parked near the picnic tables, took off my jacket and picked up a paper plate. Sort of a drive-in barbeque.
Many regular visitors to the campground had brought side dishes, salads and desserts to share. The campground provided the meat, and of course the Slugs provided the corn. I got some garlic bread, an ear of corn, a very good piece of steak and some brownies, which were excellent. I think I had one or two deviled eggs but when I went back for more, they were gone. I shared a table with Bob Veatch and Jon Morgan and we had a great conversation over lunch.
Afterwards I rode the bike down to Section E, where Bob did some work on his bike and let me use some tools to tighten my horn. I used some Loctite to coat the threads of the bolt so it would stay on for a while. Meanwhile, Randy was fixing a flat tire. He used a device that screwed into the spark plug hole to compress air.
[Randy suggested to others that if you get such a device, take out all the parts and be sure everything is there, and that everything fits, before packing it away in your tool kit.]
Afterwards I found a prime spot in the grass to watch Phil Boutros remove and replace a broken motor mount, which had been fetched from town. Pretty soon Chuck brought over a camping chair, and before the project was finished, there was a whole circle of chairs full of people watching. It was inspiring to watch an expert at work.
I went back to Cabin 3 to relax a little and to catch up with my notes. It was 4:10 p.m. and the band was still playing at the barbeque site, so I went back over there to listen for a while.
It was slightly windy as I walked over and found a place to sit at a table where I could hear the band but where it wasn't too loud. I had brought my maps to prepare for the next day and had a little trouble with the wind. There was still a pretty good-size crowd at the barbeque site, drinkin' and dancin' and havin' a good ol' time.
One of the local residents, a cowboy of sorts, who had arrived by all-terrain vehicle, was sitting at a picnic table with Becky & Terry, having a good time talking and enjoying the music. The conversation swung from the music to the food and eventually got around to tattoos and body piercings. I'm going to leave this part of the report for future I.R.L. ("in real life") conversations because some stories are better told around the campfire.
I walked back to Section E, where a large group was sitting around Phil's bike, almost as if worshipping at a shrine. Everyone was having a good time catching up with stories, some true.
Though I hadn't been doing much, it was about time for dinner, and Bob V. felt the same way, so we wandered up to Lexie's. Being somewhat a creature of habit, and knowing that last night's dinner was good, I requested the same thing: a salad, patty melt with Swiss cheese and no onions, and a raspberry shake. Since the restaurant wasn't very full, the service was faster, although they didn't get the "no onions" part, so I had to scrape 'em off.
Not long after we had started eating, a whole bunch of other Slugs came in, kind of like the night before, and sat at the long table in the middle of the room. Another good time was had by all, and when Bob and I had finished, he was kind enough to pick up the tab. Thanks again, Bob!
I stopped at Cabin 3 to get a little heavier shirt and my leather vest, then walked back to Section E for the campfire. I had never see a campfire created from a bag of charcoal in quite the manner that it was done that night. Very interesting.
The chairs had been moved from around Phil's bike to another area nearby, and spread around in a large oval. Precious liquids came forth and were shared around the circle, along with stories and embellishments.
This went on for some time, and except for the campfire, everything was in darkness. I went back to the cabin around 9:30 p.m., put my stuff away, took a mini-shower and went to bed.
I later heard stories of karaoke at the lounge but I can't tell those stories as I was not there.
Miles for the day = 77. Miles for the trip = 764.