Friday night we drove up and exited the vehicle into 90 degree temperatures. We began to worry that we had not gone far enough up in the hills. Later, though, clouds began moving in and we got some insane thunder storms. The lightning was literally right over us! We began to think that being ready to leave again might be a good idea if any of that lightning lit up the distressingly dry area around us. Fortunately, the few strikes that caused fires were several miles away. It was the first time any of us had ever been camping during a thunder storm. It was cool.
Saturday, we got up and threw out the bacon for smelling...yucky. Then we went for a walk. Chloe rode her bike. We went up a hill. At the top we reminded Chloe several times to use her brakes and go slow. She started rolling faster and faster and apparently forgot how to work the brakes. She kept calling out for help and kept going faster. On the bright side, she kept steering.
We looked at each other and then back at Chloe speeding away. Cora said, "You better go catch her." I said, "Hold this." and handed her my camera. I began running after my daughter to prevent imminent disaster. I took off in a run, but soon it was apparently that she continued to accelerate...how high was this damned hill? Seeing that my current speed, roughly 89% of what I was capable of, was not enough, I sped up. 100%! Still she continued to pull away. Soon, I was attaining superhero speeds.
Chloe kept steering and calling for help.
One last burst of speed saw me making progress (I'm pretty sure I was close to the sound barrier). I told her, "Daddy's right here," from six feet away and she turned her head over her shoulder to look and the bike jiggled more than it already was. She turned back to the job of steering and yelling for help. I reached out and put one hand in front of her and the other on the bicycle seat and stopped her. She looked around. I said, "Why didn't you use your brakes?"
Apparently, that was all the excuse she needed to lose her fragile calm. She broke down. Mommy caught up and held the now sobbing child.
On the way back to camp we practiced using brakes.
We went back and lounged for awhile, then after a few attempts at nap, we decided to go for a drive. We drove up the south fork of the Tieton River (That's pronounced TIE-UH-TUN). Chloe finally lost her battle with sleep, and closed her eyes. We motored on for awhile and then went home. It was quite a fun drive.
When we got back she awoke and wanted to put her feet in the water...fortunately we found a small beach on the Tieton River at camp.
Saturday night Nana and Papa dropped in and stayed the night! Papa brought fishing poles and some bait and appropriate extras. So, Sunday we went off looking for a likely place to do some fishing!
We found Clear Lake. What a beautiful place! The temperature was perfect. There were very few people in the area. Papa and Nana and Cora all commenced to helping Chloe get ready to fish. I manned the camera and just enjoyed the quiet time. It was peaceful.
Of course, too soon it was time to go, and we rushed back and broke camp. We made it home.
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