Friday Mud Madness!

It doesn't look the way it felt. Note the mud IN FRONT of the rear wheels...it was tense for awhile!


I was home alone yesterday. I thought I heard them firing at the firing center, so I drove up to the side of the mountain so I could look down on the firing center to watch them fire canon or machine guns. I have done that before. My truck is a two wheel drive and I just have road tires on it. There is a spot up there that drops down on the North side of the hill. You look out and all you can see is firing center land and NSA Spy Installation and satellite dishes. It’s a tad steep in the summer, but if it’s dry it isn’t too much of a fuss.

The south side of the hill was nice and dry. I didn’t think anything of it. I got to the top and it was a bit muddy, but I did not worry, I intended to turn around. No need to negotiate that steep part. The truck was pointed slightly down hill, but seemingly stable. I got out, but could not determine if they were actually firing. It was a bit chilly. I looked at the ground…muddy. Hmmm.

I got back in and put it in reverse…whirrrrr-rrrr-rrrr…shit. The road dropped down a little and turned to the left, but rose again. Safe. So, I drove on down around the bend, assuming when I reached the top it would be dry and I would turn around and not have to worry about that steep section further on. I got to the top, but the truck tried to side-slip its ass off the road everytime I tried to turn it around. Crap. I thought, maybe my memory is off…surely, I could have taken a different way last time had I chosen, I will do that this time…

Then I realize, too late, there is no choice in the matter. Despite every attempt, I could not turn around. Ahead of me is that horrid steep drop down, at the end of which is that STEEEEEP rise. I resolved to keep my speed up, having noted that the mud had gotten to two or three inches deep!

I made a run…a tad too gently. I got to a spot about a 3rd of the way up the steep side, after having had some intense puckering moments as the rear end had flirted with mid-air, I had hesitated in my application of full throttle. My wheels spun and it begn to slip back down the hill. I did this several times, backing up for another run, concentrating on NOT being stuck up there. Each time, back and forth, the truck managed to come ever so close to the edge of the road and the possibility of ending up on firing center property without benefit of being on all four wheels(as in rolling down the hill).

I am not sure if I am impressing upon the reader the sketchiness of this thing I was doing. I should have taken a picture, but, well, I was concentrating on keeping the truck on the muddy road. It is not a wide track. It was frustratingly slippery! The mud deepened as I was there. Everytime I backed up, I would steer one direction and the truck would not oblidge in going that direction, I would tap the brakes and it would keep moving backwards, or sometimes...SIDEWAYS! It seemed the truck was acting wrong.

Finally, I noticed I seemed to have more traction on the snow drifts…not much, but it did not create the drag and suction that the mud did, still, not enough to get past the mark I had reached the first time.

Then I noticed a little bit more traction on the weeds, where large rocks sometimes lurk. I decided to aim for that. I did not let off the throttle and mud flew. The ass-end fish-tailed, but when I reached the weeds, she started to move…with agonizing slowness. Finally, I felt I needed to shift to second. For a fraction of a second I thought I might not make it. I glanced at the tach, and it was in the red…I did not dare let off the gas, I was still moving. The shift to second did the trick and the truck crawled slowly up the hill…the whole time I was willing it up the hill as much as I was driving it. I could not get stuck and need to call for help! Parish the thought! Such embarrassment! Of course, there was the thought of the swift and painful death I might suffer at Cora’s hands…Why did I agree to that life insurance?

Finally, I made it though. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins INSTEAD of blood…I resolve to buy mudders before I do that again!!!

GPS Fun And Family

My dad and I had arranged to go geocaching together for awhile today. He came and picked me up. We went up on one of the hills and began looking. We trudged through underbrush and through a stream and through underbrush and up hills and through underbrush...did I mention the underbrush? I am convinced that the wild rose vines were there just to snag parts of my anatomy. My dad came away with some scratches on his cheeks that at least he could explain away as cuts from shaving. I, on the other hand, came away with scratch NOT easily explained by shaving. One does not normally (at least to my knowledge) shave their forehead...

We still did not find it, and we should have, because it was supposed to be a 5 gallon bucket. I found it five years ago and it is still listed! It has to be there, but after a few too many close calls with thorns and slippery leaves, we surrendered.

We finally gave up. My dad had not been up in that area, and so I drove him along next to the firing center...which is where he rolled down his window and we stopped. The guys at the firing center were shooting what surely was a .50 caliber machine gun. Awesome! Have a listen, you may need to turn your sound up! Oh, and you may hve some trouble determining the difference between the machine gun fire and the wind...who knew?

Then we went and found a cache that actually existed! This one was at an altitude of 2800 feet and it had a gorgeous view!

While my dad and I were up there, though, my beloved sister ad BNL (Brother-in-Law) were busy. They had laid a series of geocaches for Cora and me. My dad headed for home and Cora and I began our trek.

At one of the points, we were looking all around a bush on the side of the road. A lady came out of a nearby house and said something. She finally came over and asked if we were on a scavenger hunt. We said, "Yes..." She told us her husband had seen some people looking suspicious and went to see what they had left in a bush..it was a bottle wrapped in tape. He thought it might be drugs and called the sheriff...who came and opened it. When he found no drugs, he kept the bottle and left. Bastard. So, we called my sis and got the appropriate coordinates from her.

Cora is always beautiful, see!??!

When we finally got to the park to look for the next one, we noticed some familiar faces. My BNL and the kids were there. We said, "Hi." and kept looking. We eventully ended up coming back to the park two more times! We criss-crossed the entire town several times. The final cache was in the back alley. They had us confused and going the wrong way a few times and we even inadvertently did two twice, thinking we had not done them yet...yeah, vengeance will be fun! It was fun, though. We had a great time. The sweets at the end and the laser pointer were great!

Cora and I went and got a couple burgers for dinner and are now relaxing, coming up with great ways to get back at them...MWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!!! Ahhhh, Sweet Revenge! I think it was our fault we got confused...some of the clues got separated from the coordinates...but the fact remains, we gotta get even...right?

It's Happening

Last night when we got home, we decided to rent a movie. We have always enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan's movies, so we thought, why not rent The Happening? Well, apparently every other person and his mother had the same idea. So, I had to settle on Iron Man. I left my number should they get a copy of The Happening in later. Sure enough, they did. So, at 9pm, I went over (two whole blocks) and got it. We were tired, so we decided to watch it this morning. It is good movie. A bit more gore than I prefer, but then again, I do like war movies, so it didn't bother me a bunch. I have liked his other movies better, but this was good.

I did notice something, however. All of M. Night Shyamalan's movies occur on the EAST COAST. I feel VERY safe living on the WEST COAST. You see it is unlikely that a bunch of weirdos build a town in the woods here, because they did that on the East Coast. It is unlikely the Aliens will want us, since they did that on the East Coast. It seems highly unlikely that any of us will See Dead People, since that also happened on the East Coast. This latest movie had some inanimate objects apparently angered by the human presence there... Seems unlucky to live on the East Coast.

This morning I got up at 8am. I was annoyed with the dog...he had somehow wormed his way into the bed and forced me to sleep on my side. There was also some sort of low pitched rumble. It was coming from the firing center. This is the Yakima Training Center, and it is my understanding that it is a sub-set to Fort Lewis.

I decided to drive up and see if I could see any action from the public side of the fence. I took the video camera and the still camera. I got audio of the explosions from up there, but I could not locate the source visually. My asumption is they were practicing their artillery artwork in the opposite valley. I did however, get a few still pictures looking back toward our own valley. I used my sunglasses to filter a few pictures. I hope you like these pictures, which show some of our local flora.

the next is looking south...