The journey (continued)

Dear Reader:

I recall I woke up very early (03:30) at my friend Mia's home in Seattle and after some struggle was able to access my own hotmail account on her computer and bring you up to date that I had arrived in Seattle. But minus my suitcase. That was Monday.

Mia gave me a lift later that morning to where my car was parked in North Seattle or more precisely at a northern suburb of Seattle. We stopped for a late breakfast and then she dropped me off at the house of Dave E. The airline contacted me in the early afternoon and said my suitcase arrived from Amsterdam and it would be delivered to me sometime before 22:00 that day. So there was nothing to do but sit and wait.

The longer I waited the more the fatigue caught up to me and finally about 17:00 I retreated to my van and slept in the back. The suitcase was delivered at 21:00. As tired as I was I had to decide what to do: sleep in my car until morning or drive on in the night. I had things I wanted to do in Seattle that concerned business and also personal items. My instinct to drive was the stronger. It was helped by the reality I felt I would make a bad impression on whoever I spoke to as my face actually felt swollen out of shape by the lack of sleep. I felt a little like a ghoul. It seemed the wiser thing to try and get home and recover and regroup and fight another day.

But after buying some gas for the car I was able to drive only as far as North Bend, about 45 miles away before I realized I was overcome with fatigue. It had continued to rain all during the day and I calculated there would be some snow at the top of the mountain pass I had to cross over and I wanted to drive over it in the daylight to help me. So I pulled off the highway at North Bend.

In the morning I had some coffee and a snack at the same McDonalds where I had met Jiri Drovak, the Czech hitchhiker in September. I also met again a woman named Leona who had told me her story in September. She had had two brain operations and her estranged husband was dying of cancer. She worked two jobs, one at McDonalds and another up the street at a supermarket called Safeway. She is one of the millions of unknown Americans who are struggling on a treadmill to nowhere because of a lack of universal health care that all other industrialized countries have.

It rained on and off driving up into the Cascade Mountains in the morning darkness. About 3 miles before the summit the snow began sticking to the pavement and then as I crossed over and started the down side, the snow gradually turned to slush and then to rain and finally by the time I passed the small town of Easton the pavement was bare. I stopped in Ellensburg to get more coffee and because I remembered they had a Safeway supermarket that sold hot soups in their deli. I had in my mind they might offer chili! After the coffee I went to Safeway and by chance spoke to a clerk behind the deli counter and asked when they put out the daily soups. With a smile she said she could do it right then and I pressed my luck, "Any chance you might have some chili?" Shortly I had a hot bowl of chili.

Fortified by some orange juice and chili I forged on to Jerrol's Bookstore up the street. When I was a student at the local university I knew Jerry Williams the founder and owner of Jerrol's Bookstore. I'd heard he'd retired many years before and turned it over to his son. I asked for his son but was told the only manager available was the daughter Michelle. We spoke briefly about the possibility for me to do a book promotion there sometime in the future. On the way out of town I stopped at the local newspaper, the Daily Record, to get a business card of the managing editor.

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I'd promised two people in September I'd stop and see them on my way back from Plzen. They lived in Yakima 35 miles south of Ellensburg. Because I had no mobile phone I couldn't contact either one to alert them to my location and had to rely on chance. I was successful with one and unsuccessful on the other.

There were broken clouds above and it was hard to tell whether the day was going to be fair or foul. The storm from the Pacific Ocean which had dropped record amounts of rain on Seattle and caused some flooding was gone but strong winds were supposed to move back in and also the dropping temperatures along with the wind. After Yakima I was back on the road to Kennewick by 13:30. I could see on moving up from the southern horizon a mass of dark clouds that promised rain and, if cold enough, snow. About 15 miles from Kennewick it started to rain lightly and then as I crested a plateau to drive down into the open space between Kennewick and Richland which is actually the Yakima River delta, I saw about 10 miles away in the eastern half of the sky a rainbow! I hoped it was a good sign. What could be better when you've reached the end of a journey than a rainbow over your port of call?

I slept that night in the bed of the room I rent from Gerry Kerby. I was happy to see his familiar face and good humor. Before that I'd stopped at my mother's place so she'd know I arrived safely. I cannot ever recall being so tired. I was too tired to even unpack my suitcase. But not too tired to enjoy a couple of glasses of red wine. I woke much too early this morning again, 03:30, which meant my body clock has not yet adjusted. There is no snow here on the ground and I have not seen any snow on the ground since Ellensburg 110 miles away.

But I know from the TV that winter weather has been brutal to the Eastern part of the United States all the way south to Florida where some cities had temperatures as low as 25. So I assume it is only a short period away before snow and the bitter weather returns here.

Not to be overlooked was the important fact my car ran fine from Seattle, the motor sounding good and responding effortlessly to any hills in the mountains - and the heating system also felt strong. The car is still an unknown to me and I feel I am just getting to know whether it is reliable or not. But a friend when I showed him my car pointed out to me the license tab expired in September and I must replace it before the police spot me. So all the way from Yakima I was watching in my rear view mirror for a police car.

My best,
Roger

P.S. As I look out the window of my room I see patches of blue sky and white clouds. So it's doubtful there will be any snow today.