A fine night. Over breakfast, discussed with Bill the best place to visit in the area, and eventually decided we would drive the car onto the ferry and go across to the Olympic National Park, on the peninsula to the west of Seattle. Drove in to town, and went first to a camera shop I had spotted the day before, where we dropped a film off, for 1-day developing. Then to the ferry, which, we discovered, didn’t leave till 11.30, but we were able to leave the car in line and go for a stroll. (The ferry was also a little more expensive than Bill had thought… ho hum.) The journey across was quite long + pleasant, but not spectacular. On the road away from the ferry on the other side, we picked up a couple of hitch-hikers, a guy + a girl (I can’t remember their names) heading for Port Angeles. They were quite pleasant, and had just come off the Alaskan ferry, and had good things to say about that. It came as a shock to us when we arrived at another ferry, and that cost just as much, tho’ our companions sportingly paid half. It was a pathetically short journey too.
On the other side, we were bombing along to PA, when there was an explosion and a great hiss coming from the front of the car. Val, who was driving, handled it really well, and was able to stop the car quickly at the side of the road. Fortunately, it was just a blow-out (if just is the right word) – I had thought our front suspension might have gone. The guy helped a lot – in fact, did most of the wheel-changing, so that was good. We dropped them off soon after (panic?), had a spare tyre we had in the back put on (for $8 or so) then drove up in to the park. We parked at the top of Hurricane Ridge, then went for a walk for a mile or 2, then drove down. We had planned to see much more, but we discovered it was nearly 7 o’clock already, so that was the end of our trip. I was amazed at the distance we had to travel back even to the first ferry – we thought it might take hours, but by fast driving, arriving at the ferry just in time, and clever juggling with the schedules of various ferries, we were back at Bill’s by 10.30 or so – we managed to navigate our way right to his door, much to his amazement + our pride. We drank some beer, and then he suggested going to a local bar, the Skyway Tavern. It was great, with a real live C + W band, pool tables, dancing. We got quite drunk on 3 pitchers of beer, danced some, laughed + joked a good deal, then home. (Oh yes, I forgot – on the 2nd ferry, the sunset was beautiful – we sat on deck + just enjoyed ourselves.)
The car was providing its own excitement, but I am a bit confused by the wheel, and the mechanic and our hitch-hiking assistant… it doesn’t seem to make sense, but I expect I left something out.
Great to be shown the delights of an American bar, and clearly to have enjoyed it so much.
Pamela J Blair
A very distinct American bar–you wouldn’t see one with C&W music playing around here! But I think that bars are a good guide to the kind of people living in a region. Makes me remember the bar where we watched the soccer game last year.