We left Issaquah last evening around 7pm. It was a hectic day, the 5th in a row of a very hectic week.
Alex arrived last Monday night from Philly. We found each other easily at Sea-Tac, just before midnight. Prior to that, Eric, Tina and I worked on the dry food pack for about 4 hours. Working as a 3 person team we quickly developed an efficient rhythm - Tina handling menu paperwork, Eric running and assembling ingredients into dinner-sets, and me strategically packing each set into RocketBoxes. It's always great working with Tina and Eric. We seem to know how to communicate and solve problems together with limited friction or ego. Maybe that's just a byproduct of mutual respect?
With Alex now in Seattle, Tuesday became our first "personal gear day" - complete with a serious buying spree for Sleeping Bag, Wet Suit, Ammo Cans, Fleece, and assorted other items especially for our upcoming lifestyle on the Colorado. No doubt I spent too much - but the constant problem of GC gear buying is the recurring reminder of "what's it really cost if you don't have it and you really need it".
Wednesday was a harder push, as I could feel the hours ticking away. My target was for us to hit the road around 1pm Friday. But, as I sipped my morning coffee and ran thru the master punch-list of jobs, it was clear there were too many hours of work being squeezed into too few hours of available time.
We started with small chores than moved to the 1st serious ice run at the Issaquah Safeway. We completely warped the store staff and customers as we marched in with our 178 qt. cooler and started loading-up with more block and dry ice that they'd ever seen. We quickly built-out 2 freezer coolers in the parking lot, then raced to PCC to see if the handshake agreement with the store manager would really stand and he'd let us store one of our coolers in his walk-in freezer for 24 hours. We carted the heavy cooler right thru the front door and tried to act like we knew exactly what we were doing. As we found the manager it became obvious that he had a hundred more important things on his mind. Two river rats with a fully iced 178 qt cooler were just a distraction to his focus. To his credit, he was nice. After a minute and my positive but direct comments to remind him of our deal, he told us to find Todd in Dairy and tell him to give us whatever we needed. Cool!
Todd was great - very helpful and very understanding of what we were trying to do. Plus, I gently reminded him we had already paid for a huge order (12 cases) of yogurt and were planning on coming back tomorrow for a similar sized purchase of fresh produce. With the cooler safely stashed in the walk-in freezer and the arrangements made for our order pick-up in 24 hours, we left PCC as satisfied customers - appreciative of how easy and friendly good business can be conducted. I was pleased at how smoothly phase 1 had worked. I just love when a plan comes together!
As we hopped back into my F-150 and worked our way across parking lots to Costco, I was reminded of two old sayings:
1) How do you eat an elephant? Split it into pieces and eat one piece at a time.
2) Plan your work and work your plan.
Plain, simple wisdom...
Costco was a huge volume Dairy and Bread run for group food. About 8 2-lb blocks of cheese, 4 more 2-lb packs of sliced cheese, Packets of Pita, Loaves of bread, some mini-bagels, and some personal snack items like Beef Jerky.
Once back home we fired-up the vacuum-sealer and Alex and I started a vacuum pack assembly line of repackaging, sealing and freezing. Within an hour my freezer was near bursting with group food.
Next was a run to Tina & Eric's for the frozen food pick-up. We prepared two coolers with more block and dry ice. It's about a 1 hour drive, so by 3:30 or so we had a 3 person team of Tina, Alex and I loading 21 dinners worth of frozen food into 2 dinner coolers. We worked efficiently and the job was completed by 4. No time to linger, we se the F-150 back on-course for Issaquah. Along the way we stopped for even more ice. I was surprised to find that in Duvall, the Dry Ice freezer unit is locked, so to purchase dry ice you need to see a store manager. I guess they have a big problem of people stealing dry ice in Duvall?
We were only back at my house (now every bit "Group Food Central") for a few minutes, just long enough to properly mark and load the 14 or so RocketBoxes packed with dinner. Once loaded, it was back to being truck drivers for Alex and I - this time hauling our payload to Bill's trailer in Renton. On the way back from that job it was close to 7:30 and we needed 1 more Ice buy. Alex bought me a cup of coffee and that gave me a nice chance to notch-down a level from the intensity fo the day's schedule. We were tired and hungry. We bought the ice, got home for a simple steak dinner, and attended to a few smaller detail jobs. By 9pm we declared our work-day complete as we ate and watched a video about GC history.
We had a great day of working together. But, I could still see the many tasks ahead and the few hours remaining. Plus, I needed to share a few other things with Alex. 100% GC trip prep was not my plan. I wanted him to see some other aspects of my current PacNW lifestyle.
Thursday started with a hike of Tiger Mountain (my local mountain). We hit the High Point Trail at 8 and made it to the 1st bridge before 8:45. On the bridge I shared some river physics with Alex as we looked down and studied the creek flow. Such a great laboratory - a clear, easy-to-see tongue, big eddy on the right, rock garden on the left, strainers and a wrap-rock below the mini-rapid. A superb model of a GC-type rapid.
Back from our hike by 9:30 allowed us time for a quick shower, then off to PCC for our yogurt pick-up and produce buy. The compression of time and obstructions was going to make this a class 5 work-day. The hike was a superb tonic for our attitudes -- we were happy & ready for the chores.
At Pcc we found Todd (the dairy guy) and immediately realized we were about to deal with more friggin' yogurt that we could have imagined. Plus, the order had somehow gotten goofed-up since Todd had prep'd it 8 hours ago. Seems someone came along and ran thru all the stop signs and special markings Todd had set-up. So, now he was very stressed. We tried to make it easy on him, while also assuring that we got what we'd paid for.Using a 4-wheel loading cart, we lugged the filled-to-the-brim cooler out to the truck. Then, right back into the store for a fresh produce buy of Butternut Squash, Onions, Apples, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, and assorted other long-shelf-life veg's. We hauled it all home, did some more re-packing and re-icing, then loaded our next set of dry food Rocketboxes. By 2pm we were off to Bill's trailer with another truckload.
Back home by 3, we shifted-gears from trucking to paperwork. We dropped the truck and fired-ip the BioDiesel Mercedes for a trip to Redmond. I needed to stop at the bank before they closed for trip cash. I made special point of thanking Alex for all his efforts and positive attitude in helping with the trip-prep work. While timing wasn't perfect, out next stop would be the ProClub for a luxury workout and spa. Then, my office at Microsoft to check email, check-in on issues, surf the web for a few pieces of info, and prepare some trip paperwork like the Budget. We checked the Lee's Ferry real-time streamflow gauge and were disappointed to see the data-graph showing Colorado River flows of only 6,000 to 12,000 cfs. I'd known for months this was going to be a low water trip. These graphs not only confirmed that as fact, but also proved it would be even lower than I'd hoped. I shot a few print-outs, then it was back to driving - this time towards home.
Finally home around 8:30, there were still some phone calls to be made and details to think thru. Alex cooked some spaghetti which we topped with some leftover Orange Chicken. By 10 he was hitting the sack, tired from another busy day of GC prep work. It took me until about midnight before I could call it a day. Tomorrow was Friday and the piles and jobs were still spread throughout the house. Eric and Tina were stopping by at 8 am, and Jack needed to be at the kennel by 10, and there was no way we'd be ready to go by 1pm. My head hit the pillows with thousands of small details still being processed - like a computer running an overnight job of logistics modeling.
Friday I was up by 5:30. First job was to make coffee and get started preparing for Eric & Tina. I reminded myself to stay steady and work each problem oce at a time as much to completion as possible. As the saying goes - "One comp[letion is worth a thousand starts". I was busy with details and small tasks from 6-8. At 7:30 I woke-up Alex. Good thing, as Tina & Eric arrived right on schedule. The 4 of us worked the remaining food/cooler tasks so they left with a fresh load for Bill's trailer. Eric and I also talked thru the cooler issues so he had all he needed and we were both comfortable our plan would provide us with ice well into the 2nd week of the trip.
Next was the heart-breaking moment of taking Jack to the kennel. He's never been kenneled in all his 16 1/2 years. I do love that dog. He's my pal. He's the only being in this entire universe that greets my coming home every night with a happy grin. He's known all week something BIG is going on. Now, all I can tell him is that we're going for a ride.
(Add: more details about the kennel?)
Next was personal gear pack for our river and travel gear. We built-out a half truck load of our river gear and hauled it to Bill's. It would be our final load. Everything else that was going to Arizona was going in my car. It was about 2pm when the end finally came into sight... Although still several hours away. Alex and I agreed that we'd leave Issaquah Friday nite no matter what time. He cooked up a quick lunch and the we continued to working down the punchlist of jobs:
- all dishes washed
- scrub the kitchen floor
- final prep of the Mercedes for the road trip
- load our gear
- food into the travel cooler
- vacuum the house
- final check w/ neighbors
- some final phone calls
- packages for sending (we'll find a post office tomorrow in Oregon)
- forget about my Taxes (I'll do them when I get back)
We finally left around 7:15pm. I drove past Snoqualmie Falls so Alex could get a look. Dinner was in Ellensburg by 8:30. We hit Yakima by 10. Arrived in Pendelton around 12:15am or so. Driving across South-Central Washington towards the Columbia, with Bob Marley on the car stereo, there was a similarity to our road trip of 1999. But, 6 years later, both Alex and I are very different - changed by time and events, the currents of age. Our adventure was now fully underway.
