[a/s] Lacey to Longview, WA - August 17, 2000

[HHamp5246@xxxxxxx]

Hi Gang,

My planned last Monday departure from Lacey was delayed because Bruiser had a 
noise and a leak.  The noise was emanating from the wheel well and I 
suspected it was a shock.  I assumed the leak was connected as it was in the 
same vicinity. I also sprung for the 30,000 mile service including the 
transmission and the brakes...and the ever price oil change ($70.00).

The tranny and brakes are fine. They retorqued the front shocks and sway arm 
and retorqued the clamps on the turbo arms.  They said they had gotten a 
letter about the turbo clamps from Ford.

So, Tuesday I said good-bye to Don and the Airstream Park at Lacey and headed 
on to a Border Collie friend's home in Longview.  The drive was quick and 
easy down I-5.  When I got here I impressed even myself backing the trailer 
into her driveway. (c:   I quickly unhooked and Karin took us, the dogs and 
me, to Longview's Nutty Narrows Bridge.  This is a must see on anyone's trip 
to the PNW.  It's a squirrel bridge..... high across a busy road which 
connects the big trees in the park to the big trees on the boulevard. (See 
photo) After a tour of the town we feasted on salmon, cooked by Karin's 
husband, and fresh veggies from the garden.  Dessert?  Fresh blackberry 
cobbler from the her own blackberries.

After dinner we went to the beach, on the Columbia River.  She wrote a friend 
about it and I've decided to just put her words here.... Quip and Strike are 
her Border Collies. 
My dogs are Brady and Tucker, Brady is eight years old and has hip 
dysplasia.... 

<<Yesterday evening, we went down to the beach on the Columbia River.
Before we went, I was trying to determine which vehicle we should take.
Hunter wanted to take her truck, but I said that that was not such a good
idea because both my dogs would be wet for the trip back.  I asked her if her 
dogs would go in the water.  Negative.  So, we took my Explorer (and no, the 
tires did not explode.  <bg>).  I figured my dogs could drip in the back, and 
Brady and Tuck, the dry dogs, could ride on the leather seats.

Ha!  When we got to the river, Strike and Quip made a beeline for the
water's edge.  Tucker and Brady raced after them, but stopped short of the 
water.  I picked up a throwing stick and chucked it out into the river for 
Strike and Quip to fetch.  Tucker got so excited when Strike ran out into the 
water (he is really into herding her) that he forgot himself and ran out 
after her until cold water contacted his privates, then he retreated to shore 
looking mortified.  He stayed in ankle deep water for the rest of the time we 
spent on the beach.  Brady on the other hand acted like a puppy.  He raced 
around the beach, and ran out deep into the water several times.
Never enough to swim, but close to it.  Hunter and I laughed ourselves silly 
at his antics, and then she realized that he was probably overdoing it, so 
she put him back on his leash.

Once the water play was over, it was digging time.  I poked a stick in the
sand and said "Mouse!  Mouse!"  (Keeping my nose well clear of the top of
Quip's head. <bg>), and Quip dug until, as Hunter puts it: "Chinamen were
flying out of the hole!"  Brady and Tucker didn't know to stay away from the
exhaust end of the digging machine, so they both got plastered with sand.

So, we went home in my Explorer with four wet, sandy, exhausted dogs.>>

Me again..... yesterday Karin went to her agility lesson in Seattle and I 
went to Warren, Oregon to meet someone from my Longears list.  I met Guy, his 
donkey Valen and his five goats. It's the first time I've ever been in 
Oregon.... I drove down on Highway 30, which runs along the other side of the 
Columbia River.  I was very surprised to see a nuclear power plant, but found 
out it has been closed for years and years. I hung out in the trailer last 
night....I love doing that. 

Today was the *big day*... Mt. St. Helens, the volcano that erupted in 1980.  
We took my dogs and headed up.  It was interesting to see the way the trees 
changed... the old trees before we got into the "blast zone" and the new 
growth where the blast wiped out everything. As we climbed higher and higher 
in the Cascades we drove among the Noble Firs... Christmas tree looking 
trees, only with  tiers where the branches on each row are about a foot apart.

We saw the desolation where there had once been life.  It was sad to think of 
all the animals that were killed in seconds.  The barren hillsides had tree 
stumps where dead standing trees had been felled.  From a distance they 
stumps looked eerily like tombstones.  As we got higher Karin explained how 
some of the trees after the eruption were called "dog hair" because they were 
just knocked down, all lying in the same direction like dog hair. There was a 
river bed, with high banks...the bed where the mud flowed after the first 
blast. The mud that was caused by the intense heat melting all the snow 
within minutes.  We stopped a few times for photo ops and finally made it up 
to the best viewing stand.  We were as high as the volcano's top and Karin 
explained more and more about the event and the repercussions.  As she was 
telling me about the hummocks..... A guy standing next to her said, "You 
really have studied this." She turned to him and simply said, "I'm a 
geologist, I've been in the middle."  Who better to see it with?  A hummock 
is a pyramid shaped mound...they are all over because they are where big 
chunks of rock landed and were covered with ash.

I couldn't help but think the top of the volcano looked like a horse's 
hoof...from the bottom.  It was horseshoe shaped, the open end was the low 
part where the insides spewed out.  It was lower than the rest.  The center 
has a mound of lava rock which has settled, the mound resembled a horse's 
frog. ..not the shape, but the fact that it was a mound.  It's caused by 
lava.  Unlike the lava in movie volcanos this lava is so thick it doesn't 
flow liquid.

We went inside and watched a 20 minute movie.  It started with a news man's 
last words. Ever.  It showed actual footage of the blast and reenacted the 
speed of the spewage.  150 to 300 mph depending on what was spewing out!  In 
some places the ash is 600 feet deep!!!
I learned about the earthquake which caused the landslide which removed the 
top which ultimately let the ash plume free to go 60,000 feet into the air.  
The lateral blast and avalanches of gas and rocks leveled all trees for 17 
miles to the Northeast. The ash cloud drifted around the world.  It will blow 
again.. when?  Who knows....it's building.

Life is coming back to the mountain.  Weyerhaeuser has replanted and trees 
are growing. There are wildflowers.  We had a deer cross the road in front of 
us. There are fish again in Spirit Lake.  Not sure how they got there.... 
nothing has been stocked.  The animals are coming back... there is a large 
elk herd.    

The trip to Mt. St. Helens was fascinating.  The movie was chilling.  I 
highly recommend everyone get to see it, and take a geologist with you to 
explain it.

So, after a game of pitch and bat.... Karin could have been Mrs. October.... 
she can hit the ball so far it comes down with dew on it.  The dogs were the 
outfielders...... I am thinking bout getting back on the road tomorrow 
morning.  I'm off to Salem, Oregon for the weekend.

Hunter