Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail

I'm really sore today after yesterday's exertions.  With a friend, drove to Wenatchee - out in Central Washington, and the self-proclaimed "Apple Capital of the World" - and completed the 10 mile Apple Capital Recreation Loop Trail.  This is very much an urban trail - essentially following a paved trail that skirts the city center and crosses the Wenatchee River twice.  It's a nice trail, well maintained, with lots of wildlife despite being an urban waterfront (in particular, we saw lots of birds of prey as well as some gophers) and not too busy for a bank holiday.  But 10 miles is too long a walk - especially because we took a bit of a detour to get some food, it ended up being something closer to 12 miles (I think my phone said I did close to 28,000 steps!).  And I was broken by the end of it.  It may have been a reasonably flat trail, but I haven't done one this long for a while and it showed - really it's a trail much better suited to riding a bike.  I don't think the long drive to get there helped - it took nearly 3 hours to get there, and longer to get home because we hit some of the Memorial Day traffic.  No photos - this was really more about hanging out with a friend.  But I would consider coming back to do this trail when I'm in better shape - or if I ever decide to buy a bike.     

It's Late

It's nearly 11.30 pm, and I've just got back from a very full day of driving and hiking.  I'm tired, I'm sore, and I'm supposed to go into the office tomorrow but I probably won't.  I think I've discovered what my limit is in terms of miles that I can hike in one day - and disappointingly it's a lot less than I hoped it would be.  I'll fill in more details tomorrow - it's too late for me to write cohesive sentences right now. 

Motor Sports

Today was a big day in motor sports - the Indy 500, the Monaco Grand Prix, and the Coca-Cola 600 (the longest NASCAR race of the year) were all on today.  And in my opinion - they all sucked, and if I didn't already know then this confirmed that my love for motor sports is well and truly over.  But, going to watch a NASCAR race live is still on my bucket list - even despite the notoriously pro-Trump crowd that these races attract.  They don't hold any races in the Pacific NW - probably due to the weather - but it shouldn't be much trouble to travel somewhere to watch a race one year.  I have vague, but fond, memories of going to Silverstone with my grandpa when I was a youngster - but I don't think I've watched a race in person anywhere since.  And I don't think watching these races on telly do justice to how fast and how loud these cars go, so it's something I'd like to experience again. 

A Canceled Road Trip

I was supposed to be heading down to East-Central Oregon today for a 2 night road trip (it's Memorial Day on Monday).  The main objective was to go to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument - basically a collection of very dramatic and (not uncoincidentally) very photogenic rock formations.  But because we are really out in the middle of nowhere here, this trip required some careful planning.  You need to plan where you are going to gas up (the rock formations are quite spread apart, with a very limited number of gas stations - which may have limited opening hours because they might not be self-service).  You need to plan where you are going to eat - again, there are very few options with limited hours.  And, as I was doing my research, most of the places to eat are not open on Sunday or Monday - exactly when I was going to be there.  Great.  And then something caught my attention on the National Monument website - it mentioned that Memorial Day weekend was the busiest weekend of the year.  Well with limited services, only limited parking at a lot of the sites, and my dislike of big crowds - I made the difficult decision to postpone my trip.  I definitely still want to go there - but maybe a mid-week visit is in order.  Something I didn't consider when I postponed my trip was the weather.  Because we are in desert country, I assumed it would be fine.  Apparently not - as it said on a weather blog I read today, "if you are vacationing in Oregon this weekend ... sorry".  This evening - cloudy with periods of rain, thunder possible.  Tomorrow (which is when I would have done most of my sight-seeing) - a steady rain in the morning, showers continuing in the afternoon, cloudy with 40% chance of snow showers overnight (!).  Monday - cloudy with showers.  So now I feel better about not going.

Birdlife

A hummingbird update.  There are, I think, 2 pairs of hummingbirds using the various feeders I have outside.  And boy are they getting through the sugar water - I'm having to refill them weekly.  But maybe that is too regularly, is something else using the feeder?  I still have my trail camera set up, but I haven't captured any raccoons on film recently.  But I think I found the culprit - or more accurately culprits - this week, and it is an old enemy - wasps (maybe bees - but wasps make for a more obvious enemy).  I have no idea what I can do about these.  At the moment I just have a water spray bottle handy, which I'm using if I see the little sods on the feeder - but that is hardly a big deterrent.  And the last thing I want to do is sit outside obsessively watching over the feeders all day, and totally incapable of getting anything else done.  So I think I just have to live with this, and hope that the wasps/bees don't obstruct the hummingbirds from feeding.

    

It's in the details

I was watching a TV show the other day - not important what it was, but I think it was The Baby on HBO, a surreal British horror comedy.  And there was one flashback scene during the show, set I think in the 70's.  And something unexpected caught my attention during the scene.  It was the bedding.  It looked familiar to me.  And then it dawned on me, I think it was the pattern I had on my childhood bedding.  And I emphasize the think, because I'm not entirely sure - and it's certainly not something I've thought about for many a year.  But I don't know what else would cause that feeling of familiarity with a fairly old-fashioned pattern on bedding I see on some random TV show.  Very bizarre.  I tried to do a google search to see if I could find the pattern, but I couldn't - so instead I've taken a photo of it from the TV screen.  For those who might know, does this look familiar?   

Song of the Week #111

It is shocking to think that this week's selection is actually from the 80's (admittedly the very late 80's).  Well maybe not, because I think I've got it on cassette tape somewhere.  But it sounds so very 90's to me - perhaps that's because it was only in the 90's when I finally embraced alternative music for the first time.  I've a feeling I've included this on my blog before, but whatever.