I had to make another run into Centralia today – so I went again, after exercise class.
On my way out the door this morning, I grabbed the book I started reading late last night; and took it for the ride, with me. I was already half through its 472 pages, and I wanted to read more while I ate lunch 😊
I didn’t mind the drive after my workout (1) I like to do the scenic backroads country drive (2) the repeat return trip was close enough to the last trip, that the route was still fresh in my mind (3) I’m learning to be calmer in citified environments.
I returned the items I couldn’t use.
I did not panic during rush hour traffic.
I bought two dozen books – I’ve been reading through 1 book every 24 hours.
Books are very reliable old friends.
I ate again at the Country Cousin Restaurant … and ran into an old friend, who was also there 😊
Carl has not changed: he is still a flirtatious riot. An unapologetic riotous ham with jokes and flatteries. An unapologetic safe flirt, as he is happily married. And he knows my heart/fidelity will always be Bob’s. We hugged, chatted for about 45 minutes in the parking lot (he was leaving the restaurant, and I was entering) – and found out we had both recently been in the same places; just missed each other in passing: 185th & Union last week/around the Olympic Peninsula this weekend/Centralia, twice since last Friday.
It’s a small world 😉
The day’s undertakings in Centralia wrapped up, we said goodbye and made plans to get together again: and Becky (Carl’s wife) and I talked a bit on the phone tonight, around Suppertime.
Old friends are comfortable friends.
After
Carl left, I went inside and ordered my lunch … and started reading another chapter
of another twisted Koontz tale.
On my way home, I spotted my majestic old friend, Mt. Rainier, poking his clefted head up over the foothills that surround his majestic, sparkling, glaciated self.
I miss visiting him.
Facts About The History Of Mount Rainier National Park
1. Size of Mount Rainier National Park: 378
square miles.
2. Age of Mount Rainier National Park: 100
years.
3. Mount Rainier's real age: 500,000 to 1
million years.
4. Mountain's height above sea level: 14,411
feet.
5. Number of miles from the summit to Tacoma
City Hall: 54.
6. The year it was christened Mount Rainier:
1792.
7. Whom it's named after: Rear Admiral Peter
Rainier, a friend of Capt. George Vancouver, the British naval officer who
explored and charted the Northwest in the late 1700s.
8. Number of times Peter Rainier saw his
namesake: zero.
9. Height of Vancouver's namesake, Mount
Vancouver on the Alaska-Yukon border: 15,979 feet.
10. Number of quakes that have been recorded
on Mount Rainier in the past two decades: 800.
11. Rank of Rainier among the most popular of
Cascade volcanoes: first.
12. Rank of Rainier among the most active of
Cascade volcanoes: second.
13. Most active Cascade volcano: Mount St.
Helens.
14. Rank of Rainier among the nation's most
dangerous volcanoes: first.
15. Estimated number of explosive eruptions
from Mount Rainier in past 10,000 years: 11.
16. Number of people living on former volcanic
mud flows from Rainier: 100,000-plus.
17. Odds that a person living in that area
will have a home damaged by fire vs. another mud flow: even.
18. Frequency with which Puyallup can expect a
volcanic mud flow to reach the city limits: once every 100 to 500 years.
19. Speed with which a volcanic mud flow from
Rainier can reach the Puget Sound lowlands: 30 minutes to two hours.
20. Last time a gas station operated in the
park: 1994.
21. The year Dr. William Tolmie, a Scottish
physician at nearby Fort Nisqually, ventured into the park guided by five
Native Americans: 1833.
22. First recorded attempt to climb Mount
Rainier: Aug. 21, 1852.
23. Number of feet shy of the summit at which
the party was forced to give up: 400.
24. First recorded successful climb of Mount
Rainier: Aug. 17, 1870, by Hazard Stevens and Philemon Van Trump.
25. Age of James Longmire, who climbed to the
summit in 1883: 63.
26. The year naturalist John Muir climbed
Rainier: 1888.
27. What he said: "Of all the fire
mountains which, like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount
Rainier is the noblest."
28. Rank of Rainier among the most glaciated
mountains in the lower 48 states: first.
29. Number of people who try to climb Mount
Rainier each year: 10,000.
30. Number who make it: 5,000.
31. The first woman who climbed the mountain:
Fay Fuller, a teacher, in 1890.
32. Gender given by Indian tribes to Mount
Rainier: male or female, depending on the tribe.
33. Number of North American peaks taller than
Rainier: 32.
34. Tallest of them all: Mount McKinley
(20,320 feet).
35. Two common names given to Rainier by
Indian tribes: "Takhonia," "Tahoma," meaning "high
mountain."
36. Number of names for Rainier cataloged by
Bruce Barcott in "The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount
Rainier": 47.
37. City that would most like to see Mount
Rainier's name changed: Tacoma.
38. Number of people who visit Mount Rainier each
year: 2 million.
39. Year in which the mountain was first
encircled by a trail, the Wonderland Trail: 1916.
40. Length of the Wonderland Trail: 93 miles.
41. Number of maintained trail miles today:
240.
42. Spot on the trail that has the most
mosquitoes and bugs: Mystic Lake.
43. Spot with the hungriest bugs: Stevens
Canyon.
44. Number of named glaciers: 27.
45. Volume of permanent snow and ice on Mount
Rainier: 1 cubic mile.
46. Number of years Seattle could drink and
bathe from the water locked up in Rainier's snow and ice: 200.
47. Number of camp sites at the park: more
than 500.
48. Park entrance fee in 1932: $1.
49. Park entrance fee today: $10 per car.
50. Cost of a private room with bath at the
National Park Inn at Longmire in 1932: $4.
51. Cost of a private room with bath at the
National Park Inn now: $101.56.
52. Year the park logged its 1 billionth
visitor: 1962.
53. His nationality: Canadian.
54. The real reason he had come to the area:
to see the Seattle World's Fair.
55. What he said: "I suppose this is my
first and only one-in-a-billion shot. I rather think I would have preferred to
have had it on an Irish Sweepstakes ticket."
56. Number of presidents to visit the
mountain: three.
57. President who signed into law the creation
of Mount Rainier National Park: William McKinley.
58. President who played the piano inside the
National Park Inn: Harry Truman.
59. First president to visit Mount Rainier
National Park: Theodore Roosevelt in 1910.
60. Number of meals President Harry Truman ate
in the park when he visited in 1945: one, lunch.
61. Most decorated World War II soldier to
visit Mount Rainier: Audie Murphy.
62. Most famous Spokane-born crooner to visit
Mount Rainier: Bing Crosby.
63. Most famous "Peter Pan" actress
to visit Mount Rainier: Mary Martin.
64. Year in which Helen Holmes became the
third woman to reach the summit of Mount Rainier: 1894.
65. Her age: 15.
66. Most snowfall recorded in one winter at
the mountain: 1,122 inches in 1971-72 at Paradise, a world record.
67. Likelihood that the record will be broken
this year: good.
68. Minimum snowfall recorded at the mountain:
313 inches, in the winter of 1939-40 at Paradise.
69. Number of mammal species to be found in
the park: 54.
70. Number of plant species: 787.
71. Number of plant species that are
non-native: 107.
72. Age at which Jim Whittaker, 70, first
climbed Rainier: 15.
73. Frequency with which Whittaker now climbs
it: once a year.
74. Number of guide services authorized by the
National Park Service to lead climbs to the summit last summer: five.
75. Elevation of the solar toilet on the
mountain: at Camp Muir, 10,188 feet.
76. Average time to climb the mountain: two
days.
77. Fastest climb documented to the summit,
round trip: just over five hours.
78. Name of the climber: Chad Kellogg, a park
ranger.
79. Oldest person to summit: Jack Borgenicht,
81, of Long Valley, N.J., from Aug. 28 to Aug. 30, 1992.
80. Youngest climber to summit: 7-year-old
Laura Ann Johnson of Tacoma.
81. The number of times record-holder George
Dunn of Fall City has summitted the mountain: 390.
82. Most climbers killed in a single accident
on Mount Rainier: 11 in 1981.
83. Date of most recent major climbing
accident on Mount Rainier: June 11, 1998.
84. Cost to climb Mount Rainier through a
guided program: about $500 for a three-day program.
85. Date when the term "flying
saucer" was coined at the mountain: June 24, 1947.
86. What pilot Kenneth Arnold saw to coin the
term: flashing blue lights.
87. The biggest mammal ever seen near summit
of the mountain: a 200-pound bear on Aug. 17, 1990.
88. Ingredients used to make the commemorative
200-pound Mount Rainier birthday cake to be unveiled today: 100 pounds of cake
mix; 126 eggs; 120 pounds of icing.
89. Number of people it could feed: 1,200.
90. Number of books listed by Amazon.com with
Mount Rainier in the title: 54.
91. Number of pages used by Bette Filley to
fill "The Big Fact Book About Mount Rainier" (Dunamis House, $17.95
softcover, $26.95 hardback): 468.
92. Number of times "Mount Rainier"
is mentioned in The Seattle Times since 1984, according to its database of
electronically archived stories: 6,507.
93. Most questionable metaphor used by The
Times to describe Rainier's cap of snow: yarmulke.
94. Population of Rainier, Thurston County:
1,560.
95. Number of businesses in the Seattle White
Pages that begin with Rainier: 150.
96. Number of items with the name
"Rainier" available at www.rei.com: 19.
97. Most expensive REI item with the name
"Rainier": Marmot Rainier windstopper pants, $199.
98. Number of schools in the United States
with "Rainier" in their name: eight.
99. Number places in the United States with
"Rainier" in their name: 21.
100. Number of places called "Mount
Rainier": one.
Compiled by Seattle Times staff reporters Eric
Sorensen and Florangela Davila.
**Sources: American Park Network; National Park Service; George Dunn; U.S. Geological Survey; U.S. Department of Interior; "Climbing Mount Rainier: The Essential Guide" by Alex Van Steen; "The Challenge of Rainier" by Dee Molenaar (1971, The Mountaineers); "The Big Fact Book About Mount Rainier: Fascinating Facts, Records, Lists, Topics, Characters & Stories" by Bette E. Filley (1996, Dunamis House); and "The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier" by Bruce Barcott (1997, Sasquatch Books)**
The Puyallup Indian Tribe is trying to get the State to rename the mountain ‘Mt. Tahoma’ – but whatever people call him, he will always be magnificent 😉
Passing through Winlock, I chuckled when I saw that their iconic rooster mascot had been repainted with new colors in iridescent purples that sparkle when brilliant sunrays hit on it.
This old friend had become a shimmering cock-of-the-walk 😉
I was temporarily held up by another old friend in Vader.
And beckoned by a tempestuous old friend on the other side of the tracks.
Interesting
Facts About Mt. St. Helens: (https://www.tripsavvy.com/interesting-facts-about-mount-st-helens-4110237)
I noticed that the car's warning icon started blinking in the Highlander, telling me maintenance was required … so, when I touched down in Longview, I drove to Dick Hannah’s in Kelso and asked to be scheduled for a checkup appointment.
The Highlander is scheduled for Friday morning; one tire is a concern with wear starting to show: and I am not surprised – I have literally been burning the road up for about a year, now. Truth be told, I’m surprised the tires have not been a concern before now.
And I’m thankful they held up on my Sunday~Funday drive around the Olympic Peninsula Loop Drive.
So, I may need to have the tires switched out – thank the Lord I have $$$$ in savings to cover that expense. Tires are not cheap, and I have to have all four switched out at the same time if one needs to be replaced (to keep the SUV traction system balanced).
These tires are the original tires that were on the Highlander when we bought it the Fall of 2017: they’re due.
The Highlander has been a constant friend to me these past 29 months.
I want to treat my old friend right, just like Bob would. Bob would make his vehicles last for decades: and I will too, so help me, God.
And I’m thinking I should probably do the Lincoln City Daytrip adventure sooner, rather than later; wildfire season is already here.
There is an out-of-control Level 3 Wildfire raging on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge – started by a dumbass; with people being evacuated.
I am glad the Highlander is getting a thorough checkout Friday morning. I’m thinking as soon as the tires are fitted, I’m bugging out and heading south before I can’t safely leave the house – every summer the wildfire haze from canada, eastern washington, oregon, and calimexarabia gets worse.
I want to cram as much living into my life as I can before my body expires and my spirit takes flight: life on Earth only happens once – nothing on Earth will be repeated in the next life. Everything to be experienced on Earth can only be experienced on Earth.
I want to make that drive to Lincoln City.
Just because.
I have made that drive numerous times with Bob; but I want the solo lobo experience.
And I want my old friend, the Highlander to be up to snuff when I hit the road 😉
But, right now – tonight, I am going to settle myself all comfy-cozy in bed, and finish up an old friend’s twisted tale of a weird winter moon.
