Hanging in Walla Walla

We’re hanging here, our third day, in Walla Walla at my 2^nd cousin’s place waiting to talk to the Forest Service office in Pomeroy (NE of WW) tomorrow to make our new plan of attack.

To get back to earlier events, Judy and I were hot, tired, and dirty when we arrived in WW early eve on the 5^th. My cousin, Lucille, came over with son Don and daughter-in-law Kay, and we had a great visit until about 8:30. I don’t get to see them often enough, so really enjoyed.

Had put Hank in separate confines from Linda’s horses earlier, watered and fed, but now had to pull the horse trailer into the pasture so our hay would be closer to him and I wouldn’t get hay debris in the yard and driveway. The problem, as I see it, was it was close to dark, I was tired, dirty, the driveway into the pasture is narrow with neighbor’s bushes on one side and the backyard fence on the other. As I’m watching going between a pick-up and a small car parked in this area and pulling into the pasture which continues as a narrow area, with Judy manning the gate from the far side (so she can’t see what’s going on), Linda’s horses, Misty and Chance, come to greet us. Misty moves on, but Chance is more curious and won’t budge. I inched in, honked at him, no response. Kept inching to maybe touch his chest to get him to move on, but, nope. I by chance (no pun intended) caught the view behind me in the rear view mirror and saw I was about 1” or less from the backyard fence. After a couple of attempts at maneuvering away, I figured my pride wasn’t going to get me in trouble with that fence. The rig was inside the pasture area so we could close the gate and the horses would be secure for the night. Went in and called neighbor Clark Hansen, whom I had talked to before regarding riders from his saddle club joining us, to see if he could give me a hand in the morning (sure is good to be an independent woman on a self-reliant trip). Judy and I finally got our showers and hair washed. Felt like a whole new woman.

8:30 the next morning, Clark was here and talked me through my tight squeeze. He may have been thinking “What an idiot”, but he never presented it that way. I had just been preoccupied watching those cars and the horses, and lost sight of the fence.

That done, I backed into the area I wanted and started to unhitch the trailer. Guess what -- when I had hit the dip on the forest service road, I also bent and broke the trailer jack wheel!

Next morning hauled the trailer over to trailer sales & service, had them check to make sure didn't damage anything else, replaced the wheel.  Then headed to Walla Walla Ranger office to check next section of route.  Twelve foot snow drifts in our path.  Good excuse to get a couple more days visit with family.  Dropped trailer at Linda's and headed over to Lucille's apartment.

Cousin Lucille feeding us old family specialty krautberok (cooked cabbage, sauer kraut, onion & ground beef in a dough pocket).  Not so good for the diet, but very good for the soul.


Stopped by the Marcus Whitman Hotel as heard cousin Jeff Hill had done a mural there.  He's a wonderful artist.  Each painting is about 4' x 8' of the historical city of Walla Walla.  Probably can't see the detail here very well, but I loved the facial expressions, seems very alive.

FYI---Didn't know before, but if you single left click on any picture, a window with all the pics in that particular post comes up and you can slide show them to see larger view :)