Wednesday September 14

When we woke up Wednesday, the community center parking lot was already almost full with early risers. I realized that a shower at the community center, what had seemed a good idea at midnight yesterday, would cost money. And judging by the extremely nice building that looked like it had been built in the last two years at most with more construction on in front of us, I wasn't expecting a cheap pass either. So we went with the shower in a sink again - albeit a much nicer sink this time. Breakfast was also as entertaining as always. Watching people stare in confusing as we have milk and cereal in the middle of the parking lot just never gets old.

With half the day gone, once again cut out for school, we headed out to check off a few to do's. First stop, comic book store! New comics come out Wednesday so... And with that checked off we headed downtown to see about a getting a bike ride in and check out some longboards - Jeff and Sam are making me jealous. Terra Sports recommended a loop only two or three miles away. So with no boards that interested me, we made our way to the trail head.

Jeff messed around with the camera a bit while we all got ready and got us on film as all three of us crashed and got a scrape or two before even leaving the parking lot! He wanted an intro for the video, so we all tried riding, one at a time, up a steep embankment. We each fell, everyone thinking they could do better than the person before and no one succeeding. But hey, it was fun, and we had a laugh so no worries. Halfway around the loop tho, we didn't have a clue where we were. Whether we took a wrong turn or the map just wasn't very clear, we didn't want to go up anymore and didn't know which trail led where so we just headed back down the way we came. Jeff had a nasty fall straight into a tree, but other than that down was much better than up.

After this, the boys had found a cliff jumping spot they wanted to hit before we took off for Eric Maus' house in Springdale, WA. We parked high up on the hill, in front of a house that lay claim to a cul-de-sac all it's own. It was only 25ft tops but from what everyone was saying, it was shallow enough that you had to scoop as soon as you hit the water so you didn't hit the rocks as well. But after only a couple minutes we had all jumped twice. Jeff threw a twist or two but refused to flip. As we were changing back into our clothes, the owner of the house we were parked in front of drove up on us in our underwear. Sam dove head-first into the van, and I just cracked up laughing at him. Not sure what the driver thought, he declined to comment.

So we took off for Springdale, about a 2 hour drive a little north of Spokane. I'm not sure what the requirements for a town are, but apparently they aren't any more strict than a bar and a gas station. we drove straight down the main street (and the only street) of town and there wasn't even a gas station. And I thought Sturgis was small. But our GPS faithfully directed us to the Maus' house. Now unknown and undisclosed to me when I asked if we could stay with Eric, we were imposing on a house that already supports 19 other family members - give or take a few. But with the single day of warning we were generously welcomed in as part of the crew minus the farming duties.

So a huge thanks goes out to the Maus family for providing the first day we didn't have to sleep in our car or shower in a sink on this trip!