Goodbye, Forks. Hello, PDX

The view out my hotel window.

We had a hard night on Friday. At 3 p.m. we had six people signed up, and then one called and canceled. Five people. The first participant was one of my spleens, and to put it simply, was difficult. Then the next two didn't show up. The first of them I had spoken to only a few hours earlier, and the second was his friend. I had called the friend and left messages twice, and he hadn't called back, so I was not really expecting him to show up. But it was possible they were going to come together, or maybe the first would take the second's place. So 5 minutes after the second missed appointment, I called and pulled forward the remaining two people, who were great.

But that meant we had that first difficult session, followed by 3 hours of blank waiting, before our last two guys arrived. The rain, which we were most desperate for, was drying up and the temperature dropping, turning ultimately into pea soup fog. Poor Glenn, out there fending off the cougar, was cold and shivering, and Nate had reached the end of his patience. They discussed an idea they'd been dancing around for a day, and informed me that after Friday night, they were done.

Soooo, this morning, I packed quickly; called all the Saturday people and cancelled them; had a debrief and clean up session with the guys out at the airport; and left. It feels rather abrupt, even though it's only one day early, and until Monday of this week we hadn't been intending to run Saturday anyway. (It was when it looked like the only rain we'd get this week was Friday and Saturday nights that we decided to schedule them. We had an unexpected night of rain on Thursday, so Saturday wasn't technically needed.)

I took advantage of the early and lengthened day, going first to Second Beach, and then stopping at the Quinault Rain Forest on my way home to Portland. I'll blog about those tomorrow, I expect. Nate and Glenn were planning to hole up in the hotel and have a cigar and a couple of beers (not a fancy I share). They drive to Seattle tomorrow for a little sight-seeing, because they have to be there Monday morning to return a rental camera (not open weekends). Then they will drive without stopping to Minnesota, because they have Tuesday morning meetings.

Meantime, I'm home; the cats displayed intense feline-pleasure (which translates as: You will pet me constantly for 30 minutes, and then you will feed me, and then I will ignore you); and it's time for bed.