The heat in the Pacific Northwest has been relentless. The past few weeks temperatures have been reaching the high nineties most every day. When we are home our days are spent running errands in the morning and then closing ourselves into the house to wait out the afternoon heat blast. Our little room air conditioner can hardly keep up with the heat. By sundown, on our front room thermometer, we are reading less than ten degrees difference from the outdoor temperature. At this point, the air conditioner is hardly able to keep us comfortable. Is this the future of our planet?
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| Turkeys on the side of the road. |
I recall having hot weather, there was always about a week of uncomfortably hot days at the end of July and into August, but never do I remember having heat from mid-June through July/August! We have had few times where we actually needed the support of an air conditioner to keep the house comfortable. In fact, when we first moved into this house 31 years ago, we removed the big air conditioner from our bedroom window and sold it to a friend from the college. Central air has never been discussed. Now we are considering some form of relief.
As an option to the heat, Linda and I generally try to go camping at a location where there is shade and the evenings cool much faster than in Post Falls. This type of escape has become much harder now that the Forest Service, National Parks, BLM, and other State and Federal campgrounds have gone away from "walk-in" campsites to reservation-only sites. Due to our situation with Linda's parents, we are unable to plan every camping adventure months in advance, which is what you have to do with the reservation systems. Our answer to this has been to check the reservation system every day and see if we can capture a few days mid-week due to cancelations.
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| Camping puzzle we enjoyed just before we left. |
Linda is the driving force in this search for mid-week getaways! She will constantly check for sites that open up between Monday and Friday at our favorite campgrounds.
This week Linda secured a site at Ryley Creek from Tuesday to Friday. We booked it and loaded up to escape.
Ryley Creek is a good campground for us, it has most of the things we need to relax. Water to cool off, trails to walk on, phone service for emergencies, and shade to hide under.
On Tuesday afternoon we set off on our mid-week adventure. The drive-up was uneventful, we checked the news for area forest fire closures and found that the light smoke haze was coming from Washington. There were no significant fires in our area.
The Ryley Creek site was a nice one and we settled in for our visit. On this trip, we had our e-bikes. Having this transportation gives us many more options for exploration. On Wednesday I got up and took a bike ride. My goal was to ride up the Ryley Creek Road to the ridges North of Laclede. I looked on Google Maps and it showed the road went quite a ways up the valley and so off I went.
As I road along I noticed a sign designating the home of B and C Glazier. That reminded me that my cousin Mary Decker Glazier somewhere around this area. At that point, I decided to ride about 12 miles up the valley and see what was there and then turn around and try to find the house where my cousin lives.
I rode on up the road and passed many little homesteads. at about mile 8 I came to a sign designating that I was entering the Ryley Creek Ranch and that it was private property. I wasn't sure that I wanted to see if the road leads back to public land, so I turned around at that point. My ride back down was fast, you really don't feel how steep the road is as you spin your way up on an electric-assist bike. I had a blast on this part of the ride.
Back down on the flats, I spotted a lady working by the side of the road so I pulled over and asked if she possibly knew where Mary and Dell Glazier might live. She was very present to chat with and was an old-time local, but they moved away many years ago and had just recently relocated back to this area after retirement. She knew quite a bit of the history of the Glazier homestead but was unable to point me to a specific location. I thanked her for the information she had given me and continued down to the highway. In the conversation with the lady up the road, she had mentioned that the Glazier homestead covered the area east of where I had stopped and continued to the ridge of rocks that lay in that direction to the east. On the highway, I turned left trying to spot a mailbox or sign designating Mary's property. I got to the rock ridge and stopped in the shade. Out came the phone and I Googled Mary's name. The first thing that popped up was the Glaziers with an address number. I figured I could ride back up the highway checking for an address number that matched.
I hopped on my bike, crossed the highway, and there was the number! I rode up the driveway and rang the doorbell! Mary answered the door and immediately knew who I was. It was a nice visit. We caught up on what had been happening in our lives and chatted for about an hour. It was nice to see her and I'm glad I took the time to find their place.
Back at the campground, the heat kept us pinned in the shade. Each evening we would eat dinner and then walk to the beach and go swimming. After a quick dunk, we would take our shampoo up to a showerhead and wash our hair. This process not only got us cleaned up but cooled us off after the hot day.
After two warm nights and days, Linda and I talked and decided to pack up and drive back to our place in Post Falls. It was too hot to be comfortable another day, so we retreated back to our airconditioned hiding place.
