It’s been a real blast.  I’ve enjoyed every minute of my escape from the desert heat and where I was mentally when my plane left the runway in Las Vegas.  Some things cannot be explained, and some shouldn’t have to be, but certain things have started to come to a head that may be lead to a clearing point and bring more sunshine into some of our lives.  That particular part of my last few weeks is reserved and may be aired at another time…or not.

My son Josh and I left Springfield last Wednesday about 8:30 p.m.  We drove all night, with a coupla stops for gas and food along the way and even stopped at a rest stop once figuring to sleep a few hours.  My snoring ended his thoughts for sleeping.  We went on down the road and somewhere on the eastern side of Ritzville, I drove and he slept in the back.  We made it into Round Lake State Park about 11 a.m. and couldn’t check into our space until 2 p.m. so brother Kevin was our next stop.  Vickie and Monte were there with their travel trailer waiting to get into the park too.  We had time to visit and it was all cool.  Seemed strange in a way that I wouldn’t be parking my big rig there for 10 days or so this year.

The park had made a few changes, like adding water and electricity to certain sites on one end closest to the park office and completely demolishing the old bathhouse that used to set there and replacing it with a very nice four station, individual bath and shower.  My sis Neomi and her hubs had one of the running water/electrical sites and I was able to hook up to power to do some of my daily work.  Vickie and Monte had a generator for their coach and a few times when the generator was running, I hooked up with them.  Their site was right next to mine but next year they figure to reserve one with water and electrical for their little camper.  I suppose one shouldn’t say ‘little’ in these circumstances but my rig would never make through the trees and winding road, let alone the length of the parking space allowed so I think of them as being little…20-22 feet is the only size that can make it through the campground/fit the parking spaces in some instances.

Josh and I had a space right across from the main bathhouse – which is the vicinity I was in every year before when I tented.  We set up a tent and he had ear plugs…zzzzzzzzz.  My niece and three of her four boys arrived the following day and shared our campsite.  Neomi’s family – grown kids and grandkids – made the reunion too and had spaces around her site.  The brothers that live in the area, Kenny and Kevin, all managed to bring some food and firewood for our campfires, and Vickie and Neomi made food plans for evening meals, plus Neomi always does breakfast for everyone.  She sets up with grills and cookers and churns out eggs, bacon, sausage, muffins, hotcakes, homemade cinnamon rolls, and all sorts of great things.  I always tell them not to count on me to cook anything when I’m camping.  I don’t.  My idea of camping is hotdogs, sandwiches, cereal with soy milk or whatever strikes my fancy, but certainly not cooking…not to worry, they never ask me to and I get to share in all of the great food they fix.

We did play a lot of poker.  That was fun too and went late into the night some nights and we played in the afternoon when we could.  People come and go as the day demands.  I love it.  This year I only worked about three hours a day and then went ‘campsite tripping’ the rest of the time.  Josh and I did one 3 mile walk around Round Lake and I did walk the road around the campsites numerous times on different days.  We stayed until Sunday – everyone breaks camp then and heads home – and Josh and I drove to Kenny’s place to visit with him for a bit and pick up some skulls.  Umnhhhhh!  Skulls?  Yuppers.  Josh does incredible art on everything and he has plans to clean them up and paint them with different scenes and then put them up for sale in the tattoo shop/art gallery he now works most days.  So we drove home with a box of deadheads in the back.  Yah, they are bare, dry skulls, no meat or residue on them.

We came by the Umatilla Army Depot and I got a glimpse of the armory cocoons that dot the land, then I had to go look it up because I figured they must have some type of chemicals involved if they buried them….sure enough.  Sorry you will get a pop-up on this site but the facts are interesting.

The trip along the Hood River was great, the view was wonderful.  I used to live in Portland and we made the trip back to Sandpoint more than once – along the same route – but obviously a lot of it was forgotten by me after 30 some years.  It was nice to be back in Springfield after fading two different air mattresses that wouldn’t stay filled (nahhh, I don’t think it was my fat ass that was the problem but who knows?) and trying a slab of memory foam on the floor of the tent one night.

On one of my walks along an old highway in Springfield a few days ago I saw one of these as it stared at me from the grass along a small waterway that runs parallel to the road.  At first glance I thought it was a beaver, then it was maybe a muskrat, then after chatting with Jennie, she gave me the goods on it.  Ugh!  Rats just have a way of making me go UGH!  It was pretty big too, I figure in the 10-15 pound range.  It slowly ambled back to the water as I went on my way.

These are everywhere here, and I’m not a big fan of the slimy looking trail or them, plus I can’t imagine eating them as a delicacy.  This one was cruising Paw’s dog dish and leaving the slime trail across his food.  I’m sure Paw didn’t mind at all.

I didn’t go off on one of my massive picture taking ventures this year, in anything I normally would’ve snapped a zillion shots.  I did have a few times at the WSOP when I was at the Rio that I went shutter snapping happy, but for some reason my picture taking went on vacation.  Quite a few times I wished I had my camera with me when something popped up, but overall, I simply haven’t been a shutter bug.  I did take quite a few shots of family at the reunion, and I’ve managed a nice gathering of Rain photos…but still…I’m lacking on photo quota for this year.  Umnhhhh…no idea why.

I did set up a date with George (through Josh) to do a piercing for me.  Naw…no genital or nipple thingies for me, or belly button for that matter, or facial piercings.  I’ve seen just about every type of piercing there is to see, some of it in the flesh and some of it on the internet, and mostly, it’s just not for me.  I did have my nipples pierced years ago – it hurt like hell – but gave up the metal after about a year and a half and migration had set in and they just never quite completely hardened – they were OK for a month or two and then irritated for a week; that requires way too much energy and effort on my part.

Back to now…when I was in Springfield last time, I had a ring replaced in the upper cartilage of my ear with an opal on a barbell.  After thinking about it for a day or so, I decided that I would like to replace the diamonds studs in my lower lobes with opals also and have the flat back of the barbell – my hair was always tangling and catching on the earrings when I showered, sleeping sometimes, etc., it was irritating, plus I liked the opal.  We went back to the shop and in order to have the size of opal I wanted, all four of the lobe piercings had to be stretched with the new barbell jewelry.  Fucking OUCH!  It took about two weeks for the settling to take place – about 3 to 4 days before they actually stopped hurting.  No…I don’t like pain.  It was even more extreme when I had the ring put in the upper ear/cartilage a year and a half ago – it was another stretching thing and my ear was so sore for days that I could barely deal with shower water hitting it.

This trip, as soon as the plane touched down, I knew I wanted another ear piercing…kinda freaky, eh?  I was going to have two new piercings, one on each side of the upper ear cartilage piercing that was already there.  I did the five ear piercings I have myself some years ago.  This time I wanted to go to the same shop and have the piercings done by a pro, they heal faster and better, and the placement is where it should be.  I had actually re-pierced one of the lobe piercings I did about two years after the original piercing because it was too low in the ear.

George owns a batch of shops in the Eugene area and is a friend of Josh and he specifically made the trip to stab Josh’s mom…just kidding on the stabbing but that’s kind of what the whole thing is about.  The shop is High Priestess Piercing & Tattoo and for all of you that get your kicks with pain or like the idea of body jewelry, put them on your must visit list.

I tossed out what I wanted to George, asking him about the distance between the studs/barbells, should they be more in the curl or in the flat part of the cartilage, etc.  The one I did is more in the curl but still shows well.  We got into a discussion of healing and cartilage and placement and, and, and.  The downside is that part of the ear takes quite some time to cure/harden and could be a year and a half before fully healed.  SHIT!  There’s really no upside I guess.  He said maybe I should have one done in my right ear in the same place as the one in my left ear so it would look symmetrical…ix-nay on my part.  I am not necessarily a fan of symmetry.   Then he suggested a tragus piercing in both ears, I did a very violent cringe and went OUCH!  But I considered it.  Let’s face it, I was there to be pierced and damn it, I wanted to do something.  Then I asked about the ear buds I wear when using the iPhone.  That was a problem as it would be a continual bump/nudge on a tragus piercing and would take longer to heal.  I do have to admit I was still considering it and had thought about doing it some years ago.

Then he got this excited look and told me to put my ear buds in.  I did.  He grabbed a marker and marked my ears and said, “I have just sold you on a conch with a barbell.”

YIKES!  You did?

We talked about it.  I have to admit – again – that I had thought about this type of piercing some years ago too.  OK!  Done deal.

Not so fast, there was a mass amount of OUCH involved in this and swabbing and hygiene and, and, and; but I didn’t wince or cringe or cry.  For some reason my left ear hurt late into the evening where the right ear seemed to be pretty mellow.  Prolly because the left ear pain made the right ear pain unnoticeable. George also shortened the barbell length of the upper cartilage jewelry and put a ball back on it instead of the square one to keep my hair from tangling on it.  I had green opals put in the inner conch piercing on both ears.  I have to tell ya, even when they were hurting, I loved the piercings.  It’s just styling kids!!!!

Enough on piercings.  Get your own!

Little Miss Rain has kept me well entertained during my time in Springfield, but I have a feeling she’s been watching Marcel Luske play poker.

I haven’t played any form of poker since who can remember when, the last PokerWorks HORSE tourney I believe.  When I return to the desert, I plan on grinding low limit on Full Tilt Poker, set amount of time, set amount of days and tracking myself to see if I can fade grinding.  I’ll letcha know.

Off to somewhere besides here.  Laters!