Shopping at the Oakley "Costco"
bbq with Helge and Seth
Another great sunset at the City
Wendy: We climbed a bit this morning, and then decided to take a trek into town. Oakley, Idaho, population 200. Three of the 200 stopped to ask us about our van (1 percent of the town population!), as it appeared to be one of the more unusual things to come through recently. The checkout woman at the grocery store has lived in southern Idaho her whole life. She's never been outside of Idaho, and has a trip planned to San Diego over Christmas to see the ocean for the first time. How cool is that? Today gave me an appreciation for how much we take for granted with our urban lifestyle.
Andy is feeling social today, and has invited some other climbers we met over for a BBQ. Who woulda guessed he had it in him?
Andy: Off to climb Wheat Thin (5.7 ***) and The Pygmies Got Stoned (5.10a *). Excitement of the day: flattening our foot stool with the van. We knew it was going to happen (leave the stool out and back up over it), and it did. 2 lbs of plastic was no match for 4 tons of Detroit Steel. squish.
At the store, I think I surprised the checkout clerk when I asked if I could take the ice cream container outside to see if it would fit in our van freezer. She said fine, as long as I bring it back. Fortunately it fit and ice cream can now become a staple.
Had a BBQ with Seth and Helge (sp?). Helge is from Iceland, and according to him Icelanders have a 4x4 bigger than ours in every other garage. They go "Ice Driving" for entertainment on weekends - driving their big vans across the glacier at high speeds (sometimes towing people behind on sleds). He was quite surprised that our "fully equipped" van didn't include a portable propane welding kit - standard equipment for "Arctic trucks". Says I need to get one to be safe. Right - little does he know I can barely handle duct tape much less a welder.
Tonight there are over 50 flies on our van ceiling to keep us company. Can't wait until they all die and we find them - one by one. Fortunately 10 have already found our sticky-killing-fly-tape.
Shopping at the Oakley "Costco" |
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bbq with Helge and Seth |
Another great sunset at the City |