The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 146: Heyburn Shakedown

S**t eating grin

Miraculous things are happening in the world of Fric and Frac. On the moderately miraculous side (since all it took was money), Frac grew two feet right before our very eyes. The longer version gives us a standup shower, a spacious water closet, a bit more counter space in the kitchen, and a walk around bed. More miraculous than that was that Stumpy (The Wily Cager) regenerated her entire array of digits: feet and toes. I'm entirely grateful for the miracle because it was becoming quite onerous to drag her everywhere we went. It's all good, though because we're on the eve of this year's adventure, and we'll need her at full strength. We plan to travel for three weeks from mid October to the first week of November in order to get Fric and Frac below the snow line. We'll store the rigs in San Jose, California and fly home for the holidays as well as Judy's knee replacement surgery. After the holidays ( and depending on Judy's recovery), we'll fly back to California, pick up Fric and Frac and begin our 2015 adventure down the California coast below San Francisco. This past weekend was a shakedown of the new trailer. It's not only longer, but a bit wider and a bit heavier. We had to test it. Everything works well. The extra space is delicious, the extra light is delightful, and the new smell wafts luxury like warm semel baking in the oven. So far, so good. There is some news on the cribbage front. Because of her miraculous digit regeneration, Judy is back to being known as the Wily Cager (She's still capable of some pretty bold maneuvers, after all), and we've decided to play for money. We're going to play for a penny a point plus a nickel a game. We'll pay up the night before we get home from this year's long adventure. Right now the Wily Cager up $.75. We've shared this shakedown weekend with our friends, the Ulmens who also enjoy tandem riding. Yesterday, we rode along the south end of Coeur 'd alene Lake on the area's fabulous rail trail of the same name. From Heyburn State Park to Harrison is about twenty miles round trip. It was very pleasant as we are enjoyed one of the Pacific Northwest's best features: Indian Summer. Almost yearly, after our long hot summers, we enjoy a period in September where the daytime temperatures warm to the mid seventies with clear skies and gentle breezes and the night time temperatures fall to the mid fifties. It's absolutely stunning to be in the woods this time of year to watch the last wisps of summer turn into orange and yellow as the chemical processes of dying leaves produce the beautiful fall colors. It's not as stunning as the East coast because we have more pines than deciduous trees, but nonetheless, our Larches, Aspens, and Bitter bushes put on a nice show. As always, life is good, especially today.