Another day without pesky chores. We went on another exploratory mission today, this time to Chehalis, a town about 35 miles northwest of our current digs at Paradise Campground in Silver Creek. To start out, we almost immediately went south – the wrong way. We moseyed by a local ranch that has llamas grazing and sleeping in a big pasture that offers absolutely stunning views of Mt. St. Helens. The llamas are strange-looking creatures. They have bodies about the size of a big deer or small elk but heads that are almost microscopic. The shape of their bodies most closely resembles a camel. They understand they spit. We kept our distance.
Next in our aimless wanderings we found our way down to the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery where we didn’t go see the tanks of trout but did drop down right to the river’s edge. When we were here a few years ago, we spotted a bald eagle there that liked to perch in a big alder tree right across the river from the hatchery. Eagle-eyed Peggy spotted him in just about the same place she found him in 2016. The news was good – he now has a nice mate, just a bit smaller but no less magnificent. They sat together, making eagle noises and preening each other while we got sunburned and ogled them from a distance. My butt was getting sore from sitting on the tailgate so we finally departed the trout hatchery area (not to be confused with the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery area a few miles distant) and headed north.
We took the back roads even though the route on I-5 was much shorter. I felt this was the prudent thing to do because I had eaten some nice chocolate I had picked up at the dispensary a bit earlier and hectic driving seemed uninteresting at that point. Our first destination was a DXL store in Chehalis where Peggy went inside in an effort to make me look like I don’t live in a dumpster and shop at the Salivation Army. After about 15 minutes of breaking even on Solitaire played on my phone, Peggy re-emerged with some new clothes for me. I hope they look good and fit, for her sake.
My chocolate snack earlier in the day was making me grin idiotically and whirl happily so I turned the driving chores over to Peggy for the remainder of the trip. That is some gooood chocolate. Our next stop was a Tractor Supply where I wanted to shuffle in and pick up some bird seed for the feeder we put out for my friends. As soon as we passed through the doors, Peggy immediately stopped in the clothes section so I told her I would return there to find her later. I was on a mission to find a restroom. It turned out to be quite a test. There was only one sign on the store floor to indicate where the restroom might be and it took me quite a while to find that. I headed in the direction indicated by the sign and soon came to a long, shiny white corridor that had two doors leading off of it. Neither was a restroom. I continued to the end of the long hall and found at the far end it turned into another long, shiny corridor with no doors leading from it. I was getting suspicious. At the far end of that corridor was another turn, this time entering another shiny corridor where, finally, I found doors leading to the appropriate gender’s crapper. They must not want customers to go weewee or cocky-doody here because if they did, they wouldn’t have put the restroom in another town. To top it off, after I got my hands all nice and clean, I found there were no paper towels in the dispenser so I did the man thing; I wiped them on my pants. After my long tour of corridors in the store, I returned to Peggy who was just finishing up in the clothes section. We wandered over and picked up some bird seed and made our escape.
Peggy drove us back to Silver Creek. This time I got to admire the scenery without having to pay attention to the road. It was glorious.
We got some pix. Click the link.