GOODBYE TO FRIENDS, MOVING ON.

Wednesday afternoon, the river beside the motor home was less busy, but watching the floaters is compelling. I want to do it some day.

Just as the sun was setting, another group floated by. It's been a pleasant stay, but we packed up for Thursday morning's departure and the last chance to meet with area friends.

We had lunch in town on Wednesday with Al Penta. We often listen to Sirrius XM and put on music from the 50's. Al gave Jim, two discs, one of music banned from radio in the 1950's for being too risque, such as Annie Had A Baby.  Pretty mild stuff compared to today's music. And, another of their 50th High School Reunion. Al was the singer in their group and can still recite the words to most of those old songs we heard on the raaa-de-o.

I skipped down the street for a massage after lunch and caught a picture of "the bankers dog.  It wasn't a bank, but doesn't he look like a banker's dog? It was an insurance office.

We drove from Monroe to Lacy, Washington, Jim's old hometown, and had lunch with Jan and Larry Seaberg, another old friend. On the road, you catch your friends when and where you can. Then we pushed on to Lake Cushman Park where my cousin has a campsite. David and Melissa Moore will arrive around noon, today. Labor Day Weekend should be quiet here, and, apparently rainy, but exciting for me since I haven't connected with David since we were kids, a reunion of sorts.

UNSUNG HEROES AND TRAVELIN' ON

Traveling in a motor home is similar to those tour guided trips, in some respects. If its Tuesday, I must be in Monroe?
Confusion reigns, did we find that book store in Seaside? Or was it Ilwaco?
Today is fly home to California for a week.

Looking back over the past five weeks, we passed through different communities, each with its own particular quirk, or theme, or commerce, political bent, or historical reason for being. Local notables remain unknown to outsiders. Like d'Auberville, (yesterday's blog) the man who washed up in Ilwaco, Wa. after crossing the Pacific. They remain unsung except in their own small communities. Such a man was Ranald MacDonald, the son of a Hudson's Bay Company official and Princess Sunday, daughter of a Chinook Indian Chief. Ranald believed there was a connection between American Indians and the Japanese. In 1884, at age 24, alone in a small boat, he deliberately defied a 200 year old imperial edict, which barred foreigners from Japanese soil and threatened intruding Christians with fierce reprisals. He deliberately scuttled his boat within sight of villagers on Rishiri island and presented himself as a castaway.
Jailed, then freed, he taught English to 14 Japanese interpreters and learned enough Japanese to compile a glossary. He broke the "wall of fire" into Japan that later resulted in opening of trade. There is a renewed interest in this exceptional man and the Clatsop County, WA Historical Society is researching his life.