Cathlamet's Charms

Somehow at the Marina

Well, here is the catch up for the last few weeks! We left Vancouver, Washington headed for the Sea of Cortez Cruiser’s Rally in Cathlamet, Washington. Just run your finger along the Columbia River as it flows past Portland and you will eventually come across Cathlamet on the Washington side of the river. This was where we stopped two years ago on the last day of this rally on our way south with Faith. It’s a small-ish marina with an RV park attached. That makes it a perfect interface for the water born and dirt born traveler.




At the rally we caught up with friends from cruising these last two years as well as some from much longer ago than that. When we docked there two years ago our friends Ken and Linde (in the tradition of using boat names as last names) of Rosebud caught our lines and they have crossed our path several times since then. It was the case this time as well in a way because they were already there in their motorhome when we arrived. Break out the party gear and get started on a great weekend… not that we can differentiate beween week days and weekends any more! I knew before we got there that John of Pachanga would be there but the surprise was bumping into Ralph of Annabelle Lee and then Stephanie of Ham radio fame!! Steph is someone I have talked to many times on the radio but never met. We have mutual friends and I have actually been in the same place before but never knew it until later. The cruising world is fairly small but this makes it seem even smaller. It was a welcome surprise when Pat and Mike of Somehow showed up at the dock and we caught their lines to invite them over for dinner on Friday night. As we sat around chatting I saw friends Chrees and Keem (Chris & Kim) formerly of Jasmine Isle and invited them to join us. What laughter to be had in the area was at our travel trailer that night!! I will be sore for several days from that and Chrees later said that the sun light was too loud the next day!!
We made lots of new friends as well. There were several people heading south either this year or next attending and we got a jump on finding out who the class of 2010/2011 will include.

Downhill into the second turn!!

So after all of two days of gathering the clans we had a few free moments and took walks into town. Cathlamet was welcoming the Long Boarders competition for that Sunday so we stayed to take pictures of crazy young people screaming down a blocked off street on large skateboards. This included wipeouts at the corners and a jump at the end of the run. These kids (mostly) are fearlessly competing for a $500 first place prize. Or, at least I think it must be fearlessly because they don’t seem to scrub off the speed until the last second as they approach the corners. They have on leather suits and wear gloves with extra padding that they use to brake as needed. Some just break instead of brake and we watched several become disconnected from their boards and crash into the hay bale barricades only to get up quickly, find their board and continue to the finish line. This is a far cry from the time, in High School, that I nailed some metal skates to a two by four and tried to go down the biggest hill on Swan road in the Tucson foothills!! Much more high tech than we had available then.

Looking to brake a little!!

From Cathlamet we headed north to Port Angeles for a transit into Canada!!!