Westfalia Woes

Home. Home safe and sound... Sometimes there is just no place like home.

This weekend was an adventure!

Friday night was great, we were going to leave town right after work but hung out in the 'Ham bone' for one more night to celebrate Andy's birthday. It was well worth it I must add. Az created a feast as always with the friends and regular gang there with bells and whistles.

We left Saturday morning for the East side trying to dodge the wet Bellingham weekend that was ahead of us. Jimi is in town from Austin, Texas for 10 days. So, with his presence we got motivated to leave town, looking for some dry rock to climb. We took Bryan's Westie over the pass to the drier climate of Leavenworth. Saturday was casual as seems to be the norm these days. We went up to Carino Crags and did the Regular Route and then decided that burgers, beer and bouldering was what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. Gustov's in Leavenworth served up a mean burger and off to the boulders after a few pints we went. We camped in a poached site right above Barney's Rubble. Needless to say the motivation was hard to summon after a hamburger and brew. Who would of thought... (I will go back in the future to boulder, I think that I will skip the cragging. I have enjoyed bouldering more than the routes in Leavenworth.) The next morning We got up and huffed it up to the Snow Creek Wall and ventured up Outer Space. What a classic route. The last two pitches are great, worth all the effort to get to the route. It was a true pleasure to climb with Bryan as always.

Burger number two followed the route at Heidle Burger, leaving Leavenworth around 8:45pm Sunday night. We all were aware it was going to be a late night. None of us knew just how long it was going to be. We weren't even out of Tumwater Canyon when things started to turn on us. First the battery started to smoke inside the van. We rushed to the side of the road, John ready to attack the situation with a fire extinguisher in hand. Bandaging that situation, we continued on home. It was the end of the line in the coming miles. Coming on slowly and intensifying as we continued, the right rear wheel sounded like it was going to fall off. Not knowing the severity or the fact the none of us had cell phone service/batteries, we spent the night just shy of Steven's Pass. Monday morning, after John and I called our jobs trying to explain that we were stuck on the side of the road on the pass in a broken down van (I hope I still have a job to go back to on Tuesday...), we embraced the situation and waited for the tow truck and Jess to come pick us up. Around noon Jess showed up and drove us to get our third burger in two days (and the best one I might add) at Zeke's. Finally 24 hours late and three hamburgers later we rolled into Bellingham and here I sit. So happy to be in my own house. Not to say that I didn't enjoy in some strange way my time smooshed up against three guys on yet another adventure.