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No Fenders scribe Tomaso with one of his favourite
FURR-Rocious lap Hoonds, Thy Mad Molly somewheres' upon the Oregon coast. (The
Tomaso Collection)
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As this is a story 'bout
Sum-Sum-Summertime... When we collectively pile Shrimp on thou Barbie, after
pouring Gynormous amounts 'O lighter fluid upon mountainous creations 'O black charcoal
briquettes; Yada-yada-yada...
Ah, Thy life of a semi-reclusive 'Vurd
Botcherer, eh? As it's my favourite time 'O year. When I fortunately get Thy
chance to step far, far away from Thy A-L-L consuming Confuzer's keyboard and
sniff some fresh air!
alas, I've been Out 'N Aboat, albeit I definitely
prefer Out 'N Aboot; Hya! But thanxs to Hoser Marky Mark for the correction
this past Memorial Day weekend, which like always, is another story Ah-waitin'
being lit...
Having traipsed near & far, as "I've
gone Everywhere!" From Thy City of Destiny, to Marrowstone Island, Hood Canal & Seabeck.
To Indy and lastly thee Other Florence 'N back again...
As that type 'O
chatter, or should I-T be Chaff? As how ironic that this year's Flyover at Thy
Magnanimous 100th running of thee Indy 500 was 50% comprised by our very own (Naval
Air Station's) NAS Whidbey Island obnoxiously L-O-U-D Electronic Warfare EA-18G
"Growler" Super Hornets; GRRR-GROWL!
Whilst this type
'O talk of travelin' contextually makes me always think of RUSh lyricist Neil
Peart's travelin' song from Vapor Trails...
VIDEO: RUSh - Ghost Rider, live
But it's been a wondrous; Err hectic 'N
busy past few months now! Hence the
recent reduction somewhat of No Fenders BLOB' Posts lately. Which probably will
continue awhile longer now that we're into Thy Heart 'O Summertime...
Locales
- Fort Flagler
- Mother Speedway
- Thy Other Florence
And Y'all know the Drill, that I'm a really
S-L-O-W typer, hence I'll just focus solely upon the first summer outing, which
feels like an eternity now, having occurred back upon the week of May 9-14,
when Mary Ellen & Co. went camping at Washington's Fort Flagler State Park
situated upon Marrowstone
Island as part of the past Triangle 'O Fire
conceived to protect Admiralty Inlet's passage to the then just completed Bremerton
Naval Shipyard.
As Fort Flagler, along with Fort Worden and
Fort Casey made up the three Forts used to triangulate would-be surface
invasion of said body of water with Fort Flagler coming online in 1897! Staying
in service until being decommissioned in 1953 and fortunately sold as surplus for
a nominal fee to the Washington State Parks system.
Trippin' Down Memory Lane, as a 'Wee lad some
four decades ago, I'd spent multiple summers frolicking about Fort Flagler's
grounds, especially exploring the Off limits underground bunkers, which
naturally A-L-L young teenager boys do, right?
Having camped outdoors for two nights in our
newly purchased Pop-up tent did little to rekindle my lost memories, although
back then I think we were confined to primitive Bunk beds, which surely weren't
nearly as comfortable as my "Super Cot!"
Electing this time to not allow Mad Molly and
Thy Pixolator to try impelling themselves upon the Industrial strength Cot's
sidebars - which are just a Schosh too HIGH for those FURR-Rocious lap Hoonds
to clear, as I can still hear Molly going THUNK from last time!
THUNK!
We walked upon the beach, for which Fort
Flagler's is fairly flat and mostly devoid of any objects for your visually impaired
Word Butcher to encounter. And then I did the unusual the following day upon
our Walkabout down the middle of the island, as Mary Ellen had chosen the State
Park purposely due to it having acres of slowly rolling hard packed dirt access
roads for Mwah to Walkabout upon...
Having volunteered to carry thee 'Ol Hoond
Molly (whose approximately 16yrs old) in Tacoma Bureau Chief Mary Ellen's
"special" Doggy Backpack, which I wouldn't do for just any 'Ol
Canine! After the prior day's comedy of Mary Ellen trying to lead two dogs
wishing to go opposite directions along with me trailing behind.
As the constant stop-start-stop-start commotion
of the Doggies wishing to sample every bush made me think of the Concertina
effect for which 'Ol Hobbo' (David Hobbs) enjoys mentioning during various F1
races.
As I seem to
always work in either a Formula 1, IndyCar or better yet both comments into
some random snippet 'O conversation whenever's' Out 'N Aboot...
As I'd only done this once before, albeit
briefly when we rode Mount Rainier's gondola during another summer outing,
which is probably buried somewheres' here on these sprawling No Fenders pages,
since after all it's totally racing related, right?
Ya Sure Yuhs Betcha!
Yet Molly seemed to enjoy the ride after
initially doing a few 180's to turn around which really caused the load to
shift unstably due to her extremely high CG! (Center of Gravity) Before I found
myself smiling as the 'Ol Maid settled down and soon it felt like I was carrying
a perfectly horizontal Presto-log! Although I had NO idea that such a slight
weight totaling 15lbs approx. upon my backside would feel so heavy after just
over an hour's carrying; Aye Karumba!
As I made the mistake of pointing out hearing
those FREAKIN' Growler War-jets presumably practicing touch 'N goes on nearby Whidbey
Island as we began our Walkabout. After which Mary Ellen stopped above a plateau on the
Hillside that led to an ancient & decrepit gun battery below, which is
probably where some of those Verboten underground tunnels reside?
Yet this Grassy Noll afforded a nice view of
the Northwest end of Whidbey Island and Puget Sound.
Packing up we drove over to another Childhood
haunt for Mwah, towards Hood Canal and the adjoining town of Seabeck where Mary
Ellen spotted a host of bird watchers checking out a Gaggle of Eagles which
were looking for Dinner swimming upstream!
As we first simply checked out another unknown
State Park before deciding to spend a third night Out 'N Aboot' Mark; Hooah!
Before catching the Bremerton to Seattle State Ferry in order for Tomaso to
return back to his frumpy 'lil Abode Justin-time to listen to the Angie's List
Grand Prix via the always troublesome to navigate Indycar.com race control
webpage - since I'm simply Boycotting ABC, in order to NOT hear Eddie Cheever
laying any Bricks whilst building Thy Foundation; Oh Never Mind!
And then just over a week later, I'd be
serenaded by my JACKALOPE upstairs neighbor Bryan's Bone Jarring, Head Bangin'
THUNDER; Err Musak! Most disgustedly during the entire broadcast of the Fast-9
Shootout; URGH! Although obviously NOT as L-O-U-D as those obnoxious
EA-18G Prowler Jets!
Whilst another
song from RUSh's vast archives comes to mind for reasons unknown; Hmm? Perhaps
for the symmetry of its lyrics, eh?
"The Way Out is The Way In..."
VIDEO: RUSh - Secret Touch