Saturday, we spent the entire day out in and on the San Juan islands - we caught the 11 AM ferry, in the company of
miketo and his lady; we took the ferry to Friday Harbor, and then drove around the island, with a couple of unexpected but always serendipitous U-turns (which yielded spectacular views of the Olympic peninsula or the purple expanse of a small lavender farm). We had lunch at a cafe suspended over the marina at Roche Harbor, visited the English and American camps on the island where these particular factions were staying at the time of the Pig War (so go Google it. Do I have to explain *everything*?), caught the ferry back at 5 PM, and wasn't THAT fun, we came down from the passenger decks to the car deck to reclaim our vehicle, using the elevator to spare rdeck the stairs - and then discovered that the car decks were an obstacle course which almost defeated us completely, so tightly jam-packed was it with U-Hauls, equine transport trailers, six other different kinds of large trucks, one trailer carrying a dissasembled small plane, and cars and SUVs parked so close together that I was wondering how the hell any of these people even managed to get out of their cars in the first place to GO to the passenger decks. We eventually wound up walking the entire length of the ferry, had to thread out way through a clutch of black-leathered bikers revving up at the exit, and somehow managed to squeeze, squash, eel or sidle past, push shove or bully or way through the crush of vehicles and into ours with only seconds to spare before the cars started actually moving towards the exit - and if doing this while the cars were stationary and the motors not running was tough, just think about the hellhole this would have been when the cars started moving, and when all that exhaust started to build up. We made fun of it, later, on the way home - the entire experience was relegated to the realm of computer games, complete with voice over: "Your mission: to make your way from one end of the ferry to another, handicapped by having to use only one arm and a cane for support... BZZZT, your way is blocked by a large truck, go back to start... BZZZT, there is not enough room between those two cars for you to pass... BZZZT, you may not use that gate to exit through, it says it's restricted... BZZT, BZZT, BZZT, you cannot go any further, game over, start again...We managed to get NEARLY home along the back route before we were turned back because of an accident that blocked the road and had to return all the way back to the highway and try it again from the other end, and crawled into bed, perfectly content and blissfully tired. Thanks
miketo, this was very close to a perfect day. (Yes, even with the computer game [grin])Today, I had errands this morning, so I left the house early to do them before the writing group convened... and then discovered that due to a rash of special circumstances we were not having a meeting this afternoon. So, I'm going back over that last chapter - tweaking it once or twice to get the effect I want, and then I'll print out the whole animal for
rdeck to take his red pen to before my own final pass, and then add a necessary afterword - and with a bit of luck the novel will be ready for New York and my publishing professionals there well before the end of July. Which is well within the deadline. And then I can shake off everything except the planning for Japan and a couple of appearances I have scheduled for August... and after that, when I return, it'll be a question of diving into the research for the NEXT project on the production line, which is already slowly inching towards me on the conveyor belt. And it is one which I have been looking forward to writing for a while now. More details to come soon...
