Lunch with Aunt Helen

Tuesday, September 12. Dayton, WA to Walla Walla, WA As we left Dayton, we got back onto Hwy 12, headed for Walla Walla, a trip of only 30 miles. We rolled through Waitsburg after the first 10 miles, and saw the area where the firefighters are camped out. We also saw a couple of their helicopters and other equipment being readied for firefighting in a nearby field. . Outside of Waitsburg, we left Hwy 12 and turned onto Middle Waitsburg Rd. Almost immediately, the landscape turned into a rolling tour of grain fields. And I mean rolling hills, even though the map profile shows a steady downhill into Walla Walla.

Near the top of a healthy climb, one of the few motorists we'd seen all day slowed down to offer this pithy comment: "Seems like it'd be faster to walk". I retaliated with my best oxygen-wasting courtesy laugh, and he drove off. After several more of these downhill climbs, we finally reached the chainlink fence of the local gun club on the outskirts of town, and knew we were close to the end.

We arrived in downtown Walla Walla just in time to have lunch with Matthew's aunt Helen. When we fired up the cellphone to call her office, Matthew discovered that we had a voice message from the Fab4. They had just reached the coast, so I called them back to join in their celebration lunch. After our own lunch, we went to the post office, then on to the library.

Even though Matthew tried to explain that his father is a former Walla Walla resident, and graduate of Whitman College (located in Walla Walla), the library police would not allow non-residents to use their computers. Fortunately for us, a rebel librarian is in charge of the lab, and she logged us into two computers. Unfortunately, the USB port is blocked and I couldn't upload pictures.

We met Helen and her grandson Zach back at her house around 5pm, and went to dinner at the local Elmers. After a great dinner, we spent the rest of the evening visiting with Helen and Zach. Zach helped me log on to Helen's home PC, and I was able to upload a few pictures before I succumbed to the hide-a-bed in Helen's living room.