day nineteen: a day on the town

Sluy's Bakery in Poulsbo


Can't remember the name of this bridge in Bremerton

Hanging out on the dock after dinner at The Boat Shed


Poulsbo harbor

If yesterday was “lay by” day, then today was “lay out” day. Not lay out in the sense of spending time in the sun working on tans, although that would have been possible even in the normally cool and cloudy Seattle area, but lay out in the sense of being worthless and knowing it! DP got up to go in and take a test around 4 AM. I got up to feed and walk Charley (I’ve been misspelling it all along . . . Oh no, spell check just told me I misspelled “misspell!”) around 7:30 AM and the rest of the crew slept in to recover from staying up late watching scenes from “Office.” At about 11:30 we all thought we might go have a bite to eat and Mere took us to Pip’s Bagels for some more health food. After eating here we went to Poulsbo. Poulsbo is a Scandinavian village from somewhere in the past that has retained some of its old fishing village allure while not totally succumbing to the god of tourism. Each time we visit Mere and DP we come here to look at the local book store which specializes in old books of pretty much whatever genre you like. Our crew seem always drawn to the older fiction. Today Michael old copies of Franny and Zoey and Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger (I know, Salinger is not that old). I got a copy of Treasure Island and Robinhood. The kids asked if I were reliving my childhood but I explained that I always keep my eyes open for books to read to grandkids. I don’t have any yet but one can never plan too much! If I ever do have grandkids they’ll probably say to themselves, “Run before the old codger pulls out one of his books!” Steinbeck says, “I think today if we forbade our illiterate children to touch the wonderful things of our literature, perhaps they might steal them and find secret joy.” My method is one of beating it into them rather than forbidding them and taking a chance! I bought Mere a copy of Connecticut Yankee in Kings Arthur’s Court by Twain. I know none of this relates even peripherally to motorcycle riding but it is important to be literate and well-rounded as well as to be a motorcycle rider without equal. Please notice that I made no intimation about the relative level of my personal skill in that comment. Anyone who can fall off a motorcycle three times in less than ten days is a rider “without equal.” Having said that, you never know when you may strike up a conversation with some person only to find yourself in need of some great literary example. I, for one, do not want to appear to be an ignorant boob in addition to a below average bike rider!

It is now about 4:30 PM and we are all discussing the next place we would like to eat and the best time to do so. I’ll stop my rambling for today and resume tomorrow. Our plans now call for Michael and I to resume our travels Sunday morning. We’ll try to have this posted by then.