Columbia River and Sentinel Gap
Its been raining and snowing all week, but on the eastern side of the Cascades the weather was really nice and it felt good to see the sun. We had already stopped several times by this point to tighten the ropes holding down the tarp. We still had problems with some serious tarp flapping so we stopped at this viewpoint to make more adjustments. This week I've been reading a book about the geology of this area. Visible in this photo are lava flows that left all the layers of basalt. The book talked about the Spokane floods from Lake Missoula that created these gorges and coulees in a matter of days and weeks. In the mid distance are the Saddle Mountains with Sentinel Gap where the Columbia flows through. After reading this book I have a whole new appreciation for the drive to Coeur d'Alene. I told Carolyn about all the features we passed on the drive. She at least pretended to be interested.
Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies sculpture
Old highway
Before I-90 and the Wanapum dam were built downstream, the highway would cross the river here. From Google Earth you can see the road descend underneath the water.
2012 KTM 350EXC
My brother John has been looking for a motorcycle so he can ride in the annual Dirty Face Dual Sport held every June at Lake Wenatchee. Both of us have been keeping on eye on Craigslist for all sorts of motorcycles in both Seattle and LA. Every time we find anything reasonable and email to make an offer, the bikes have always been sold. John contacted a couple of dealers in the Seattle area about a new KTM 350 and was seriously considering making an offer. Carolyn and I had been talking to John on the phone about the motorcycle he was considering as we crossed the Columbia River. As we neared Moses Lake in the center of the state, I remembered a KTM dealership I had seen on a frontage road along the highway. We needed a break and so we got off the exit and found the huge dealership. Inside they had a sea of brand new KTMs, Yamahas, and Kawasakis. They had the rare 2012 KTM 350 John was interested in. I told one of the salesmen about John about to make a deal on a bike from a Seattle dealer. He said he could probably beat any deal by at least $700, partly due to the fact that tax and licensing in Moses Lake is hundreds cheaper than the tax-encrusted King County of Seattle. I got John on the phone and then put on the store owner. Soon they had a deal worked out. I probably could have taken the bike that minute, except the truck was completely full with a fridge, dishwasher, and all the kitchen drawers and doors. I said we were coming back that way on Sunday. They're not open on Sunday, but the owner said he'd happily come by and we could load the bike in my truck. The rest of the drive to Wallace went by quickly. The weather continued to be really nice and the the excitement of John's new motorcycle hadn't come close to wearing off.
We pulled into Wallace that night and unloaded everything but the appliances. While I sanded the kitchen cabinets, Carolyn tore off all the wrapping paper from the drawers and doors. Then we both used a deglossing compound and brillo pads to scuff up the kitchen cabinets so the new paint would stick. Carolyn used TSP and 409 to remove any traces of grease from the cabinets by the stove while I masked all the cabinets for painting. Then we painted the first base coat of white on the cabinets and frames. It looked bad because the wood grain underneath showed through, but we had three more coats to go. We finished at 1am and went to bed.
Installing the quarter-round molding
I got up on Saturday at 6am and lightly sanded the first coat of paint on the cabinets. Carolyn got up at 7am and we painted the second coat. The cabinets still didn't look much better. The paint dries quickly, but we wanted to wait at least an hour before the next coat. Meanwhile, I started cutting all the quarter-round molding for the baseboards. The molding is left over from the cabin. I made the quarter-round from cedar boards years ago and the long quarter-round strips have been leaning up against a tree behind the cabin. In Redmond's climate, those wood strips would have dissolved into slime. but at Lake Wenatchee, the dry weather preserved them. Under the cabinet kickboards, Carolyn pried up remnants of mastic that were preventing the molding from fitting tightly in place.
Sandwiches at The Hub in Vintage Games
We painted three more coats on the cabinets that morning. By the fourth coat, the finish looked really good. Next we needed to seal the paint with two coats of polyurethane. But first, we were starving. We walked over to The Hub, a sandwich shop inside the Vintage Games antique shop. It's only been open a year, but we go there just about every trip to Wallace. The woman who owns and operates the shop recognizes us by name and knows what kind of sandwich Carolyn always orders. Carolyn finds something she likes and sticks with it so we were all thrown for a loop when Carolyn ordered something different. The sandwiches are huge and delicious and all named after local silver mines.
Dishwasher carried inside
Back at the house, we were under the gun to paint two coats of polyurethane on the cabinets and frames and install the quarter-round molding by 4pm. Earlier in the week I was reading the local Wallace paper online and saw an article on hiring Wallace High School baseball players for work. I thought I could hire a baseball player to help me move the appliances into the house. I called the number at the end of the article and got the baseball coach. I told him I needed one person to help me on Saturday at 4pm. He asked, "Only one?" Yep, I said. Normally, I'd rely on Carolyn or my next door neighbor to help move things. In fact, first thing Saturday morning my thoughtful neighbor must have seen the appliance boxes in the back of the truck and came over to help me move them inside. I bet he was relieved when I told him I had hired a baseball player to help. By 4pm, I had nailed the last piece of molding in place and Carolyn had filled the nail holes with spackle. A jeep pulled up outside and the baseball coach climbed out. He had taught and coached at Wallace High School for 40 years. He recently retired from teaching, but still coaches wrestling and baseball. A minute later, one of his players came walking up. He said he lives a couple of blocks away. First, the young man and I moved the stove from the living room back into the kitchen. Then we moved the dishwasher from the truck to the kitchen. By then another car pulled up and out hopped three girls, each 6' tall and pretty. Wallace doesn't have a girl's softball team so these three girls tried out for the boy's baseball team and made the cut. By this time, the coach saw things were under control and took off. The five of us picked up the fridge from the truck and carried it inside. The fridge barely fit through the front door. One girl carried the front of the fridge, I carried the back, and the others were on the sides. When we went through the front door, everyone on the sides were peeled off. The girl in front carried the fridge without any strain whatsoever. We carried the fridge into the kitchen and set it up. Then all of them carried the dry sink cabinet from the living room back into its place in the kitchen. I gave the players a donation to help them on their trip to Seattle to play other teams and go to a Mariners game. On the way out, they saw all the cardboard and packing materials around the truck and took it away. They were very helpful and efficient and for once, Carolyn got to sit back and watch!
Installed fridge
GE makes a hundred refrigerators, but this was the only one with the dimensions to fit underneath the cabinet over the fridge, so we didn't have any choice over the design or color.
Drawers installed
Between coats of paint earlier in the day, I installed new drawer pulls. We put all the drawers back in place. To the left of the stove is a microwave cabinet. It's only temporary. I'm going to build a tall table that'll fit in that location with a top that matches the rest of the kitchen's work surfaces. That's why the backsplash we installed on the last trip extends over that area. It's all Carolyn's idea.
Dishwasher installed
I spent the next couple of hours installing the dishwasher. Anything involving plumbing never goes well, but miraculously I didn't have to make a trip to the hardware store (it was closed, anyway). I replaced the copper supply line snaking up through the floor from the basement with a stainless braided line that came with the installation kit. I had to drill a new hole for the waste line to the sink. I wired up the dishwasher while Carolyn borrowed a level from the neighbors. After some final adjustments we screwed the dishwasher in place and ran a load of dirty dishes through it to make sure it worked without leaking. The last job of the day was installing the cabinet doors. We ordered new self-closing hinges to match the new cabinet hardware. The hinges appeared to be exact matches of the old copper hinges, but they were slightly different, causing the doors to shift over a sixteenth of an inch. This meant apposing doors would collide, requiring me to cut every single door on the tablesaw and then repaint the door edge - a lot of work. We decided to wait to install the doors on a future trip. Meanwhile, we hoped we still had the old hinges at home and if so, plan to spray paint them black.
House for sale
A few weeks ago on the internet I saw a nice house for sale on the hill above Wallace. On Sunday morning we took Gypsy for a walk up the hill and found the house. It was built in 1915.
Another view
Looking through the front door
We looked through the front door and whoever restored the house did a really professional job. We're trying to talk John and Natalie into buying the house. We went to church, then packed up, and headed home.
Ritzville's library
On the way home I was tired. We pulled off at the Ritzville exit and drove through the town. It was built in the 1800's as a railroad stop of the Northern Pacific. Wheat from surrounding farms was loaded here. Carolyn noticed the town had a Carnegie Library like Wallace does.
John's new ride at the cabin at Lake Wenatchee
We got back on the highway and made it to the Moses Lake KTM dealer at 3:50pm. Our meeting was for 4pm. The owner was riding around a motocross track in back on an old-school Maico (from Spain). He showed my everything about John's new bike and I took a test ride around the parking lot before loading it in the truck. This motorcycle is a work of art - the finest Austrian craftsmanship. What's so special about this bike is it is street legal from the factory, a must in Washington to ride any Forest Service road. It's not like most dual sports though, that are 50% street and 50% dirt. This is a 99.9% dirt bike with blinkers. It's also the first bike I've ever ridden that's fuel injected. Instead of driving straight home, we detoured to Lake Wenatchee to spend the night. My daily commute bicycle is temporarily out of commission. I needed to pick up an old mountain bike at the cabin.
Gypsy
The amount of snow at the cabin is still increasing, rather than melting. This reminds me of last year when it just kept snowing and snowing through Spring. It resulted in a slow melt-off when summer started. Even in late July, the trails were still covered with snow. I hope that's not the case this year. We left the cabin for home at 5am on Monday morning. When we got home, we unloaded everything, and then I hopped on my bike and rode to work. It was a really fun weekend!
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