TIO ON THE ROAD: A WEST COAST LOOP

20 Sep TIO ON THE ROAD: A WEST COAST LOOP

Adin, California

Susan and I left Telluride for the first leg of our Fall travel right after Telluride Film Festival. Our first stop was Scottsdale to visit friends. I did get in one nice bike ride through the Greenway that cuts through Scottsdale. High temperatures discouraged subsequent rides, as I slept through the cool of the morning.

The temperatures moderated as we headed north through western Nevada, up through Reno and into northern California. We had never driven through that part of the east side of the Cascade Range, but found it wild and beautiful.

Found objects sculpture, Bend, Oregon

We stopped overnight in Bend, Oregon and had an opportunity to visit Tom and Janet Schmidt, former Telluride residents who now live there. We had a pleasant Sunday morning walk along the Deschutes River, topped off by brunch at Anthony’s, right on the river path. After the heat of southern Arizona, we found it too cool to eat outside, but our window table had a nice view of the activity on the river.

A beautiful drive up to the Columbia River brought us to Mosier, Oregon, where we had a great visit with our friend Arlene Burns, former director of Mountainfilm in Telluride. It was good to catch up on each other’s lives.

After Mosier we drove through Central Washington, with smoky skies from all the forest fires on the east side of the Washington Cascades. Kid 1, Kimm Viebrock and family live in Bellevue and we enjoyed a busy week with them. Grandson Matthew is in high school now, and plays in the school jazz band as well as the marching band; both Kimm and Michael have jobs in Seattle, so we took our time together where we could find it. On Friday morning, for example, I rode my bike with Michael part way on his way to work in downtown Seattle. We were slowed quite a bit because several thousand people were marching for breast cancer awareness, all the way from Seattle to Bellevue.

We got out for a jazz/dinner night at Bake’s Place in Bellevue, featuring a quintet headed by drummer Michael Shrieve, best known for his years with Carlos Santana. The group was great, individually and together.

Lunch on Elliott Bay

On the weekend we had a beautiful walk along the Elliott Bay waterfront, then up to Queen Anne Hill to see a beautifully done film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” starring six-year old (when it was shot) Quvenzhane Wallis. See this film on the big screen if you get the chance. You’ll not be able to take your eyes off this child.

After the movie, we stopped at Michael’s favorite stringed instrument emporium, Dusty Strings, in the funky Fremont district near downtown Seattle. Then to a wonderful early birthday dinner for Matthew at Tilth, in the Wallingford district.

Air combat with Matthew

On Sunday morning, Matthew came home from his sleep-over to fix waffles, then our crew spent several hours at Boeing Field’s Museum of Flight. It’s a beautiful museum if you love airplanes as I do, and it was Matthew’s choice of a birthday outing. He and I even co-piloted an air combat simulator. The bad guys all got away, mostly my fault…

Sunday night we enjoyed a warm Seattle fall evening outside, dining on a salmon Michael and Matthew had brought home from an Alaska fishing trip, a fitting finish to a great week.

Autumn, San Miguel Valley

On Monday, September 17, we headed east across Stevens Pass and had a brief visit with my brother Denny and his wife Camille, then out to the ranch to spend a few minutes (and fewer words) with my brother Sid.

Two long days of driving brought us home to Telluride to find that in our absence Autumn had happened.

Beautiful!