The Breakfast Club: MOA Rally 2015 [page 2]

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

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Alberto’s tale… DAY TWO - BILLINGS

I was up at 5:45 am. The house is quiet. Logs being sawed at the captain’s quarter (Chris, for those who do not know the title).

Yesterday Chris had setup the entertainment department with plenty seed, I was quizzical without reason. This morning, at dawn there were enough birds, squirrels, chip monks and much more. I tried to count the number of Blue Jays…. Eight on a single branch! They, of course, do not stay still for long - so how did I count them? You take a mental picture, count the legs and divide by two… That is how. Never mind the technique, does not always work.

Waiting for Chris waking up I had no less than 5 cups of coffee which to this moment have me bu-zzz-ing, that was not a good idea.

7:00 am. His eminence makes an entrance. “Ready for breakfast?” - you bet! Chris proceeds to fry bacon and four eggs on the same skillet at same time. Remember, genuine cuisine. Well, original/creative cuisine is more appropriate. Eggos with syrup and butter completed the menu. Yum! And I mean it…. Truly yum!

“Alberto, I have an idea”. Oh no, here we go again. The field needs weed-whacking. Hmmm, I think we are about to have chapter two of Huckleberry Chris … To be continued.

Small editorial: Well, compliments of Markus, I have been corrected. It is Mark Twain’s in Tom Sawyer who got the dastardly deed performed by someone else. Now truly. Picky, picky. I still got put to work…. That is a no-no Mr. Weld, no matter which, or whose story. You remain in the outhouse for two counts: 1) elderly abuse (I’m 67) and 2) abuse of the guest! Neither have absolution, so confession this Sunday will be a waste of the preacher’s time.

But, let us get back to the story. Where was I? Oh, yes…. Chapter two of huckleberry Chris. Yes, I got to work for my breakfast. But, everyone… The place looks better!

Soon after laboring as a farmer, tired and abused. Barely able to move … Yes! got a shower… Ahhh. So much better.

Time to hit the road. Chris and I went on highway 89 and up highway 44 to a fabulous look-out. From it, Mt Shasta and Mt Lassen can be seen and down below the valley stretching for miles left and right. You could open you hand and place the valley inside it.

Later, back on highway 89 to his favorite fishing hole. It was a very pastoral scene with a river, not a Creek, a full blown River. Plenty other fishermen were doing their manly thing… Catch fish. Correction, Chris says it is a creek. More exactly, Hat Creek. No matter, this is my story and I say, if you can drown in it, it is a river! Now, who do you wanna believe?

Later we visited the SETI station (search for extra terrestrial intelligence), funded by none other than loony-tunes Paul Allen once of Microsoft. The things you can do with money. Of course Stanford, UC Berkeley among other loony-tunes-“sure I’ll take your money” institutions are involved. But I digress. The SETI thing was pretty interesting and coming along just fine. Eventually They will have 300 plus antennae to search the entire Universe…. Whoop-ti-doo! But, I admit… Pretty interesting.

Later we cruised on road called Cassel-Fall River Mills Rd (Mr Clint Eastwood owns a fancy state on it, among other notorious individuals and criminals). The reason for the honorary mention is: I could do this road all day long. This was a dream of a motorcycling road. Wending left and right with gentle undulation. All this next to a river. On a balmy 75 degree temperature day. Truly, better you cannot have.

Soon we arrived at the Fall Rive Hotel. This was just a stop. The bar is quite well endowed… Including the bar- Maid I may add. But, as Chris put it… Too bad she ain’t tax deductible! At the town we purchased more bird seed, Chris is quite certain that the entertainment will run out… Probably so. These birds on his backyard are not only a spectacle to witness but these brutes are quite aggressive! Oh, pretty, pretty little bird… My ass! These are predatory killing machines, that happen to look pretty.

The Fort Crook Museum. It was interesting mainly because of Indian Jack’s history. Local story. Indian Jack was the last battle fought against the Indians by the US cavalry. By the way, Jack beat the crap out of the general assigned to wipe Jack out…. Oh what a surprise Mr. General got on his last campaign… Yep! He died on that one. But you will never see Hollywood make a movie on Indian Jack. Strange of Hollywood, hell bent on making the Indians the bad guys. There were some pretty cool Indians!

It is now about 4:00 pm. Time to head for dinner. Chris proposed Spinners Lodge Restaurant. He wanted to play host. Nope! He was denied. I figured I owed him, don’t know what, after all he put me to work. Well, he has been a great host, and that is the truth.

At the bar I had Hexagenia IPA, from the Fall River Brewing Co. The local beer. It only comes in the jumbo size bottle. Not a bad beer, very heavy on the hops. Yes, I got throughly pickled! Probably sterile after this beer. Remember this is the first thing to the stomach since breakfast. Barely made it to the table for dinner.

Whatever happened to the well endowed hotel and bar-maid? I only had a manly drink there… Diet coke, I figured on impressing the bar-maid with my order. It was a wasted gesture!. Chris on the other hand, he can drink like a fish. At the well-endowed and at the restaurant, no problem, down the hatch!

We stayed at the restaurant grounds awhile making sure that all the alcohol was digested and processed. Nice facility with a beautiful river running through it. A functioning water-wheel. Nice set up. Not cheap.

Time to head home… 45 minutes later has me typing these for you… While Mr. weld prepares for himself, a cocktail: Bourbon, bitter herbs, a touch of sugar and a maraschino cherry - and this concoction is called…? (Let the knowledgable tell you). For it definitely has a name (which he told me and I refuse to tell you). Nice eh?

That’s it.

End of day two.