Steve and Judy's Travels!

Drove down to Portland today to visit Elisa and Solomon.

Waited for traffic to clear through Seattle, then made it there by lunch.  Had a nice time.  Had some good food.  Talked and talked and talked.

Jesse came with us.  We walked the dogs together.  She was in this picture too but wasn’t tall enough to make the frame.  She and Solomon bonded immediately, and he is now her new best friend.

It’s quite a journey Solomon is on.  It took over two years to get his travel visa to come from Ghana to Portland so they could get married.  (They thought about getting married first, before he got his visa, but that would have slowed down the process even more.)  Elisa can travel freely, so she was able to fly over and spend some time with him while they waited for the visa.  Now that he has his travel visa though, he can be here, but he’s not allowed to work.  He can live here and enjoy it, but he can’t settle in and get a job, he can just visit.  Ironically, with a travel visa he’s not allowed to travel either.  If he leaves the country, he loses his status and can’t come back without starting the process all over.  Well, now that he’s been here over a year, he just got his work permit, and has been able to get on as a host at Red Robin.  Now life in America is opening up more for him and while he works at Red Robin he can consider what other work opportunities might open up for him.  He has some experience in sales and he knows a lot of tech stuff.  The next step, after some time at this level, he can get his permanent residency card.  A few more years after that he can apply for citizenship.  What a process, but he’s determined enough to do it.  Both of them are determined enough.  It’s a joint effort and it’s so nice to watch them work their way through all this together.

Elisa still works for Wells Fargo where she has for at least eight years.  After Solomon got here, they moved to a larger apartment, but only a block away from the last apartment so it wasn’t hard to find them.  Visiting, walking, eating, talking, it didn’t take long to run out of time.  Judy and I left Portland before dark and drove partway back north to stop for the night to camp at Paradise Point State Park in Washington.

Portland Drive Map

Kyle has been working his way up to do an Ironman triathlon.  Swimming, bicycling, running.  Two miles, 100 miles, 26.2 miles.  All in one day.  He has placed well in swim meets and runs up to and including the marathon distance.  He has done triathlons up to the half Ironman.

The day finally came for the full Ironman today.  He’s at an event in Penticton, Canada.  Except that the lake water was too cold.  Out of safety concerns, the organizers had to cancel the swimming portion.  They went ahead with the rest of it though.  We got to track his progress with our cellphones all day long, by way of the gps tracker on his bib.  Kyle completed the bicycle section in 7 hours, 17 minutes.  He pulled out of the marathon at about 15 miles though.  Having the swim cancelled and sitting around for the next four hours might have thrown off his mental plan and eating.  This was one of the hilliest Ironman routes.  He says he might do more hill training next time, and maybe choose a flatter event.  We hope he is as proud of how much he has accomplished so far, as all of the rest of us are of him.

Cool and rainy, and the flowers love it!

The view from the top.

We found a newt walking next to a trail.

They’re not very big, 6 inches.  I blew him up for the picture.

Now we’re back in Edmonds.

2024 August Camping Week

Forest trails.

A scenic overlook

The Dungeness Spit is a 5 mile walk to get to the end.  We didn’t go all the way.

Fog rolling in.

We left Texas to stay out of the heat.  It stayed cold here all day.  At one point we went back into the van, turned on the engine and ran the heater on high to warm up.  We have sleeping bags that are rated to 30 degrees.  We stay toasty all night, even when it’s cool out.  Saw an orca.