Ain't That America.

Fourth of July.

red, white and blue and potato salad and sunscreen.

maybe a blow-up pool.

america.

oh how we show that we love you.

whatever.

this is how our trip home from idaho started out:

We couldn't have asked for better weather for the weekend of the 4th.

Coer d'Alene, Idaho.

Perfect for taking a dip in the lake, cruising in the boat and just taking it easy.

*sigh*

The Life.

But it's true that all good things must indeed come to an end, so we packed the car and headed for the City; just a hop, skip and a jump across the state of Washington, over the columbia river, through the cascades to our Home Sweet Seattle.

(But not before we made a detour to the Rez to purchase discount illegal fireworks and reasonably priced tobacco products. C'mon! it's IDAHO!)

The sky was beautiful, the sun was shining, until somewhere outside Ritzville, WA we ran into this:

A thunderstorm moving in.

if you've never been to ritzville, WA, don't take it too hard.

it's huge plains of dirt. it's not unlike West Texas in that way.

piles of dirt.

some would call it a "featureless landscape".....

.....except for the grain elevators. They're a "feature", eh?

anyway.

this storm was moving in all big and dark and grumbly, throwing it's wind around like it was really going to tear that "featureless landscape" all to shit.

go back and look at that picture.

no really.

GO BACK.

*waiting*

the black skies....the dirt kicking up.

it looks serious.

that wind was crazy.


4 drops of rain.

that's it.

a couple of tumbleweeds attacked the car.

that was exciting.

and then we were in Ritzville proper.

which is mostly a lot of these:

There was a sidewalk sale outside this auto repair place.

they had a couple of acoustic guitars sitting there so we pulled over.

i wish i could have taken a picture of that scene.

the Strangest People I Have Ever Seen. (well...maybe not, but WOW anyway!)

there was a biker dude that looked like Dog the Bounty Hunter, his toothless wife and what appeared to be a daughter who was sitting on an old couch, wearing a lingerie corset (mind you, not a tiny girl) and holding an extra-thick chain leash, at the end of which was the gnarliest Pit Bull i've ever seen. all growly and slobbery and.... Hungry.....he definitely appeared Hungry.....

And he's jerking on this chain and the Langouring Lugubrious Lusciously Lingerie-Clad Daughter doesn't bat an eyelid and never wanes from her mournful expression.

they wanted $100 bucks for this "meh" acoustic guitar.

We left.

god i wanted a picture.

patrick later suggested that i might have pretended to take a picture of him while he was eyeing their wares and surreptitiously taken the picture of Luscious and her pooch.

FAT LOT OF GOOD THAT DOES ME NOW, PAT-TRICK! (i say, secretly wishing i'd thought of such a brilliant scheme. then i'd have evidence of La Familia Creeptastico in all their glory.)

But alas, it was not to be.

all you get instead is my wordy, mildy entertaining recounting of my encounter with said family.

oh yeah....

and the really nice sunset we drove into as we hit the Cascades.

enjoy.