Brian, you should search for a new employer who is more respectful of your needs.

 

Some employees require constant affirmation, Bob. See Brian’s post above. He wants Happy Hour at his place…sheeesh….

 

Russ is right. Much better to be bombed and safely in the office as opposed to driving around and endangering others.

 

Getting ready to hit the road back to Florida, another 12 hours

 

Watch out for Chuck! Safe travels John.

 

Mick, I see your streak of riding days is in danger of being rained out.

 

Too damn early. Coffee hasn't kicked in yet. This laid back Pacific lifestyle is making be lazy.

No, but thanks for the heads up. I'll run out and try to find a volcano themed costume to wear.

I'm not sure if you have ever been here or seen it, but Mount Saint Helens is very prominent in our view to the north. There are some spots in Vancouver and Portland that it looks like it's just on the outskirts of town. I believe the atmosphere magnifies it and it looks impossibly large. My point - it must have really been something to have lived here when it happened. There's no way you wouldn't be able to have a full view of the eruption. It probably looked like the world was coming to an end.

This is a stunning picture to me -


The description -

A perfectly surreal vignette. Richard ‘Dick’ Lasher’s amazing photo of the 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens, complete with Ford Pinto and Yamaha IT dirtbike. Everybody knew the mountain was gonna blow, but Lasher camped there anyway, setting up camp late on the evening of May 17th. He planned to get up early and drive to Spirit Lake, but woke up late, and was driving towards the lake at 8:32am when Mt St Helens blew. The sound must have been deafening, and
instantly an enormous ash cloud rose, and Lasher knew he was f*cked. He turned around in a hurry, bending the forks of his Yamaha on a rock, then thought, ‘If I’m gonna die, I should take photos’. He stopped the Pinto mid-turnaround, snapped this astounding photo, the hi-tailed it off the mountain. If he’d reached Spirit Lake he would have been vaporized, as the lake was blown 850’ in the air, and even if he’d reached the first ridge you can see in the photo (about 2 miles), he would have died instantly as every tree there was flattened in the blast, and temperatures hit 640degrees. As it was, he was soon driving blind through the ash, staying on the left shoulder as he could just see the trees a few feet away. The Pinto conked out from the ash, so he mounted his Yamaha, which saved his life. Four campers near him that morning were not so lucky, and 57 people near the mountain died that day. Amazingly, he got back on the Yam the following morning to take photos, and managed to find several burned out cars on the mountain, before he was spotted by a Sheriff’s helicopter, which landed in front of him! He was arrested and hauled him off to jail for a few days, but he still managed to return and fetch both his Pinto and his Yamaha! Dick Lasher worked at Boeing and his co-workers related his story later on, as he shied away from any publicity.

 

First day , we traveled from Thomson,Ga. To an overnight stop in Marion, Ms. We will try to stop again before traversing the Dallas/ Fort Worth area.

 

Morning John and Chuck. Safe travels Chuck!

 

Bob, I’m surprised there wasn’t a secondary explosion from that Yamaha that rear ended that Pinto!

Awesome story, that guy was lucky to be alive.