Frosty the Snowfinch Checks In

In the interest of making my presence known (a post from Finchy, though under the name of Boothy)

Our departure from Mary Fran and her mother's house led us down Highway 105 along the coast to Astoria, OR. I believe it is only fitting that I describe this adventure with my first blog post, since it was at this point that I took the wheel of Big Red. Not long into the drive, flashing blue and red lights behind me began fearful thought processes in all of us... first "Oh crap, we are being pulled..."; second "Oh crap, we have one too many people in this van and one of them has no seatbelt... or seat (apart from a stack of firewood that very much invaded the personal regions of its occupant)..."; third (after the cop letting us know) "Oh crap, Austin neglected to replace the gas cap at the last gas station", and finally (after frantic glove compartment and center console searches) "Oh God help us, we have no proof of insurance in this car." David (the current rider of the firewood) managed to sit up straight and cover himself with a guitar such that the middle two seats looked like they connected and were a bench. I honestly believe he pulled it off, but if the cop did in fact notice and decided to have mercy, I couldn't care less. He also decided to have mercy on the fact that we had no insurance cards, and merely chuckled at the gas cap. However, he did issue me a $90 ticket for 56 in a 45. Cops in South Carolina don't pull you over for 11 over... I don't think.

After proving Big Red's worthiness on a massive uphill climb in Astoria, Pig'n Pancake provided us a great meal and a wonderfully helpful waitress who pointed us to an area where we might set up camp. A few random explorations led us to a very unlikely place to camp, cool enough to have it's own blog entry, so it will.

Finch out