shopping in the dark
I slept in until 9:30! Then we got some coffee and got in the car and headed east. The phone rang just as we were turning away from the house and it was one of my boys asking about portobello mushrooms. I assured him the farm would deliver today, and I was off the hook with him and could leave town.
We went to White Salmon and registered the car in Washington. The secret in Washington is that in order to get license plates, you don't go to the DMV, you go to a private company. The (hot, tattooed, longhaired) guy who took the $10 fee for selling me the plates was amused and bitter about people moving to Skamania County from Portland. I was a little put off about him getting $10 for showing me attitude. Luckily, while we were dealing with Mr. Personality, the guy from the actual DMV office came in. Kevin noticed his uniform and we got directions from him to the driver-license office.
The whole town goes to lunch at about the same time and they're fairly assertive about it, so we had some time to kill. We wandered the mostly-rehabbed, mostly-dead main street of White Salmon looking at all the art galleries and new-agey stuff that made me think of Sedona and Jerome in Arizona. We had good cheap Mexican food in one of two places to eat that were in evidence, a makeshift kind of café in a tienda full of chiles and cheap Mexican spices and weird chili-lemon candies.
Up the hill we went to see the DMV guy. He was friendly and handsome and subtly flirty and married. He didn't make me take the driver test. We both got WA licenses and the car registered for $175. Bonus: we both registered to vote as well. Oddly, I had a conversation at the DMV with a guy who winters in an RV in Huachuca City AZ and a Mexican migrant who discussed routes through the desert to the border.
Stopped at Hi-School Pharmacy and bought a step stool and some other stuff. Then up through Lyle (mneh, I like the green part of the Gorge better than the brown part) to Dallesport and crossed the mighty Columbia to The Dalles, Oregon.
There were several second-hand and other junk-type stores on the main street, but they were having a power outage and lots of things were closed. I bought fly strips and an FM antenna and Kevin bought an apple peeler. Then to Grocery Outlet for used foods, the Franz Bakery outlet, Bi-Mart for pectin and jar lids, and homeward. At last.
We went to White Salmon and registered the car in Washington. The secret in Washington is that in order to get license plates, you don't go to the DMV, you go to a private company. The (hot, tattooed, longhaired) guy who took the $10 fee for selling me the plates was amused and bitter about people moving to Skamania County from Portland. I was a little put off about him getting $10 for showing me attitude. Luckily, while we were dealing with Mr. Personality, the guy from the actual DMV office came in. Kevin noticed his uniform and we got directions from him to the driver-license office.
The whole town goes to lunch at about the same time and they're fairly assertive about it, so we had some time to kill. We wandered the mostly-rehabbed, mostly-dead main street of White Salmon looking at all the art galleries and new-agey stuff that made me think of Sedona and Jerome in Arizona. We had good cheap Mexican food in one of two places to eat that were in evidence, a makeshift kind of café in a tienda full of chiles and cheap Mexican spices and weird chili-lemon candies.
Up the hill we went to see the DMV guy. He was friendly and handsome and subtly flirty and married. He didn't make me take the driver test. We both got WA licenses and the car registered for $175. Bonus: we both registered to vote as well. Oddly, I had a conversation at the DMV with a guy who winters in an RV in Huachuca City AZ and a Mexican migrant who discussed routes through the desert to the border.
Stopped at Hi-School Pharmacy and bought a step stool and some other stuff. Then up through Lyle (mneh, I like the green part of the Gorge better than the brown part) to Dallesport and crossed the mighty Columbia to The Dalles, Oregon.
There were several second-hand and other junk-type stores on the main street, but they were having a power outage and lots of things were closed. I bought fly strips and an FM antenna and Kevin bought an apple peeler. Then to Grocery Outlet for used foods, the Franz Bakery outlet, Bi-Mart for pectin and jar lids, and homeward. At last.