We woke up this morning not to the sound of cars passing by or the feeling of needing to stretch our bodies beyond the limitations of the van but instead to quiet and comfort. Without the same rush to quickly brush our teeth before someone realizes we haven't made a purchase we were able to ease into the day. After reading a few Sherman Alexie poems (incredible), doing laundry (a god sent) and eating breakfast (out of bowls) we headed off to explore Washington State University. Sara did her graduate program there and gave us a tour of the football practice field, the top of the library and some strange art. The frosting on the cake was getting to see the bear research and conservation facility. This facility is home to up to 10 orphaned bears at a time who have come there for all kinds of reasons including not getting along well with others. Since the weather was humid the bears we did see were more content to lounge than pose for pictures.
Next we headed to Moscow, ID for the farmer's market. A very popular and surprisingly affordable place to spend your Saturday, the market boasts vendors of every kind including a woman making bars of shampoo and acne/mosquito repellent/sunscreen. For people watching we did not get to see as many gun racks as we had hoped but there was a terribly awful banjo player and several mohawks.
Speaking of mohawks and awful banjo players we drove next to Troy, ID for Troy Dayz (yep spelled with a "Z"). Troy Dayz features a parade of old cars (not just classic but also dirty), a bouncy castle, a first aide station run by a guy smoking, a cloud of onion ring smell filling the air which was nicely complemented by the blaring banjo music. Within the town there are two restaurants and we decided to patronize the one not formerly affiliated with meth sales. At the Filling Station cafe the food was good and the staff friendly though Sara did mention it seems to be a little hit or miss on actually getting the food. Even with the appeal of lawn mower racing and buffalo chip tossing we took a nice walk around the outskirts of Troy instead. Though we didn't see a mama bear and her cub as Sara had once we did encounter a squirrel that seemed to be both chattering and shrieking at us at the same time.
Back at the homestead we lounged like bears and laughed like the squirrel in the tree. And we had cake.
*Written in collaboration with Sara and Isaiah- A
The WSU library
The WSU library
Sign at Bear Facility
Hot bear resting in the shade
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