Author: lief

CHILI!!

I’m not one to usually post food pics but our get together today has 2.5 gallons of Hanks Kitchen Chili, with my own substitution of bison for beef.

I got a sneak preview last night and it is rather spicy and Oooooh so good.

Happy Labor Day!
CHILI!!

Nez Perce and inter-tribal Tamkaliks celebration.

We took this trip to Wallowa (wa ‘la wa) in July because TheWeeOne wanted to meet an Nez Perce indian friend just like her American Girl doll named Kaya (whom she brought in complete pow-wow regalia).
Two little girls gone native.
I’m not sure she met with what she expected at this event;

I thought there’d just be lotsa teepees.

…but the weekend proved to be anything but lacking.
We did see, hear, and experience a fair amount of authenticity.
This image is taken from a short video presented on my Instagram account, where you can also listen.
Nez Perce and inter-tribal Tamkaliks celebration.

Authentic dancing
The costumes, singing, and dancing were definitely a high point and a focus of the weekend.

They clearly took their rituals VERY seriously.
Tradition

Impressive array

The grounds, where the majority of events took place, was well designed…
Tamkaliks grounds

…and the view out of the south entryway was amazing at sundown – especially so with the teepees on the river.
Teepees at Sundown

A horse parade happened one morning, recognizing several individuals who had followed a traditional path to the encampment from Pendleton, on horseback.
Horse Parade
Tribal Elder

TheWeeOne even got a very brief encounter with two of the performers her age.
Mermaids and NezPerce

And the rest of the weekend was spent either driving to and fro…
LaGrande - Thattaway.

…or walking on water, near the cabin we reserved, just outside of Joseph.
Who knew that Mermaids CAN walk on water.

It was a great little place called Trouthaven. The sunset on the hills even reflected gold in the water
Waterskiing on liquid gold.
(NO retouching here)

And we even saw some hard-to-find wildlife.
This guy took about 30 minutes to track down

TheMermaids, ever the chameleons, went a little native themselves in a very short time.
Girls gone native
Girls gone native II

Quiet Cloth

This past weekend we drove to North-Eastern Oregon to see the 23rd Annual Nez Perce Tamkaliks celebration.
It is a PowWow and friendship gathering filled with their rich oral tradition, stories, dancing, prayer, and the appropriate pomp and circumstance. I’ll get to more of that later.

First, a vignette from the ride home.

We drove a lot, 909 miles over 4 days, and near the end of the tired drive home The Mermaids were mostly good, their DVD player was malfunctioning (overuse?) and TheDaddy purt-near ran us out of gas between Yakima and Ellensburg when we stopped for dinner. The Mermaids were half asleep and somewhat delirious – bordering on cranky – a good time to stop.

The WeeOne was strangely holding out for Subway sandwiches until she tasted the pancakes and syrup which TheMommy had ordered with her meal. She ate roughly one-fifth of the short stack but the shot of sugar to her system was obvious – like three big swigs of whiskey on an empty stomach.

She started free-associating.

This carried over into the van, back on the read, where she was (mis)quoting lyrics from songs, beating her sister with a pillow-pet and just generally getting the jitters out.

Finally her sister had enough and after the n’th iteration of some lyric LaGrande loudly SHHHH’d her; WeeOne whispered her refrain this time.
We laughed and TheWeeOne got more ‘gas in her tank’.

Again the refrain
SHHH! (Laughing)
Again this time, but different.
(more Laughing)
SHHHHHHHHt!

The car fell momentarily silent – LaGrande held her mouth for a second and then said

Oopsie, (still laughing) I just said ‘SHHHHHHt’?!
It’s okay, it was an accident.
Okay.

But TheWeeOne was still going, hair on fire, and hearing this nominal acceptance she gave a testing whisper.

shhhhht.(giggles)
SHHHHHHHt. (this time louder)
Hey?!
SHHHHHH…………….t!
Hey now, that’s enough! I know it sounds funny but that’s still like saying a bad word.

Then, with TheMommy’s reprimand still hanging in the air, TheWeeOne paused; and queued her zinger.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHirt!

I don’t remember the next 2 miles of road, nor could I see it through my laughing tears; all four of us were delirious..

The Mommy and I agreed we are pretty much on defense from here on out.

2013 Seattle To Portland bike ride.

2013 Seattle To Portland bike ride.

I rode the STP (Seattle To Portland) on Saturday with TTurner and Adam and about 100 miles with Ed P. from my office.

With TTurner as a lead out and a healthy tailwind I turned in my fastest ever distance ride (over an hour) with an average speed recorded on my CPU at 20.2mph, with a 10h 02m riding time for 203.11 miles starting at 4:45 in the first wave of riders and finishing at some time right around 6PM.

It was a blast, and there are some good pictures coming out showing just how closely I was drafting TTurner!
At one point I told him,

I’m CRAZY close to you!
…just holdin’ her steady.
I’m just sayin’ that if you fly into a mountain I’m goin’ with ya!
Alright.

He never once presented anything other than rock-steady lead out, all…day…long…despite having a car pull out in front AND a driver throwing something like a crushed aluminum can at him/us. Steady.

We had Adam, on an upright cross bike all day, and Ed on a sweet road bike but still, I’m curious, why we didn’t pick up more uprights all along the route.

And lastly, our team, and I in particular, was saved more than once by the timely support of BopOp who had spare water and other essentials necessary to bring a no-trainin’ fool along 200 miles at such a torrid pace.
Thanks Dad.

Three days on now and I’ve developed some sore muscles and joints but I’ll be alright; the memory of the good ride is still fresh as I ride to work this morning.