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April 28, 2006

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We took off for Everett last Thursday to see if our steamboat would be ready. We arrived in Everett late so decided to find a place to sleep. Dave's reputation for picking a motel for the evening is still on course. Remember when we came to Seattle last month, he got us a place to stay that had a party going on up above us all night long. We had another bad experience in Seattle a few years ago and it turned out the room next to us (with VERY thin walls between) was rented by the hour! We had stayed in this motel in Everett before and it wasn't too bad the first time so we decided to try again. This time we were right next to someone who blasted the radio all night. I finally got to sleep after we turned on the heater fan to drown out the noise, but was awakened at 2:00 a.m. about cooked to death and with the sounds of an old-time revival meeting going on. It was hell-fire and damnation till about 6:00 a.m. What a night! The one thing all these places had in common was that they were relatively cheap. Dave promises he won't spend less than $100 a night in any hotel in the future!

The next morning after breakfast, we headed to the shipyard and to Everett Engineering to check out the steamboat. We were so sure we were going to get it that we drove the big gas-guzzling Chevy Suburban. Dave and the crew worked on the fuel and steam system most of the day Friday, but there were too many glitches that needed to be attended to, so it will remain up in Everett until it is ready. We were kind of disappointed in not being able to bring it back with us, but we want it to be right. Maybe in a week or so, we will try again. This time we want to make sure it's ready before we leave to go up there, because with gas at over $3 a gallon, there's no need to drive the Suburban if we won't be towing the boat back!

However the weekend wasn't completely lost, as we had planned to go up to Arlington (which is just north of Everett) to attend a steam party at one guy's place. He had all these steam engines on display and a huge boiler to run them all. There was plenty of whistle blowing going on. Some of those whistles are 4-feet tall and came off old ocean liners. It's a good thing he lives out in a rural area, because they were LOUD! He has chickens, and they ran for the woods whenever a whistle went off. They probably won't lay eggs for a week! About 75 people attended and so we spent most of the day visiting and talking steam with friends. OK, I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it was an enjoyable day. We left for West Linn later that afternoon and got back there around 9:00 p.m.