Felicity's First Three Way

Kellen’s brother Tyson came into Bellingham around 11PM, right after I wrapped up my last scribble.  My brain just about fell out my face… first walks in Kellen, long gold locks with a slouchy walk, and then a darker short haired could-be-twin shortly after.  It was like seeing night and day at the same time. He reminded me of Jimmy Fallen and Nick Kroll combined.  I was watching a 2 man sitcom... Wayne's world? Almost.

So, we crawled off the airmattress and raced to Café Hansens a couple blocks down.  It smelled like piss in the entry way, and stale popcorn in the back.  It was perfect, where have we been this whole time?

Late start Thursday morning, cleaning the vansion to fit one more person… it was a mess, but back from the auto shop with a cleaned up fuel tube something of a something or another something. Sounded grrrrrreat!

Took a walk through downtown for breaky settling for The Mount Bakery Crêperie .  Super awesome if you like food that takes 2 hours to make… but really... then Kerm to gets out of class just in time to lead us out of Bellingham on his bike.  It was a beautiful day, prim prime in everyway, til just before the town of Concrete, out of nowhere the hood slammed open after we crossed a bridge.   Beyond fucking amazed that it didn’t break the windshield.  Kerm turned around, and while Kell zip-tied the hood back down, Tyson put on a helmet and rode off with Kerm, making that Felicity's first 3-way. *applause*

It was a beautiful moment, especially each and everytime Tyson would wave at oncoming motorcyclists.

After awhile Kerm turned back , and we continued on through the Northern Cascades highway, stopping a hot minute at Diablo Lake, and then at Winthrop.  Winthrop was Thee shit, and after I nerded out on all the handpainted typography and signs, we checked out some coffee and knives.   

Diablo Lake

Northern Cascades scenic highway

By 9ish, it was obviously getting dark, and we were still a little ways from Spokane.  I fell into the abyss - that is the back seat at this point, so just assume the next few photos is of darkness, because that's all there was for me.  

It was too cold to function for long even after setting up the fire, and Kell and I huddled under sleeping bags and 10 blankets in the van, while Tyson and Lucas slept next to the fire outside… it’s always interesting setting up camp when it’s 1030PM pitch black... so when a pine cone fell onto the van and Lucas’ snoring (the equivalent of a bear) woke us up Kellen goes

“Are you sleeping?”

“No, are you sleeping”

“I’m worried about our fraaanz, their fire went out… they’ll probably get eaten”

Then commence the continuation of both of us sleep-talking, of course; like the super protective friends we are, we just squint out the window into the darkness and wake up to our friends being very much alive.  Thank God.   But also Tyson was missing for the first half of the hour.  But thank god. 

Left camp around… 930AM towards Sand Point and Ty pulled up a sweet lil café called The Hoot Owl Café.   Run and hosted by a generation of a gentler more happenin’ time.   Our waitress was a skinny old lady with a wicked lil grey perm-eqsue hairdo, who greeted everyone regardless of age as ‘kid’ or ‘kiddo’.  

'Round Lake' Campgrounds

Skunk Cabbage

Arrived to Kalispell, Montana around 230PM, and holy chit was it gorgeous.  The air had a bite, and it felt like a bubble where nothing could touch you… except lightning.   In every direction was snowcapped mountains with the clouds rolling away.  Jessie, a longtime forever friend of Kellen and Tyson greeted us with beer and wine and the biggest smile I've ever seen.  She was truly a ball of energy so excited and caring - it was a pleasure to meet her.  Once we settled in we got to meet her horses and besides Star (white mustang), the other two, Pan & Gracy were decently mannered in accepting our peace-carrots. 

Peanut los guinea pig

Jessie, Kellen, Lucas

Before getting too deep into Across the Universe and the Goonies, watching the sky change colors, we got dinner in town at The Montana Club.  The bartender looked at me like I was a complete asshole for asking for a New York Sour, in which case I walked out with their mug.

It was maybe... 8PM when we got back out the Jessies?  And Kell attempted to take Star out on a ride - no such luck - so Gracy got lured out instead.  Everything was cool until we heard "WHOOOA" behind the barn... Gracy had just waited til we were out of sight when she bucked Kell off. Hehe

Kell got back on though like a champ, and the rest of us went on for a hot minute or so before calling it a day once the sun went down.  Jamie, Jessie's sister got off work and joined us as we discovered Tyson's inner-Chi master.

Me holding in my high-pitched voice and excitement

Went on down to Whitefish around 1130PM, I don't know how, but we did - after Kell's power nap, and half a King-sized bag of Cheeto Puffs... no kidding, within 5 minutes of parking we saw people puking and stumbling in semi-circles.  It was pretty wonderful, and we snagged a pool table at Palace Bar, where whiskey-gingers were 2 for $5 (where have I been my life?).

Everyone thought this said Kim... IT DOESN'T.

Shortly, it took a turn for the unst-unst kind of deal... as we checked out Casey's next door... It was a nightmare for someone like Kellen, and while I had weird middle-school dance / rave flashacks, I mostly felt like I was at an awkward Parent-Teacher conference, where adults just congregated to make you feel uncomfortable... great people watching though.  One guy was lip-singin 'yall gonna make me lose my mind' like no one was watching... and a couple onstage was just a wannabe-too-inappropriate for words to describe.  

It was a long night ending with Kellen getting his ass dragged through the house, beer in hand + pigtail braids, Lucas laughing while Tyson continued to emit his newly-discovered Chi unto Jamie and Jessie, and me nearly passing out into a take-out box of mashed potatoes.  

I really can't wait to come back.

KL