A couple of interesting days I just went through.

Yesterday was busy working on a few landscaping projects. A busy day, but pretty productive. I thought I would reward myself by going to do some laundry.

Ahhh… the laundromat. Quite a cross-section of people in those places. Luckily I have a dryer at the cabin so I am only washing my clothes there now and bringing them home. It makes for a much quicker trip back to the cabin. Well… one would think.

I wash my clothes and come back and pass a firetruck going the other way. I thought “Hmmm… that is weird” because I was in the county park. I get up close to the parking area and I see flashing red lights and as I round the corner to park and find out what the hell was going on I see a sheriff car parked by where I usually park. I get on my official gear and walk over and see two firetrucks. Then I see the ass-end of a BMW that has no front-end.

Somehow the thing caught on fire, then it caught the fence and the undergrowth behind the fence on fire. I heard this morning that the flames were about 15 feet high. We are lucky it did not spread with as dry as things are here. It even melted trim and the turn signal lens and hubcap AND blew the tire on the car right next to it.

In all the excitement I did not notice the other car right away that was parked a few spaces over next to the Beamer. I did not know who it belonged to and asked the Sheriff. Then a light comes up the trail. The refuge has been closed for about 90 minutes and these people were just now getting back. I had to remind them of the rules and the closing time. Doesn’t anyone read and take rules seriously? Sheesh!

The owners of said Beamer were an older couple and I believe they were Russian, but from a town south of Seattle. The three younger people with them were from Moldova, which is between Romania and Ukraine. The Russian couple spoke decent English, but the other three spoke no English, other than the girl, and she only new about three words.

It was getting pretty cold with the humidity here (about 46 degrees and probably 70%) and before the night ended I was sitting with them and their possessions in my car at the front gate waiting for their ride to show up. I talked with the Russian lady while we waited and she was very nice. She told me about her country and about Moldova and that area, and I told them about Colorado and she translated. It is interesting to talk to people from foreign lands to see how different, yet alike, we actually are.

After about 40 minutes their ride finally arrived. We parted ways and I went back to my cabin in pitch blackness on the trail.

Today I got into a wrestling match with my contacts and the left one won. I think I scratched my eyeball getting it out. It hurts bad and has been watering all day. I should have taken them out last night but was too tired after the fire.

After that, I made my morning hike, my other morning rounds, and then worked the gate the rest of the day. I answered a lot of questions – There were a lot of people visiting on a gorgeous day like today, and possibly due to the holiday weekend it was extremely busy.

Tonight, I had to run people off the beach, and it sounds like I will be doing that often. I had gotten the last people off the beach, went to shut the trail, and then headed off to the bluff and watched the sunset. I then headed back to my Mule to go back home. I took off a few hours today to make up other time I was over. Has not been to my advantage so far.

As I got back there was a car sitting in the lot. A guy was walking back over to it and we exchanged greetings. He said he was waiting for two people to show up that were on the Spit. ARRGH!!! More people who cannot read. Great. I went BACK to the beach and waited. No people, and it was getting dark fast. Closed for almost an hour and nobody in sight.

I went BACK up to the lot to see if they had a cell phone. I sent a couple of texts on the guy’s phone that was in the car to the girl’s phone. No answer. They called and I answered his phone (the guy in the car knows nothing about cellphones so I had to do all of it). I reminded her that the refuge was closed and told her of the fines/jail time possible. They hauled ass and I went down to see where they were. I met them in front of my cabin and explained again the penalties, and explained the rules in greater detail. I have never been called “sir” so much in my life. Had a lot of smoke trying to get blown up my ass, too.

I gave them a ride back up and they were still apologizing. As we got there a Jeep pulls up and it was Border Patrol checking to see what the guy was doing waiting in the car. He asked me what was going on when I pulled up. It kinda helped to make my point that they could have gotten into a lot of trouble.

Anyway, it’s adult beverage time. Tomorrow I will be taking off to make up for time that I worked on my day off and after hours. I just have to open and close the trail and then I am free to be on my own time.

I leave you with this…