11-20JUL08 - Everett, WA

On Friday the 11th, we moved from the fair grounds in Monroe, to Dan’s cousin Paul Peters’ in Everett, WA. We did this because Dan has two “jobs” coming up toward the end of July, and this would allow Corrie “company” rather than leaving her alone in a RV park. And it saves us money! Not wanting to be complete freeloaders, we try to help out around the Peters “spread”. Since they have over two acres that Paul is continually landscaping and changing, and are painting the main house, the attached three car garage, and the “mother-in-law” apartment, there is stuff to do. Corrie continued to help with the painting, while Dan installed cedar lattice work around the Aunt Jan’s back deck. (Blatant Advertisement --- So if you have any project around the house/yard that you haven’t got done lately, let us park our RV in your yard with water & electricity, and we will lend a hand.)

On Saturday, 12JUL, we headed into Dan’s old home town of Redmond, WA. Redmond, currently the home of Microsoft and its minions, used to be the proverbial blinking red light and the biggest thing (figuratively) in town was Dodd’s horse farm. In fact when Dan Sr moved and built on Union Hill Rd outside of Redmond, everyone thought he was out of his mind because it took over an hour to get there without a direct road. Well now the highway shoots straight from Seattle to the heart of Redmond and it usually takes you two hours. How’s that for progress?!? Now Redmond is just another generic suburb of Seattle. This was immediately evident when we drove into town and Dan noted that the Workshop Tavern, home of one of the best burgers, was being leveled to make way for another strip mall.

The first stop in Redmond was the Redmond Town Center. This is kinda like an outdoor Mall, intended to have major stores and small “boutique” stores found in a typical Mall located downtown. The belief being that it is better to have shoppers coming into town, rather than have shoppers taking their money elsewhere. Seems like a pretty good idea, wonder how it works when the raining season hits?

http://www.redmondtowncenter.com/

Turns out Redmond was celebrating Derby Days. For some reason Redmond believes it is the “Bicycle Capital of the Northwest”? So for over fifty years it has celebrated Derby Days, centered around the bicycle and bicycle races. Back in Dan’s day this was the big event of the year and everyone in town knew about it and usually attended. In Dan’s opinion now that Redmond is “just another” suburb that lives there but works elsewhere, Derby Days is no different than any other generic festival in any Suburb, USA. There were the usual carnival rides, food booths, and a stage for music. To show how the event has lost its significance, when we asked at the Town Center Information Office about the festival, the attendant had to “google” the computer to find out what was going on. In fact, the information booth didn’t even have brochures for the festival.

http://www.ci.redmond.wa.us/recreationarts/derbydays/default.asp

On Sunday, 20JUL, Paul’s brothers (ie more of Dan’s cousins) John Peters with wife Michelle & kids, and Jim Peters came over to help with the painting and subsequent BBQ. Dan prepared his world famous slow cooked/smoked pulled pork, and Paul cooked up some country ribs. Not sure much work was accomplished but a lot of great food was eaten!