The
days are flying by. It's hard to believe that we have been riding for
more than 2 weeks already. During our stop in Astoria, we made a small
purchase. We bought a fog horn. Stephen rationalized that on windy
roads it would be nice to alert cars to our presence by sounding the
horn. Today, we found a few new uses for the horn.
Use
#1 - Celebration. When we got to the top of a particularly tall and
steep hill, we each took a turn sounding the fog horn in celebration of
our accomplishment.
Use
#2 - Communication. Usually we end up riding in pairs. Stephen and
Bins out front with Tan and me bringing up the rear, or some variation
of parent/child combos with a space in between. Previously, if the pair
in the back needed to communicate with the pair in front (bathroom
break, snack break, etc.) they had to race to catch up. Now, the adult
bringing up the rear carries the fog horn and lets out a blast when a
stop is needed. It's a beautiful improvement.
Use
#3 - Spontaneous participation in a parade. OK, I'm not sure how often
this one will come in handy, but it did today. We rolled into Lincoln
City about 5pm and pulled into a strip mall to visit the laundromat.
The parking lot was full of patrol cars, fire engines and civilian
vehicles all circled up. My first thought was that we had just entered
an accident scene, but the atmosphere was a little too casual. Soon a
school bus pulled in full of screaming teenagers answered by a chorus of
honks and cheers from the waiting crowd. The bus was then escorted to
the high school for their game. We joined in the school spirit with a
few blasts of the fog horn.
