Emerald City and Beyond

Things have been pretty busy at the Newmaforma Service Corsa lately. More boatbiking than blogging. Priorities.

Last weekend we decided to make a visit to our friends Cass at their new home and shop on Whidbey Island. Beyond seeing their new digs, it was a chance to test Gavin on a car trip longer than 2 hours. So far he has cross country ski trips of 3 hours and boat bike rides of 2.5 hours under his belt as well as numerous 2 hour drives and airline flights. I was optimistic.

The drive was ideal with G's napping and A and I catching up on conversation until we hit Seattle. Maybe the stop-and-go traffic, maybe the crappy sub sandwich we had for lunch or the chocolate Graham Crackers for dessert, brought on disaster. Or maybe the belly-button book he was reading instigated his troubles. Maybe all of it or none of it; regardless, ALL OF IT came up and ALL OVER his shirt, pants and car seat.

I cut through traffic from the far left lane to the far right lane just in time to see the next exit was a lefty to Mercer St. Oh, well. The following exit some 1/2 mile beyond seemed much, much further as all the windows were opened to ventilate. The road noise did little to muffle G's screaming.

We made it off the freeway and stumbled through a seemingly nice neighborhood to a Chevron station with a mini mart. Glorious relief as there is a parking spot right by the door and no waiting behind cars needing gas.



A jumped out and around to G who sits behind the driver seat and stripped him down, while I went inside to buy some water for rinsing and came back to find G naked and covered head to toe in vomit. (at this point I was not allowed to take photos)

A and G raced into the bathroom and the Korean guy behind the counter was very nice to them. He opened the bathroom door and commented how it was too cold out for a kid to be naked.

Meanwhile I'm scooping barf out of G's seat with an Auto Trader and trying to unhook the straps and remove the fabric from the seat itself. It was a situation of trying to maintain forward momentum but not having a frigging clue what my next step was going to be. And despite the nastiness, I was kinda into the moment.

As A and G came back out with wet hair and clean clothes on G, she tells me how nice the guy inside is and how she has kid barf in her hair and on her shirt. The stream of folks walking past staring at me and my pile of saturated Auto Traders at my feet increased into an afternoon rush of refueling.

Finally having the barf saturated straps and fabric of the car seat removed, I race inside to rinse it all in the bathroom. Just inside the door is the line, and people immediately smell what I am holding and turn away in disgust allowing me to pass through to the bathroom door only to find resistance from the Angry Korean Mini-Mart (AKM-M)lady.

The lady's about 4'8" and has a finger up in my face yelling, "You can't come in here with that. You can't be in my bathroom with that. That no good, you go way!"

I'm totally shocked. A's compliment of the man still in my ears. I look at her in disbelief and retort, "You're ridiculous! You'd let me shit in your toilet but you won't let me rinse off a baby seat?"

She repeated herself as people in line joined my cause. Emphasizing my point, I fanned the pungent pile of car seat padding with every exclamation and the whole Mini Mart began to reek. Finally AKM-M Lady conceded and I continued my momentum of cleaning.

Back at the car A was chasing G around the driver seat while he practiced re-telling his story.




I managed to get the straps back in the baby seat and used his blankie for him to sit on. The rest of the tainted padding went in a plastic bag deep in the back of the car.



We bid farewell to the Angry Korean Mini Mart and pushed on toward the Mukitilo ferry.

While waiting for the ferry A asked if I'd check the gift shop for a t-shirt as hers was rank with barf. I ran across the street to see what I could find and came back with coffee and a bumper sticker.



When asked, "What am I supposed to do with a bumper sticker?" I answered with the obvious, "Get some."

G went nuts on the ferry. He honestly thought he was driving, and ran around all the windows yelling and pointing "Water, water!"



The rest of the trip went well. Never enough time with friends.