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The Twin Towers Fri Apr 17, 2020 9:25 pm
Two Wheels Better
Moderator
Inspired by Duck's local ride last week I decided to take a quick hop of my own down towards the Washington coast. Highway 108 runs east/west from near the state capital, Olympia, to Aberdeen, former home of that most famous Nirvana member, Kurt Cobain. The sign at the entrance to town says "Come as you are." Just prior, when passing the podunk town of Satsop you can easily see the twin towers of the defunct nuke plant proposed by the then governor-ess, Dixy Lee Ray. This is the one Duck mentions that went into default and ended up costing the taxpayers billions. Better bilions before it's built than multiple billions to clean it up later on, as we often have to do. Well, damn if I haven't ridden thataway a dozen times or more and never bothered to ride the three or four miles up the hill for a closer squiz. Today I did. Wow!
The place is now an industrial park (estate) but looks quite empty and over-built. The flags hanging from the sign along the thoroughfare leading in to the site suggest that the county "Think Big". The place was eerie, empty, with the dual monoliths (duoliths?) hollow and stark, vast paved parking lots, and many drab, slab-sided buildings, with semi-underground pipes exposed, fences with Keep Out warning signs,. What must have been someone's great big pipe dream. Nuclear power, so cheap it's almost free. It reminded me of Chernobyl without the meltdown.
I left there with an eye to something slightly more natural. So I found some county roads running back towards Shelton through dense, piney woods, past clear-running streams, hunting cabins and neat farms set back aways. My lunch break had me down along a fairly fast-moving river, waterfowl & skunk cabbage, fresh blossoms and new leaves uncurling. The sun slowly began to disappear under clouds that were moving in. I just sat there quietly taking it all in.
The ride home took me around the nooks and crannies and backwaters of the Puget Sound through Union and on towards Purdy, then down over the Tacoma Narrows twin bridges and back into heavier traffic. It's a familiar run, but the curving roads were empty and so I gave it some extra stick.
The place is now an industrial park (estate) but looks quite empty and over-built. The flags hanging from the sign along the thoroughfare leading in to the site suggest that the county "Think Big". The place was eerie, empty, with the dual monoliths (duoliths?) hollow and stark, vast paved parking lots, and many drab, slab-sided buildings, with semi-underground pipes exposed, fences with Keep Out warning signs,. What must have been someone's great big pipe dream. Nuclear power, so cheap it's almost free. It reminded me of Chernobyl without the meltdown.
I left there with an eye to something slightly more natural. So I found some county roads running back towards Shelton through dense, piney woods, past clear-running streams, hunting cabins and neat farms set back aways. My lunch break had me down along a fairly fast-moving river, waterfowl & skunk cabbage, fresh blossoms and new leaves uncurling. The sun slowly began to disappear under clouds that were moving in. I just sat there quietly taking it all in.
The ride home took me around the nooks and crannies and backwaters of the Puget Sound through Union and on towards Purdy, then down over the Tacoma Narrows twin bridges and back into heavier traffic. It's a familiar run, but the curving roads were empty and so I gave it some extra stick.
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"A long ride is the answer to a question you will soon forget!" ~ Anonymous
1977 R75/7-100, '93 K11/K12 Big Block, '93 K1100RS, '95 R100 Mystic, '96 K1100RS, 2 x '98 K1200RS, '06 K1200R & '09 K1300GT
