Washington - Day 25 - in Newport

Newport/Little Diamond Lake KOA, Newport

Saturday, 25 June 2022

today's route

Not a very clear photo because I just took a piece from another route map - but as you can see I only drove a few miles from the campground to Newport - just over 25 miles round trip for the day.

One of my closest friends from law school, Denise Stewart, is from Newport and has been practicing law here for some years, and I was in town to visit her.

I'd told her I got up really early, so she called me at 6:30 (I was drinking coffee after breakfast) and said I should come over as soon as I wanted to.  So I left the campground at 7:00 and drove into town.

It turned out that the timing of my visit was impeccable: it was the day of the Newport Rodeo Parade.  And Denise's law office had an entry: she and her staff and other helpers planned to walk along the parade route handing out information and useful items (e.g. a pen with the firm's name on it), while I and one of Denise's kids rode on the flatbed of an old bright-yellow pickup (also with the firm's name on it) throwing candy to the kids along the route.  

So I got a great backwards tour of Newport (pop. 2,229 in 2020) and actually improved my so-called throwing arm enough that after a while I was actually able to get the candy as far out as the kids, instead of just a few feet from the truck.

The truck was closely followed by some horse-mounted young women who wore sashes proclaiming them to have been selected Newport Rodeo Queen and other such titles.  I wasn't able to read the sashes from where I sat so I don't know which one was unlucky enough to be riding right behind us - unlucky because the exhaust from that old truck was sometimes a little much.  It was either getting hit with that exhaust now and then or the noise of the crowd or being forced to walk and stop over and over in the sun - but something was making that horse really restless.  The young woman had a lot of trouble controlling him (and she had to ride 1-handed because of having to wave) and a couple of times I (and maybe she) thought that horse was going to rear up and gallop off like they do in the Old West movies.

It was all a lot of fun.  Before we left for the parade, I got to spend a couple of hours talking with Denise and with her recently-married husband who I hadn't met before.  That was really great.  And afterward a few friends and family gathered in their back yard for a barbecue, and that was also good. 

Denise has a large Old English Sheepdog and a small pug, which gave Dext somebody new to meet.  I was surprised that he didn't seem very interested in playing with either of them, but they all sniffed each other and so forth, and Dext behaved very well off leash (in a fenced back yard).

I finally left after 3:00 because I like being in my campsite by 4:00 or so.  I stopped on the way to walk Dexter again and then we were back in the pines.  It was so good to see Denise again and to see that she was still completely herself.  Though as honest a person as she always was, and still is, it wouldn't be possible for her to be anybody but herself.