My wombat glows in the dark!

Tuesday, 9 August.  The drive from Grants Pass to Eureka was both beautiful and exasperating.  I went from the dry forests east of the coastal range to the wet forests on the western side.  From trees with plenty of space between them, and little underbrush, to thick woods with little or no space between trees and heavy underbrush.  All of a sudden tall pines began to include even taller and thicker redwoods.  I was now driving through hallways of green.  I was absolutely gorgeous.

The only worm in the apple was a drivers.  I especially dislike the drivers of motor homes and those pulling campers.  They will spend $100,000 on their motor home and refuse to spend $500 more for an engine that will keep them driving at the speed limit on the level and on hills.  Moreover, since they have big vehicles, they see no need to pull over and let others pass.  They seemed to enjoy backing up traffic behind them.  These are the times when I wish I did have a phaser and/or kinetic energy weapon on my car.  It would be so much fun to blast them out of the way!

As the drive took longer than I expected, I went directly to the Motel 6 and got a room.  I then called Elizabeth Berrien and Jackie Simpson-Welsand to arrange for dinner.  Elizabeth, The Wire Lady, and Jackie I know through science fiction conventions.  It’d probably been about 25 years since I last saw Elizabeth.  She can do the most amazing things with wire.  I still have a 1″ x 1″ wire wombat she made for me.  If you go to see Louisville and Ottawa airports, you can see her creations hanging from the ceiling.  She is a marvelous artist.

For convenience we arranged to meet at the diner next to the motel.  We then proceeded to chat over dinner for about three hours.  It was marvelous.  Elizabeth also presented me with another wombat, which I am told, will glow in the dark as the wire is coated with a fluorescent material.  How neat is that?

Jackie had seen some of Elizabeth’s work and how they knew each other.  They will probably meet up again as a fan from Southern California moved up to the area and has started a periodic get-together of fans in the area.

I may have also convinced Elizabeth to submit some of her work to the Loscon art show next November.  She is considering returning on a limited basis and conventions.

In the fading light I got to show off Red Shift to the two of them.  They were most appreciative.  🙂

It was time to call it a day on a most enjoyable day.  Tomorrow there’s the Highway Of The Giants!