wiredfool

Last weekend’s trip through Central Washington was the first time that I had been to the Walla Walla area in 5 years or so. The last time, I was in a van with a bunch of crazy cyclists from the UW going out for a race weekend.

It has changed. The wierdest change is the wind farms. I started noticing them at dusk when the aircraft warning strobes kicked on. Imagine a hundred strobes in irregular patterns coming from a hill where you can only barely make out that there is something other than grass. Looking back into the setting sun, you could see some of the turbines silhouetted against the fading orange glow.

The other thing I noticed was the smell of grapes. Every few miles there would be another vineyard with the sweet smell of growing grapes. I don’t think I’ve smelled them since I was 5, when we had some grape vines on the back fence at home. Yet I knew instantly what the smell was.