Billy the Mountain

Mount Ranier, Washington

 So we picked up the car at the Seattle Jet-N-Park and drove 3 hours back to Ephrata to pick up the RV. It's all agriculture there and they are spraying rainbows on my morning walks.

Billy the mountain
Billy the mountain
A regular picturesque
Postcardy mountain
Residing between lovely
Rosamond and gorman
With his stunning wife ethel
A tree, a tree.

Billy was a mountain
Ethel was a tree growing off of his shoulder
Billy was a mountain
Billy was a mountain
Ethel was a tree growing off of his shoulder
Ethel was a tree growing off of his shoulder
( hey, hey, hey! )
Billy had two big
Caves for eyes
With a cliff for a jaw
That would go up or down
And whenever it did
He'd puff out some dust
And hack up a boulder, hack.
Hack up a boulder, hack, hack.
Hack up a boulder, hack, hack.
Hack up a boulder.

-Frank Zappa

We drive to Packwood and take the 3 hour drive up into Mount Ranier.

Packwood is a funky little place with lots of wood carvings, saloons and a public library..

In the morning, big elk wander around Packwood eating grass. The volunteer fire department has planted some pretty flowers. I zap myself on the electric fence that they use to keep the elk away.

 After Packwood we drive to Fort Stevens State Park on the north tip of Oregon. We meet Jil and Tom in Astoria for breakfast.

Jil and Tom are in their new camper truck.

"It's off to Las Vegas to check out the lounges,
Pull a few handles and drink a few beers, oh Ethel,
Ethel, my darling, you know that I love you,
I'm glad we could have a vacation this year,
Oh neat-o, glad we could have a vacation this year."

They left that night, crunchin' across the Mojave Desert,
their voices echoing thru the canyons of your minds...
"Ethel, wanna get a cuppa cawfee? Howard Johnson's, ahhh
there's a Howard Johnson's! ... Wanna eat some clams? ...

                                                                   -Frank Zappa-

Mount Rainier National Park

Back in early 1966 we drove our green Triumph TR4-A and all our possessions up here to Tacoma, Washington. I was navigating C-124s over the Pacific to Southeast Asia to support the war effort..

Our first ever camping trip was here in the Mount Rainier National Park. I was in great shape back then. We had two bedrolls and a kerosene lantern that we checked out from the base recreation officer.

We walked the hills for miles. As darkness arrived we found a place on the mountainside to spread our sleeping bags.

It was our first time camping out. I worried about bears and about rolling over and down the mountain.

We lit the kerosene lantern about 1 AM and walked for about two hours back to where we had parked the 61 Cadillac convertible.  I was afraid. Mrs Phred had no fear.

The Mountain goes up to 14,400 feet. It's an active volcano that might be big trouble anytime now.

Mount Rainer was the 5th National Park established by Congress in 1898.