We were going to head out early Friday morning to go to McCarthy for BMac's big party, Relentless BBQ 4, but I didn't get over to REI in time to pick up the re-bungied tent poles on Thursday night so we had to wait and get them when the store opened at 10:00. The guy who did the repair set us up right, though. He only charged for the cord, so we got tight like-new tent poles for just $9. Of course one errand just leads to another (and a wild goose chase all over town to find ripe avocados) and we didn't hit the road until almost 11:30.
It was a long trip but beautiful even in the rain. I drove from the turn off to McCarthy along the single-lane dirt road and over a bridge that looked so much like it should be in an Evil Dead movie that I squealed. We saw two black bears (my first!). They were crossing the road in front of us and one disappeared right away. I gently snuck the van forward while
A few miles later we saw something else come out on the road way far ahead of us. My first thought was that it was a very small deer (
We drove all the way to the end of the road, the footbridge that actually leads in to McCarthy, without even the slightest clue of where to find the party. We asked about BMac at the visitors information booth with no luck, then
BMac and Dani's place is great. They have a little one-room house with a sleeping loft built out there and a big old bus. The Spenard Satans Old Timey Band drove in to perform for the party on Saturday and they had a gig at the bar in McCarthy (As the Spenard Satins since McCarthy is a very small place.) The actual town was a quick 1/2 mile walk from the footbridge. What we saw of the town, it was probably less than 20 buildings total. We got a pizza at the bar and waited an hour and a half for the band to get set up. Finally we decided that was plenty of time and started back. BMac offered to give us a ride from the parking lot to the turn off but he got a ride to the parking lot while we were walking. We saw the truck go splashing across the river. BMac said he looked every direction besides up at the bridge and then took off we we ended up walking the whole way back.
It was only a couple of miles, but we took a few wrong turns. The road was really rocky so I was constantly turning my ankles like I was at Fair again. I'm really starting to hate uneven ground. It was a great walk, though, and we made it back to the camp in about a hour.
We were up until about 3 chatting with BMac when he got back so I had a really nice sleep in Saturday morning.
The actual party was Saturday night and it was all out. They had a couple generators hooked up so the bands had amps and lights. They even built a dancing cage on the side of the porch. The Satans were fun, but I think my favorite band was the 9-year old who got up there to play his metal song Robots (the lyrics entirely variations of 'He said I hate Robots!') He and his group limped through Blister in the Sun after that but we tried to get Robot for an encore.
It started to rain at some point after midnight and we finally crashed out around 3. The bands played until 4 or so. Sunday was a good day to sleep in. Which I did while
Monday we just spent doing laundry and easing into the week. I spent pretty much the entire day in front of the computer and I don't feel bad about that at all.
