Sequim, pronounced Skwim, is a little town along the the upper coast of the Olympic Peninsula. Known as the “Lavender Capital of North America”, it’s a sleepy little town full of Chinese restaurants and little craft galleries.
We were in town to see what it offered, but more so, to walk around and catch some creatures for our newest hobby, Pokemon Go. We’d only been playing a few days but we’d already, as my Mother likes to say “Caught the fever!”
Walking down the street, minding our own business, eyes staring down at our phones, we were wandering Pokestop to Pokestop, picking up items and catching creatures when all of a sudden we were jarred out of focus.
“GET OFF YOUR F%$#*&G PHONES YA F%$#*&G LOSERS!” a loud, belligerent voice blared from the middle of the road. I looked over to see a large, hairy, mean looking guy glaring at us from his truck. He bashed down hard on his horn and held his fist there, so it blared long and rude at us, as he extended his other arm out the window to flip up his middle finger at us. Stunned, I stood there watching him, as the light turned green and he slammed down on his gas pedal, letting out a big black cloud from the dual tail pipes at the back of his truck, and taking off with a roar. “YA F%$#*&G MORONS!”
“I think he was talking to us.” I stated, unnecessarily, to Harold.
“I think you’re right.” came his matter of fact response.
“I hope he doesn’t come back. We have Pokemon to capture!”
His anger was quite strange, and I can’t understand why he was so upset. It’s not like we were standing in the middle of the road and holding anyone up. I chalk it up to just being an angry guy who probably goes through life like that – a ticking time bomb. I hope he doesn’t carry a gun, but I suspect he probably does.
Coincidentally, about 20 miles down the highway is the place where, 6 years ago, some jerks threw a Slurpee out the window of their car at us, as we cycled down the road. Just passing me by a thread, I felt it whoosh past my back, close enough to feel the cold icyness, and see it slam down on the pavement, exploding all over the road. After a long, hot day of cycling, I had been pretty exhausted, but the thoughtless, mean act gave me renewed energy to storm through the last few miles to the RV park. I was still so incensed, I told the owner what had happened. She allowed us to pitch our tent on the grass for free. “So you know we’re not all mean jerks around here!” she told us, and her nice act felt like it cancelled out the mean guys’ act.
The streets of Sequim were pretty much deserted, but every so often we’d see people wandering with phones in hands, just like us. There’s this little guilty, “Uh-huh” smile that gets passed between players, the “Yeah, I’m an adult playing a nerdy kid’s game too.” but not a word passes between us.
Following Harold down a covered sidewalk, I was brought up short, as he came to a halt. “Oh no, now this is gonna be a problem.” he said. I followed his gaze to the sign over his head, “Now when has a wine tasting ever been a problem? Let’s go!” The town was so empty, and I figured this place would be the same, but it was chock full of wine drinkers. We sat down at the very last open table, feeling a little ridiculous to be two at a table for six, but that was short lived as we were soon joined by two more couples. All locals, they ended up being a lot of fun, and again changed my impression of the town. Good cancelling the bad.
Overnight spot: 7 Cedars Resort Casino
Price: Free – 3 night max – you need to have the cashier stamp your form daily. Includes: 30 Amp Electrical outlets along top edge of RV area. The lot is not level. Security does regular drive arounds.
Cell & Wifi: Verizon – 4 bars of 4G LTE, good free wifi in the casino
Pokemon: two Pokestops, and a good amount of Poke-creatures to catch.
Notes: We stayed two nights. It’s a fairly new casino with a wine tasting bar, very reasonably priced craft beer and we heard they had good restaurants – we never tried them. New players card customers get to spin a digital wheel to see what casino perk they win. Harold won $5 match play – he paid $5 to get $10 worth of play. I won a straight $5 play. We sat there through two $3 Stella Artois, and played video poker with their money. We left when we go to $0.
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