84 / 150
bringing the car out I think, not for
leaving. He waved with a smile.
I picked up Highway 28, east to
Quincy, where fruits and vegetables
have been processed forever. Now it’s
home to at least one of the largest
data-centers in the world, placed there
by a cloud computing company to take
advantage of low cost electric power
resulting from an abundance of rivers
to dam, winds for generators, solar
panels, low land costs and low prop-
erty taxes in farm country. Can’t say I
know which building it lives in. There
are lots of big ones housing potato
chips or microchips with no signage.
Maybe the NSA occupies one. If I
found it I guess they’d have to kill me.
I paralleled the Columbia Gorge to
a resort overlooking the river. CAVE B
is built into basalt cliffs nine-hundred
feet above the Columbia River where
I stopped for late lunch on the terrace,
and the friendly guy from Argentina
remarked how much he liked my car
from the window of his mini-van. It’s
a very peaceful place with great views.
http://www.cavebinn.com/
On the way back, I stopped at an
overlook to gaze down river where the
Wild Horse Monument silhouettes a
ridge top. http://www.wta.org/go-
h i k i n g / t r i p - r e p o r t s / t r i p _ r e -
port.2011-05-18.5708299174
A couple of young guys walked
over to ask about the car. They said
they knew it was “something British,
an MG maybe”. They offered to take
my photo standing by it so you don’t
think I’m making this up. By then I
had spent too much time taking pho-
tos, getting lost driving out of We-
natchee, hanging around Cave B, and
talking to well-wishers about the car.
With the sun going down, I still had to
drive back over the pass to get home.
Forgetting the pass would be cold
when I left in the morning; I brought
no warm clothing and needed none on
the return drive. The pass was warm.
I arrived in Kirkland to find people
walking around in t-shirts at 8:00 p.m.
That’s unheard of in Seattle in April.
This turned out to be the record break-
ing hot day. I arrived home early
enough to wake up fresh and wash
and wax the car the following day. I
didn’t reach all the places I wanted to
drive to. A good thing because I want
to go back.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Summer 2016 83