Three Beautiful Things 07-09-2025: Walking Near Cave Lake, Breakfast and a Little Luck, Eating Like It's 1982-3

1. I spent a couple of hours or so until about 7:30 this morning tidying up the kitchen, taking care of Gibbs and Copper, and getting ready to head out the door. 

I'd read in a review from a biking business that the Medimont Trailhead on the Trail of the CdAs featured a stretch of shady trail as well as great views of Cave Lake. 

Because of my general intolerance of direct sunshine and heat, I perk right up whenever I read about shady trails.

To beat the heat, I left the house early-ish (my household jobs took longer than I planned) and when I arrived at the trailhead, it was, indeed, cool and shady and so, limited by the after effects of the slump I was in, I walked about 3000 or so steps out on the trail and back to the car again. Today I walked in an easterly direction and next time I go down, I'll try westerly.

2. Carol and Paul asked me to pick up a couple of boxes of theater programs at the Fed Ex office in CdA today, so to get there I decided to once again drive to St. Maries, go through Heyburn State Park to Plummer, and head north on Hiway 95. 

I hadn't eaten anything yet, so I stopped at the CdA Resort and Casino and refreshed myself with breakfast at the Red Tail Bar and Grill. 

After I ate, I played just three machines, won a little money which I will add to my Pendleton fund, and returned to the Camry and blasted north to CdA where I picked up Carol and Paul's theater order and stopped in to buy produce and rice and some tuna at Trader Joe's.

3. God only knows why what I'm about to write has stuck with me for over forty years, but here goes.

Back at Whitworth, I remember Bill Davie talking about what he fixed himself for meals as a student living in an apartment and how much he enjoyed making a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and folding in a can of tuna.

This evening, I didn't have any boxes of mac and cheese in the house, but I had some twisty pasta, shredded cheddar cheese, shredded parmesan cheese, butter, and Frank's hot sauce. 

So, I boiled the pasta, poured the cheeses over it, added in a chunk of butter and as it melted, I folded in a can of tuna. To give this inspired-by-1982-3-Bill Davie dish a kick, I splashed hot sauce over the top. 

If I'd had a can of black beans on hand, I would have added some beans to this dish, but I'm happy to say that, as it was, this little creation of mine brought back fun memories of apartment living in N. Spokane (Bill and I lived across N. Colfax Rd from each other) and, moreover,

it worked!