Vacation

Before the summer rush to Risa and other galactic holiday spots begin I usually take a short vacation. During this time I get the Hanford swept of Baryon Particles, work on repairing the many pieces of equipment that break or wear out (Vader keeps slicing the Manual Manipulators Units, ‘Hands’, off the other Meks), and spend a few days on the coast. I'Aisha ‘studies’ earth and human kind, this year she is on a archeological dig in Egypt's Nile Delta near ancient Bubastis (the head of the dig wants to get her unique insights on some artifacts that have recently been unearthed). 

My family, having lived in the Tri-Cities since the mid 20th century, has amassed a wealth of memorabilia and journals relating to the history of the area. It is fascinating to contrast the area now to the area then.
 
The ‘Main Event’ of the summer is still the Columbia Cup hydro race. The boat's speeds are now approaching the speed of sound, there is a bonus for the first race team to break the sound barrier. The winner last year was the Miss Budweiser (maker of the Federation's most popular synth-beers). The Romulan's also had an entry but, when they lost they blew themselves up. During the race someone found another ‘Kennewick Man’ skeleton.  This one turned out to be, like the one found in 1996, the long forgotten remains of a drunken Seattle race fan.

The warmer weather also brings out the Anti-Fusion Fools and their signs (93 million miles is as near to a Fusion Reactor as I want to live and Fuse boxes not atoms) to protest the fusion reactors at the Hanford Power Generation facility (it's funny they don't protest when it's cold). Unlike the Anti-Nuke Kooks that came here in the 1980's the protesters now pay a price for doing their ‘thing’. The Federation shuts off the power to these ‘fools’ ("if they don't like it, they don't need to be using it", is what most people say).

The radioactive waste that caused SO much worry in the 20th and 21st century has long ago been cleaned up.  What was not taken care of with Gravitronic Neutron Leaching Treatment (GNLT pronounced Ganilt) was burnt into iron inside the fusion reactors while making power.

For the past few years there has been a fight over the demolition of the Ed Hendler Memorial Bridge or as it was called when it was being used, the Cable Bridge. Most people think it is an eye-sore and a hazard to the navigation of pleasure boats on the river but, some of the Hendler family want to keep it and turn it into a historical park. It's funny but that's what some people wanted to do with the green bridge that was torn down to make way for the Hendler bridge.

The bridge is unless any way, the city of Kennewick was abandon in the middle 21st century. No one could navigate the city with all of it's segmented, dead end roads that would start again a few blocks further on. The last exploration party to challenge the city was made up of 10 fearsome Klingons, lead by K'Opectate, the Really Ticked Off (why no one knows but, I think he was part Irish). The group wasn't heard from for months. Finally K'Opectate staggered into Columbia Meadows, alone, in a state of near hysteria, sucking his thumb and calling for his mommy. I'm told a computer simulation requiring a cadet to find a specific address in Kennewick is fast surpassing the Kobayashi Maru test as the most dreaded at Star Fleet Academy.

On the other side of the bridge, the town once called Pasco is a blackened, rundown ruin (although some say it looked like that in the 20th century). In the early part of the 22nd century a number of cities in the United States had so many illegal aliens that they seceded from the U.S. These ‘Banana Split’ republics (as they were dubbed) were constantly racked by revolutions and coups. So many people were executed, many of these republics had to resort to flying new ‘citizens’ in to keep from becoming ‘ghosts towns’. It is speculated that the last survivors of Pasco swam the Columbia River to Kennewick about 2196, never to be seen again.

As I walk around Richland I am amazed by the number of World War II era houses that still stand. These houses were only designed as ‘temporary’ and were not expected to be used after 5 years. One can see A, B, C, etc. houses. The one notable exception is the F house. Due to a design flaw most of these collapsed before the year 2000. An old Tri-City Herald news paper reported that a F house on Taylor Street was the first to fall.
 
The long awaited, much over budget Sham-Na-Pum golf course was finally completed last year. To bad golf is now outlawed. It was found to be a mind numbing activity both for the spectator as well as the player and after the rule change allowing players to hit the ball without leaving the golf cart, the whole argument that golf was exercise went out the window.

If one likes to surface travel, the entire planet is connected by Mono-Rail. This area is served by Westrail (Western Regional High Velocity Light Rail Service) with stops in all major population areas. In the Tri-Cities you can ‘Catch Mono’ in Columbia Meadows, just north of the Kennewick isolation zone or Broadbank, just across the river from Richland.

Well, if I want to leave for camping on the coast tomorrow, I have to finish reconstituting that Photon Filter Screen from the port nacelle. Until next time then.