Chapter 5

By the end of the summer Cameron's first Starweb game had come to an end. The alliance led by Chandler swept the top four spots. The guide work had gone well and Cameron had a $5000 dollar cushion going into the school year. He persuaded the housing office at WWU to put him in rooms with other older students. A standing order at Flying Buffalo got him a start in a new Starweb game as an EMPIRE BUILDER.

The day after Labor Day Cameron packed up his 8 year old Toyota 4-Runner for the trip to Bellingham. His army days stood him in good stead, using that experience to discipline his move. Some things had to come - clothes, fishing tackle, a few favorite books, martial arts and fencing gear, the files pertaining to the ongoing Starweb game, laptop and printer. Lots of stuff, especially books could be left behind. Living in a dorm simplified things because it was unnecessary to pack kitchen stuff or furniture. The fishing tackle got top-loaded because he expected to fish one or two spots along the way, maybe Rock Creek or on the Clark Fork west of Missoula.

The next morning dawned clear and seasonably cool. Cameron was on the road by 7:30. Taking US 287 at Three Forks to Helena and US 12 over McDonald Pass put him on the upper Little Blackfoot shortly after noon. He stopped at a fishing access site to eat lunch and then put in an hour and a half fishing. Back on the road again he pushed on through to Spokane and put up for the night at a Motel 6 on the western edge of town.

Most of the east-west traffic sticks to the interstate but that can be boring. Especially when an alternate route offers a chance to see the results of one of Earth's most dramatic series of events. Cameron left Spokane on US-2 heading for Grand Coulee. Most folks know the name because of the big dam on the Columbia River but few realize that there is really a Grand Coulee that is part of the "scab lands." Fifteen thousand years ago, more or less, glacial ice repeatedly blocked the course of the Clark Fork River, backing a thousand foot deep lake up over the present site of Missoula, Montana and the Bitterroot Valley. Repeatedly this dam broke, releasing the pent up water to scour across what is now eastern Washington. These floods created a very dramatic landscape.

From Grand Coulee Cameron's route followed the Grand Coulee itself to Coulee City. Just west of Coulee City a short detour on SR-17 took him to the brink of Dry Falls. Standing on the lip of this feature makes one feel small, and wish for a time machine. A horseshoe shaped fall several times the width and height of Niagara once plunged here. "I'll be back," thought Cameron, "from what I have heard a number of the lakes stuck in these canyons have some really big rainbows." Back on US-2 again, Cameron crossed the Columbia River just north of Wenatchee and started climbing up the east flank of the Cascade Range. Passing the gingerbread town of Leavenworth, he crested the mountains in mid afternoon and shortly found himself heading north on I-5 at Everett. By the time he got to Bellingham it was too late to check in at the university so he found a cheap motel and crashed.

The dorm turned out to be a sort of suite. Cameron and his roommate, Jon Matthews had one room. The other bedroom in the suite was occupied by Mike Pierce and Ron Stevens. They shared a common bathroom and study room. Ron had spent two years out of high school on a mission for his church and a third working in the family business before coming to college. The other two were also military veterans, Jon had been a cook on an aircraft carrier, Mike was an artilleryman. Both had served in the Gulf.

The second week after school started Cameron called Leia. After exchanging news he asked her for a date the following Saturday.

"I work the morning shift on Saturday, 10 to 2," replied Leia, "But I'll be free after that."

"How about I meet you at the store at 2 and we start with lunch."

"Sounds great but just how much of a date do you have planned?"

"Well, I thought we might take in a movie and then go to dinner."

"Excellent, and will there be a later or are you planning on driving back to Bellingham that night?"

"Possibly," thought Cameron to himself, "she has as fine memories of our last time together as I have. How to not wreck this?" And to Leia, "I would love whatever you would like, I wasn't presuming anything and don't have specific plans."

"My roommate is never here on weekends. Please plan on staying over."

"Great, see you Saturday."

The rest of Cameron's week passed quickly, aided in part by the school work and the need to cycle a Starweb turn. This was made more interesting by finding responses from the first of the nearby players he had met the turn before. The good news was that one of them he had met before, Malcolm Chandler, the bad news was that he was also playing an EMPIRE BUILDER position so an alliance couldn't be as fruitful as in the previous game, the more so since they held adjacent territories. They had established enough mutual trust though to quickly come to agreement on some key points; a five turn nonaggression agreement and a trade of map and character information.

On pulling into the mall parking lot Cameron recognized Leia' Honda off to the side and parked next to it. He was a half hour early since he hadn't been sure of just how long it would take to make the run down from Bellingham. "Hey, a half hour to kill in a bookstore, how hard can that be?" he thought to himself. No trouble at all as it turned out, Leia found him skimming a new book in the SF section.

"Lover, I'm famished. Can you do Chinese?" asked Leia.

"You bet, nearby or are we going to have to drive?"

"It's here, this is a full service mall."

Taking his hand she pulled him out the door and pointed out the Panda Buffet half way along the mall near the Penny's store which was one of the mall anchors. They caught up on small talk while enjoying the nice fall day as they strolled over to the eatery. With full plates from the buffet line, they returned to their table and sat.