Cheers: To Cruise the Couve. It is rare that we applaud traffic jams, but we make an exception for the annual event that packs Main Street in downtown and uptown Vancouver. Drivers of all manner of automobiles are welcome to partake in the event from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today, but it is the vintage cars that draw the crowds and invoke an American tradition.
The cruise has been a Vancouver tradition since 2009, when it was christened as Cruisin’ the Gut. When the founder of the event pulled out in 2017, local merchants got together and saved it. “I personally feared that 20,000 people would show up and the whole thing would be a mess,” organizer Bryan Shull told The Columbian. It is, indeed, a bit of a mess for any unsuspecting motorists who find themselves on Main Street during the cruise. But for participants and spectators, it is one of Vancouver’s signature events.
Jeers: To fraud. The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on organizations that raise donations in the name of military veterans but provide little of that money for the stated purpose. And in Washington, the state attorney general’s office has filed suits against Fallen Hero Bracelets and Healing Heroes Network, claiming those organizations mislead customers while seeking donations.
Fraudulent “charities” are nothing new, but it is particularly egregious when organizations use Americans’ appreciation for veterans to line their own pockets. Veterans have selflessly served this nation, and many reliable organizations do actually work to assist them. Donors should make sure to investigate a charity’s background before providing a donation.
Cheers: To perseverance. A 23-year-old Portland woman survived seven days on the rocky shore at Big Sur in California after her Jeep plunged off a 250-foot cliff into the Pacific Ocean. Despite a brain hemorrhage, four fractured ribs, broken collar bones and a collapsed lung, Angela Hernandez escaped her car and swam to shore.
After the car washed up, Hernandez found a 10-inch-long hose in the wreckage and used it to collect water from a patch of moss. Eventually, a couple looking for a fishing spot came along and summoned rescuers. Monterey County Sheriff Steve Bernal said: “I think most people in that situation wouldn’t have lasted that long, but she’s a fighter and she had the will to live.”
Jeers: To stolen memories. Thieves made off with memory cards containing wedding photos when they broke into a photographer’s truck at a hotel near Vancouver Mall. Shanna Swanson, a photographer from Montana, had traveled to Woodland for a wedding and lost camera equipment and the images in the theft.
“The wedding photos are the most important part of everything that was stolen,” she said. “All of the photo gear is replaceable, but the photos on those cards are once in a lifetime.” Theft of any kind is worthy of jeers, but the thought that the happy couple will not have professionally made memories of their wedding day is aggravating.
Cheers: To Red Tape. A 0.6-mile trail unofficially known as Red Tape is being repurposed for mountain biking at Lacamas Regional Park. Officials say the trail is not used by hikers and runners as often as other trails in the park, and making it bike-exclusive will enhance safety and broaden the park’s range of services. It will become the only bike-only trail on any county property.
As David Stiles of the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance told The Columbian, “Mountain bikers don’t like to take away from a hiker’s experience, but we also don’t like to suicide ourselves into the brush to not hit somebody.”
