Ok it is now 10:50 am and according to the Mount Rainier National Bank it is 51 degrees… We have finally hit the road. Vegas here we come. The current plan is Highway 18 to I-90 through Kittitas to I-82 in to Oregon and finally onto I-84 through Oregon and into Idaho. Our current goal is to stay in Burley, Idaho which would put us about six hours out from Arches National Park. We will see how it goes. J
As we pass over Snoqualmie summit the sun comes out. IT’s so nice to see the sun after the long rainy winter we have had. The snow still covers the ground here, which I am sure pleases the skiers, and the sun reflects brightly. I have now traveled further East in Washington then I have been before. The mountains are beautiful and I love all the little waterfalls of melting snow that run down near the side of the road. Having grown up in Florida and on the East coast the mountains are still a marvel to me. We are driving past a lake that is frozen over. According to the map we are driving through the Wenatchee National Forest.
We have lost the radio stations at this point and so we turned on the iPod. Our first musical selection is the Minstrels of Mayhem. It’s a folky comedy type of music I discovered years ago at my favorite Renaissance Fest. If you have not heard them check out their website http://www.minstrelsofmayhem.com/.
Stopped at a view spot to take a few pictures… Mountains are amazing things. It’s amazing how different things look on this side of the Cascades. There are no trees at all, lots of bush and little to no snow. It’s also very dry. The sky a very light shade of blue with hundreds of whispy clouds floating lightly on the breeze.
We see 2 large mountains one to the right and one a bit closer to the left. As we try to figure out which is which we see a sign. The mountain to the right is Rainier and the one to the left is Adams. We decided to take a break at the next rest stop. There was a beautiful bridge and a sign that explained the mountainscape.
Hehe so as we drive through Yakima there is a sign that says “Yakima the “Palm Springs” of Washington. *smile*
We have now entered Wine Country. I have never seen grape vines before. Unfortunately it is not the right season and they are all cut off waiting to re-bloom. It reminds me of strawberry fields in Florida.
As we began planning this trip we decided to pick up the program “Streets & Trips” with the GPS tracker. So we went through and added all of our stops and then let the program calculate the path. As we drove down I-82 it sent us off onto a small state road 221 through East Washington near Paterson. So we decided to trust the program and drove through the detour. This is the flattest land I have seen since I moved west. It’s so amazing that just a few hours ago we were surrounded by mountains and now I can see for miles. Here and there are farm houses surrounded by trees in a huge open field. Many of the fields are untended at this time of year so you see brown for miles and then further off in the distance patches of green. The funny thing on the little detour is that all the truckers seem to take this route. I would say that I will continue to trust the program for a while. *smile* There goes tumbleweed! That’s just crazy!
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