Feels like home

It occurred to me that, when we arrived yesterday at the Riverfront RV Park in Woodland, WA, it was the first time we had checked into a familiar RV park since we left home on April 15th. Every prior park on this trip was new to us.  That is significant, since this is the 31st place we have camped.

Well, it is like home, because we have been here so many times in the past, and because it is so comfortable. The staff are friendly and helpful. The grounds are immaculate. The river is right in front of our window. The dogs love to walk along the river's edge. (So do we!) The amenities are great: cable TV works; wi-fi is great; water, sewer and electricity are all handy at our site.

So, we are relaxing for the last four days of our trip and working our way up to being in our real home. Here's the view from our dinette window.

In three more days we will head for home. It will be very strange to be in one place day after day, although we look forward to seeing our friends and our family.  I think we could both continue traveling for some time to come, we are so comfortable in our Blue Suede home. Nevertheless, there are good things about being home, too.  One of them will be planning our next Black and Blue adventure.

In Packwood, it's rainier...er, Rainier

It is definitely not rainier, at least today it is not. It is sunny and 89 degrees.  It is summer in the Washington Cascades.  However, it IS Rainier.  Mt. Rainier, that is.  Wikipedia sums up Mt. Rainier as follows:

Mount Rainier (pronounced: /reɪˈnɪər/), Mount Tacoma, or Mount Tahoma is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the state of Washington. It is a large active stratovolcano located 54 miles (87 km) south-southeast of Seattle. It is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and the Cascade Volcanic Arc, with a summit elevation of 14,411 ft (4,392 m).^[4][5] Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list.^[6] Because of its large amount of glacial ice, Mt. Rainier could potentially produce massive lahars that could threaten the entire Puyallup River valley.

Today's adventure was to drive the loop from Packwood to the Paradise Lodge in Mt. Rainier National Park and back. What a ride.  Some of the roads and some of the views rivaled Glacier National Park...some of them. 

 
Still, this was a trip well worth making, especially since my Senior Pass, purchased 8 years ago for $10, saved us $25 in entry fees.   Skate Creek Road leaves Packwood near the east edge of town. It winds its way along the creek for several miles and climbs rapidly.

Finally, Skate Creek Road intersects with SR706, which leads into the National Park.  Once inside the park, the road twists and turns like an angle worm on a hook.  It also continues to rise, eventually coming to timberline and the Paradise Lodge. This being a warm Sunday in June, the road and especially the parking lot at Paradise was full of cars. In fact, the ranger at the park entrance was just putting out the sign about the full parking lot, when we arrived at the gate.

The Paradise Lodge looks quite lovely, and sits at timberline, with the snowy peak of the mountain in the background.

Since there was no parking available, we were unable to explore the lodge, but that was okay, because the mountain and the adjacent peaks and the rivers and lakes are so much more beautiful. 

 This is one of the mirror lakes. 

The mountain top from the box canyon wayside. 

We were in need of a comfort station, and as we emerged from a tunnel, I spotted one at the Box Canyon wayside.  This area is wonderful. The tunnel is very rustic looking, as if it was blasted from solid rock. 

And the bridge over Box Canyon is all made of stone. It looks like a WPA project.

But what really makes the area is the box canyon.  Unfortunately, this is one of those places that cannot be captured on film, although I was willing to try.  What looks like a narrow channel is actually parallel vertical walls about 100 feet high.

This sign is posted on the railing of the bridge.

 The loop took about four hours to drive. It could have taken a lot longer, had there been less traffic and more available places to park and investigate.  Still, we had a great time, worked in a picnic lunch and had the dogs out of their crates by 2 PM for a walk and "business" duties.

Days and days have passed

I'll bet you thought I was on vacation! Oh, wait. I am on vacation. Anyway, I have been unable to blog for several days, because I have not had adequate access to the internet.  So, I am hoping that my current setup will allow me to publish something fun.

When we last left our heroes, they were in Kalispell, MT. On Sunday, June 19, we departed Kalispell and made a beautiful drive along highway US2 to Sandpoint, ID.  The drive took us through the mountains of northwestern Montana and beside some beautiful lakes.  At Libby, we began to follow the Kootenay River, which is beautiful. (Gee it seems like I use that word a lot, but that is what happens when you tour the USA.)

US2 winds through the mountains in northwestern Montana.

The Kootenay River runs along the highway. These shots were taken near Libby, MT.

At last we arrived at Sandpoint, ID, a small town on the north end of Lake Pend Oreille. This is a huge lake carved out of the area by glacial action in the ice age.  It is 1,180 feet deep! We continued on US95 to Sagle, ID, which is a small town about six miles south of Sandpoint, where we stayed at the Travel America RV Campground. The park is fairly nice, but the wi-fi was nothing but frustrating.

Here's our little abode in the Travel America RV Park in Sagle.

On Monday, we went into Sandpoint and checked out the shops downtown and the public beach, which is at a city park in the heart of town. It has sandy beaches and a protected harbor, where the locals moor boats by the dozens.  Very nice. How we missed taking pictures there is anyone's guess.

Tuesday was our day to explore the east side of the lake.  We drove to Hope, ID, population 89 and then on to East Hope, population 220. From there we took some side roads and found a resort called Beyond Hope!  Lots of RV parks, State Parks and little harbors are to be found along this route.  We stopped at the Floating Restaurant in East Hope and had lunch. The view of the lake was as good as the veggie and sausage soup we had.

 One of the local residents near Beyond Hope.

The old blogger on the dock in front of the Floating Restaurant in East Hope.

We left Sagle, ID on Wednesday and traveled to Leavenworth, WA.  The trip didn't offer too much variety of landscape until the very end.  Most of eastern Washington State along I90 is either flatland with agribusiness or sagebrush, or it is rolling grassland, called the Palouse after the Palouse River which flows through the area. In turn, the river is named after an Indian people of the region.

The monotony of the landscape was broken up about halfway along our route by Moses Lake. I had heard of the city of Moses Lake for a long time, but this was my first time driving through. I said to Jill, "I don't know if there is a body of water called Moses Lake or just a town."  Then we passed through the middle of a large body of water that seems to divide the town on a north-south axis that gave me the impression that the lake is roughly shaped like a figure of eight, with the town tucked into the space around the "waist" of the eight.

Eventually we came to the Wenatchee Valley. I had been there as a kid but had no recollection of it.  It is a beautiful area covered with orchards and vineyards, nestled among the mountains, with the Wenatchee River running through the valley. Everywhere we looked there were fruit stands.

A few miles further along the road, we came to Leavenworth. This little town is nestled among some very steep-sided, craggy mountains that remind me of the Alps, which I had the good fortune to see about 30 years ago.  The townspeople, some time ago, decided to redo the town as a Bavarian Village.  The transformation is nearly universal among the buildings in the business section.  It really does resemble a town in Bavaria.  On the other hand, not all of the business owners, at least one restaurant owner, have been to Bavaria, judging by the soggy mess that we were offered, purporting to be Wiener schnitzel.  So, bottom line, it is a cute little touristy town, but we agreed one visit is sufficient.

I took this one for our daughter, Tara, who is nuts about nutcrackers.

 One of the many Bavarian style buildings.

Another shot for Tara.

 More Bavaria!

The old blogger in the restaurant (which shall remain nameless) with the soggy Wiener schnitzel.

That being said, we did find a metal sculpture gallery that had some interesting pieces at very reasonable prices.  We purchased a nice sculpture of a great blue heron for the chimney in our home.

Yesterday, we explored the Icicle River canyon, which runs up from the Icicle River RV Park, where we were camped for the last three days. The canyon is pretty steep, so the river runs very swiftly. There are numerous campgrounds in the area, many of them maintained by the forest service. There are also several very inviting private homes along the river.

The view from our table at Heidi's Kaffee Haus. 

Note the interesting architecture in the background.

And check out the beautiful architecture on this one. 

The building in the background is nice, too.

While we were at Icicle River, our next door neighbors were a couple named Norm and Joy. They are a bit older than we are, but they are full of vim and vigor.  We enjoyed chatting with them, and they gave us some great tips about what to see and do in the area.  They come to the area about twice a year, and they had been there about a week when we arrived.  We bid them a fond farewell this morning and headed south on US97. 

Our route today took us through Yakima, where my grandma lived all the time I knew her. I had looked up her address on Google maps, and her house is still there. It was actually a duplex, in which she rented an apartment.  Oh how the memories of Grandma and my Auntie Faith and Uncle Walter came flooding back. Jill enjoyed learning a little more about my past life.  If I recall correctly, I hadn't been to Yakima since 1978.  It was a good stop.

Grandma lived in the right hand apartment, 203 1/2 S. 9th Avenue. 

The yard has changed, but the house has not. 

Heading west out of Yakima, we followed US12 as it winds through the Cascade Mountains.  Halfway up the grade, we encountered Rimrock Lake, which is a rather large mountain lake with trees down to the shoreline and a number of campgrounds and hostelries along the highway.  I told Jill to write it down on our "gotta look this one up" list. We may want to camp there some time. It would be a great place to take our kayaks.

 US12 runs alongside the Tieton River. Jill loves the milky green color.

Here's a shot of Rimrock Lake. Note the same milky green color.

We kept on climbing past Rimrock Lake and passed Dog Lake, a smallish lake with a campground.  Then we arrived at White Pass. This area is host to a great ski resort on the southern slopes of Mt. Rainier.  I have skied there, but I have never seen it bare before.  It seems smaller somehow, without snow all over everything.

Here is little Dog Lake.

Coming down the west slope of the Cascades the scenery continued to enthrall us.  Finally we came to Packwood, WA, where we are camped for the next two days at the Packwood RV Park.  We took a little stroll around the town, explored the local hardware store and stopped at the tourist info center and got a map of Washington State.

Majestic Mt. Rainier

Some other Cascade peaks on the way to Packwood.

This old log motel, across the street from the Packwood RV Park, 

is abandoned now, but it must have been nice in its day.

Here is the current Packwood Hotel, next door to the log motel.

Meet Virgil Jeffries, mayor of Packwood.

Tomorrow we hope to explore Mt. Rainier National Park. 

Lakes and more lakes

Yesterday, we took a drive from Kalispell to Big Fork, MT to see Flathead Lake. The lake is named for the Flathead Indians, who have a reservation at the south end  of the lake.  Flathead lake is the largest natural lake in the west. It is 27 miles long and several miles wide and 300 feet deep. In addition, it is beautiful.  Unfortunately, we didn't have sunny weather to show it off. I guess we used all that up when we went to Glacier National Park.  

This is Yellow Bay. There is a small tent camping state park here.

I love to photograph flowers. I don't have any idea what these are, but I think they're pretty.

Once again, I need practice on my selfies. 

We also stopped at the Flathead Brew Pub for lunch.  They do a fine job with their food and grog, and we had a view of the lake from our table. It was a fun day, and we didn't have to stress out much!

Today, we bid a sad farewell to Rocky Mountain HI RV Park. This was one of our favorite parks so far. But we are heading for home, so we pulled up stakes and drove to the Travel America RV Park in Sagle, ID.  Sagle is about six miles south of Sandpoint, ID, which sits on the north end of Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced Pond Oray), a beautiful big lake in the Idaho panhandle. My trusty photographer provided some nice shots along the way.

Hwy US2 winds through the mountains of northwestern Montana and into Idaho.

The Kootenai River

 This is just outside Libby, MT. There are some beautiful homes along the Kootenai.

 

So here we are tucked in under the fir trees at the Travel America RV Park in Sagle, ID.

Tomorrow, we need to take our old Pogo to the veterinarian. She seems to have a relapse of her staph infection. So, that will be first priority. Then we hope to explore Sandpoint.