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Published: September 21st 2009
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The morning clouds disappeared quickly and the rest of the day was perfectly sunny with temps in the mid 70’s; another great Miata day! (hit 6000 miles on the Miata today!)
I crossed the border back into Washington around noon with no problems. In six border crossings on this trip I’ve observed that there is not a standard set of questions that they ask; they always seem to be “winging it”. Sometimes they ask if I’m carrying any alcohol, tobacco or firearms (but he didn’t ask today). Today’s questioning from the customs agent went something like this:
Agent: Where do you live? (Ridgefield, WA)
Agent: Where have you been traveling? (Canada and Alaska)
Agent: You drove “this” to Alaska and back? (yes)
Agent: And drove on their roads? (yes)
Agent: How long have you been traveling? (four weeks)
Agent: I’ll bet that you’re going to need new shocks. (maybe)
Agent: (pointing to my two spare tires in the passenger seat) Did you buy those in Canada or Alaska on your trip? (no)
Agent: You’ve carried them like that for the entire trip? (yes)
Then the agent walked completely around the car,
wrote down the license plate number (TOPFREE) and went back into his booth and tapped on his keyboard for awhile. He seemed suspicious of something, but I’ll never know what. He finally decided that, while I might be a little flaky to drive a Miata to Alaska and back, I probably wasn’t a threat to national security and he let me return to my home country.
To cross the border, I had to return to my un-favorite highway “97” and follow it into Washington for awhile, but then I decided to take a big detour on my way to Ellensburg and I left 97 again. First I went to visit Chief Joseph Dam, one of the larger federal dams on the Columbia River and then I went to see Dry Falls, a smaller (but still impressive) version of the Grand Canyon. The Dry Falls is actually part of a very large land area called The Grand Coulee (the dam, not far from here, takes its name from this) where massive Ice Age floods scoured out the region and left huge pockmarks and gullies and canyons. During the flooding, the Dry Falls (back then they were known as the “Wet
Falls”) actually formed what is believed to be the largest waterfall that ever existed on the earth. I’ve visited just about everywhere in this state over the past forty years, but for some reason I’ve managed to avoid this place until now. I shouldn’t have waited so long; it’s very impressive!
Finally reached Ellensburg (Wendy, tell Tracy I’m here!) and settled into a very cool inn, The Inn at Goose Creek. The place is run like a Bed and Breakfast and has ten rooms with each room having a different theme. I chose the “sports” room because it had the best view. The rooms are very spacious, they have Jacuzzi tubs, Internet service is excellent, breakfast is included and it only costs $95. It’s one of the finest places I’ve stayed on this entire trip.
Walked into downtown Ellensburg and had a great dinner at the Rodeo City BBQ. During my walk I encountered an interesting home that is (was?) occupied by a wacky artist with a sense of humor (see photos). I need to do some research on this place.
Note that any photos with a “BPA” caption are referring to the Bonneville Power Administration, the
federal agency that I retired from (and Sereda’s current employer).
Tomorrow I’m heading home (yeaaa!). I’ll do a short blog for tomorrow and then I’ll do one additional blog as a “wrap-up” for the entire trip.
Thanks for tuning in!
Jack
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carole
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I'll miss keeping up with you. When did you retire? I wondered how you managed this long getaway. Are you still renovating the house? Where next? Carole