Four States in Seven Days

---

---

Carla: Last Thursday seems like a long time ago, the miles are going under our belt reasonably rapidly now and a week later we're two whole states and a lot of weather away from the Washington State coast. On Thursday 5th we got up early to get to the outskirts of Seattle for 10am. The traffic on the highway going towards the city was dense and rush-houry, the road surface poor and my overall feeling of confidence in driving was not helped by a deer running erratically on the verge and threatening to cross the three lane carriage-way. Earlier that week, in Oregon, on another occasion when I was driving, a deer ran straight across the highway, causing me to break and hope that the vehicles behind could see through our bulky van and anticipate the stop too (you can see why they are able to run sustainable restaurant businesses serving roadkill here in the US!). We hung about a bit at the mechanics' place whilst they fixed our cabin door and fiddled with the fridge. They ordered a part and we agreed to return the next day to have it fitted. We then tootled off to a place called Saltwater State Park to camp for the night. The state park campgrounds are generally in scenic places and are good value. This one was no exception. Sea-Tac Airport flightpath noise aside (which wasn't too bad) it was an amazingly peaceful and green haven in an ugly suburb of the city. We enjoyed the waterfront setting with a good view of Puget Sound and we planned our day out in the city for the next day. On Friday, after getting the RV tinkered with once again, we set off to try to find some public transport into Seattle. After a few false starts we rode the Sound Rapid Transit (a sort of overground Tube train) into the city centre and then headed for the Space Needle, naturellement. The tower was built for the World's Fair in 1962 and was featured in the Elvis movie “It Happened At the World's Fair”. It wasn't the tallest one we'd climbed on our trip but it certainly had the longest queue! The view from the viewing deck was impressive out across the Puget Sound and beyond but we were a little disappointed with the city itself. After San Francisco, Seattle seems to be an example of a place that hasn't made the most of its waterside setting, for example, the charming Pike Street Market (site of the first ever Starbucks) should give onto a gentle slope down to the water; instead it gives onto three four-lane roads two of which are elevated and the sea lies beyond that. The other way in which Seattle was 'lesser' than San Francisco, from our point of view, was the lack of any evidence of heritage much older than the mid-20th century. We asked the guide at the Space Needle about the 'old bits' and he said they'd mostly been demolished (and he couldn't blame an earthquake, even though they did have a large one in 2001); he said a school from 1906 was about the oldest remaining building in the city despite it having been founded in the mid-19th century. A definite highlight though, was the monorail which runs from the main shopping area to the Space Needle. It was also built for the '62 World's Fair and is futuristic and retro at the same time. Fascinating fact:The city is named after Seattle, the friendly chief of the Suquamish Indians.

Alex: On Saturday morning we returned for our third visit to Hi-Line RV repairs to get the fridge fixed again. There is something more seriously wrong with our fridge, but they've managed to cobble together some patch that involves relighting a propane pilot light every time we buy petrol, and for now it seems to be holding out. The electical mechnanic was not working on Saturday, but volunteered to come in and make the fix on his day off. Lovely man – Jeremy! By lunchtime we were ready to head off out through Seattle city centre towards Everett and the 'BIGGEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD!' We had booked a tour of the Boeing factory, an assembly line for 747, 777 and the all new 787 airplanes. It's in the Guiness World Records book as the biggest building by volume (even before they put on the extension). It's also got the biggest digital picture in the world printed on it's front door. It was pretty impressive, just like a car assembly line only much, much bigger. The planes do actually move very slowly along an assembly line, while things are added, rivetted, fitted etc. except for the 787 where all the pieces are flown in pre-assembled and then just put together at Everett. You can buy a 787 for only $220 million (!), although that doesn't include engines or any interior fittings and seats. They decided to focus this new plane on fuel -efficiency with no increase in speed and they have been rewarded with the biggest pre-order in aviation history. If you order one now you won't get it until 2019. After the tour it was time to start heading east. Our first stop, was in Gold Bar, in the middle of Washington State, surrounded by evergreen forests. Very scenic. The next day we were off early, heading east again, unsure of where we would be stopping. Along Highway 2 we stopped in at Skykomish; an old, and nearly deserted, railroad town. The old town hotel was looking derelict with mold and grass growing in the lobby and rotten beams and doorframes. One of the locals collared Carla to tell her about the owner letting it fall into disrepair. He was planning on regenerating Skykomish as a historical railroad tourist town. Hmm – not sure it'll work. A note in the window of the hotel had a web-site address which we looked up later, and turns out the owner of the hotel is a conspiracy-theorising total loon. The local did give us a good tip. He told us to stop at Deception Falls a few miles down the road. The amount of water gushing down the narrow creek there was astounding, and you could really feel the destructive power as it rushed past underneath you. It's hard to imagine how it can keep going like that, it seems that the water must run out very quickly at the rate it's flooding through. Then we drove on to Leavenworth, and stopped for lunch and a look around this bizarre Bavarian town in the middle of Washington. The whole town is built in Bavarian style, even the Starbucks and Subway have altered there signs to fit in with the theme. There was a bandstand in the town centre and a band of Germanic looking musicians with big moustaches playing um-pa-pa tunes for the tourists. We had lunch in the 'Mozart Cafe'; I had a 'Symphony of Schnitzels' whilst listening to the Bavarian band. It was also getting very hot by now; 103F. Apparently it was an ordinary town until the early 1960s when one of the residents visited a similar German-themed town elsewhere in the US and convinced the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce that it would be good for business. It did have some Bavarian residents at the time but not that many, it was just a business idea. We checked into a campsite just down the road, and after an afternoon swim, returned to the town to go to the micro-brewery we spotted earlier. George and Ruby went to the Australian shop next door, and chatted to the proprietor whilst I sampled the DirtyFace Amber Ale and BootJack IPA, and Carla tried the Washington white wine. Lovely. Back at the campsite George and Ruby made friends with some children from Washington, and played whacky-sticks and sword fights in the campsite until dark. Later that evening the hot weather turned to thunder and lightning, and we sat in our RV looking out at the storm.

Carla: George and Ruby had a great time in the pool the next morning with Kelly, James & Daryn, their friends from Kennewick, Washington. They were holidaying with their grandma in her wonderful, but small, Airstream trailer. (We have met a number of grandparents taking grandkids RV-camping here. The school summer holidays are three months long so the poor old grannies and grandads get to do a lot of childcare during that time, it seems.) The storm had cleared and the day was bright and sunny again. The forecast was for a high of 109F later in the day. Blimey. We left Leavenworth and stopped at a nice little state park for lunch (they really are brilliant!) and then found ourselves following the Columbia River upstream towards the Grand Coulee Dam. The river is twice dammed and we swam in the lake formed by the first, smaller one. The landscape was canyon-ish and arid around the lake. Two Russian couples were fishing and swimming off a small boat launch and we joined them. Other than us and the Russians there was not a soul around or in the lake. Very peaceful. We spent the night at Grand Coulee City (just past Electric City) neither of which would qualify as more than a village in the UK. We had a beautiful spot right by the upper part of the lake. A family from another part of Washington State had come tent-camping with their four children for the night and were pitched right next to us. They had come to see the famous laser light show on the Grand Coulee Dam which is shown at 10pm every night in the summer. They were excited and explained that they had decided to camp to avoid the long drive home afterwards. They were to sorely regret that later. We declined the laser light show but soon a more natural and slightly more alarming light show arrived anyway. An enormous thunderstorm rolled in. By midnight the thunder and lightning were constant but still a reasonable distance away. But by 2am it was nearly overhead – I have never heard thunder as loud or seen lightning as constant; both sheet and fork. At this point, the poor folks in the tent (whose youngest child appeared to be about 2 years old) all got out of the tent and sat in their car for an hour. The mother told me the next day that one of the older children had left the door of the tent open when they all made a dash for the car and so when they later returned all their sleeping bags and kit were soaked. Not so nice. On Tuesday we went and had a look at the dam. Built in 1942, it was an impressive piece of engineering and a real tourist draw. Then we set off to see how far we could get towards Yellowstone National Park before we'd had enough driving. We stopped for a bit in Spokane (a fair-sized city) on the most easterly edge of Washington State. I have to say in the brief time we spent there I found more to like about it than I did in Seattle. Their were more well-preserved historical buildings, some quite impressive waterfalls smack in the middle of town on the Spokane River and a pleasant, walkable downtown area despite the hot sun. Locals were finding respite by running fully-clothed through the Riverside Park fountain. We drove into Idaho and stopped for petrol at a weird little town called Mullan. I'm sure Idaho has loads to offer (including the beautiful Couer D'Alene Lake) but we didn't see much of it, I am afraid to report. We drove through the 'pan-handle' and on into Montana barely leaving the I-90 freeway. In Montana we found a place called St Regis with a great RV park and screeched to a halt for the night.

Alex: We started off early, we'd decided we would get breakfast in St Regis before we left. We found Jasper's Restaurant, Bar & Casino and went in for pancakes. We were all completely stuffed by the massive pile of pancakes we were each served, but they were very nice. It was a brilliantly old-fashioned diner with those brown shiny mugs, a middle-aged friendly waitress with a white frilly apron, endless coffee refills and leather-seated booths to slide into. We then got onto the I90 again and set off eastwards. We took a detour via the Highway 2 Pintlar Scenic route and stopped at Philipsburg, a real old style mining and gold town from the 1890s. We visited the mining museum which had a repica mine where we could pick up a real miners pick-axe and pose for photos. The replica mine showed the conditions the miners worked in; low ceiling, low light and very hard work. The upstairs room had lots of artifacts and photographs of the town back in it's hey-day. This fascinating place only cost $8 for the lot of us! Down the street we did some more clothes replacement shopping at the thrift shop. Carla found 3 tops for $6, and Ruby really pushed the boat out and bought a top for $3. We've previously bought a selection of books at the 'Goodwill' store in Des Moines (Seattle). We picked up 14 books for $19. The thrift stores are really helping out in our budget-reduced position. We drove on towards Georgetown Lake where we stopped for a scenic picnic lunch. The day finished at the Lewis & Clark Cavern State Park Campground which could be found after driving alongside snow-capped mountains, past limestone cliffs with an opening to a vast cavern in the side of the cliffs. Read more about some other caverns in George's diary entry for tomorrow.

George: On Thursday morning we go to see some caves that were discovered by a couple of ranchers passing by in the mid 19th century. We get a tour guide called Aubrey who tells really bad jokes about the caves whilst telling us it's proper history. We are a mile above sea level but 200 feet underground at the same time. The caves get so low at one point that we have to sit down and bum shuffle! We see loads of things that look extremely familiar. For example, a rock in the shape of a lion cub's head, a clump of pebbles that looks like popcorn and a stone in the shape of a toad. On the walk up to the caves we see our campsite that we have just checked out of. It's called “Lewis and Clark Cavern State Park Campground.” The reason the campsite is called that is because Lewis and Clark passed by the caves on their travels. (On the Great Expedition of 1806 to discover the North-West Passage. Ed). Later in the day we go from Montana into Wyoming via Earthquake Lake, a lake created by an earthquake in August 1959, and West Yellowstone village. (All about Yellowstone in the next blog. Ed).

---

Comments

[Len & Marion]

Thundering Hell
Hi Ye Folks in the wild west. You sure seem to be having a hell of a time what with fridges, and thunderstorms and hot weather and German Towns that aren't German Towns and lakes and people from all over!!! By the way how are Lewis and Clark? Have they got there yet? Tell them not to visit Seattle - a great disappointment! Love the photos but can you show us one of the RV Winnie'sbacon please. Thanks. Love from Nanny and Grand Poppadum

[irene]

Golf?
Alex has turned into an American golf player - are you on your way to Florida?