Blogs from Leavenworth, Washington, United States, North America

blog 09-07-17 Leavenworth, WA On the road by 9:30 heading west on I-90. Our night was surprisingly restful despite the traffic and sirens. There was traffic through Spokane but not bad and we saw 4 Walmarts which made Ginnie say "Here they all are, not where we want them". The road took us over the Columbia River, starting to look impressive but about half as large as it will be later. We exited onto Rt 2 which runs west but a little north of 90 and is a 2 lane 60 mph highway through wheat fields that would rival Kansas. Some of the wheat was still standing but much had been harvested and the fields resembled a little blond boy with his crew cut for school. It was over 60 miles of the same view, rolling ... read more

And so we left the lovely Vancouver. Admittedly we only spent our time in the main downtown area but we really did give it a good look and experienced what we could by foot or cycling. It is such an easy place to get around and there is so much to experience. We caught a taxi out to the airport to get our rental car and that took half an hour to process. We then headed off south towards the border around midday and spent another hour getting through the car queue and then in at customs getting our passports, visas, photo and finger prints processed. If they had moved any slower they would have been in a coma. There's not a lot of chance of getting into the country easily so why there are 11million ... read more

State Sticker Ceremony What a great sleep. There is nothing like the mountain air, with open windows and cool temperatures. It was well after 8 am by the time I rolled out of bed this morning, looked at the temp and it was 58. Hooray!! The camper was a mess so I was determined to get things in order today. I decided not to get in the car today so I had to amuse myself somehow. I have a speaker for my I pod and it's batteries were dead and I didn't know how to change them. As it turned out it's rechargeable so I found a cord that fit and got the charge going. Next was breakfast and I was sick of cereal so I made oatmeal pancakes and sausage. Great, breakfast and lunch combined. ... read more

Geo: 47.5964, -120.66 It was a wonderful day of extremes. We got on the road at 6:00 just after sunrise to a brisk 46 degrees or the trip north on 97, the "Oregon Scenic Byway." Along the way the snow-shrouded Cascade range showed off it's stately elegance: Bachelor, the Sisters, Jefferson, and Mt. Hood kept us company along the way. By the time we crossed the Columbia River into Washington it was a toasty 90 degrees. Mt. St. Helens was majestic as it jutted up behind the farmland and hills in the distance. The temps continued to climb as we reached Yakima, "the Palm Springs of Washington" where it hit 97. (The real Palm Springs hit 122.) We stopped to cool off at a Yakima Nation tribal fruit stand, and enjoyed fresh-picked apricots, peaches, cherries and ... read more

I have sequestered myself in a tiny 1960's room with a view of the main highway that travels threough Leavenworth. The town is famous as a community that fashioned itself after towns and architecture found in the Bavarian Alps. I have a tiny round 2 foot table that has been stratically placed directly under the wall mounted aircondition vent. It works but the sweat still cascades off my brow. It wasn't all like that throughout the day. I colasted down the hill from our home in Nanaimo at 5:10 this morning. THere is no one up anywhere at that time of day. I encountered about 10 stop lights along the route to trhe Ferry however I chose to be colourblind and blew through them all. There was no one awke to see. I had wisely put ... read more