Sunday, July 15, 2012

The long way home, part 4 (final stretch!)

[Backdated post]

Let me explain.

No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.

In the morning we got up, puttered around, logged some caches and waymarks on the hotel's delightfully speedy Internet connection, then got ourselves sufficiently gussied up and attended the Manitou Ward's sacrament meeting.  There was a man on the stand who looked just like Russell, a friend of a friend from college -- and it might well have been him, but I didn't go up and ask.

We motored off to get breakfast at Denny's.  Normally we wouldn't eat out 1) on Sunday and 2) at Denny's, but we were on the road, and CM had a hankering for breakfast... and then too there were geocaches in the area, so it was a moral imperative.  Uh, sort of.

We wandered across the I-90 route of eastern Washington, geocaching and waymarking as we went.

Proof:

The bridge over the Columbia.

 Roll on, Columbia, roll on...

If you look very carefully you can see the wind turbines in the background, to the right.  Each one is slightly taller than the Statue of Liberty.

We drove west toward Ellensburg, and from there joined up with the more familiar part of I-90 that goes over Snoqualmie Pass and from thence home.


I love the drive between Snoqualmie Pass and North Bend: sharp craggy mountains, spreading forests of evergreens, rivulets trickling from rock faces, patches of settling mist.  It's so seductively gorgeous I usually forget to take pictures.

This is the most beautiful place I've ever lived in.  And when we get to this part of the drive, I can feel a palpable warmth run through me because I know we're home.

It's good to be back.

1 comment:

Paula Bowles said...

What an adventure! I love road trips, looks like you had a great time :) America is a beautiful place! (And you're right, photos just never seem do justice to such beautiful things!)