Day One
324 miles. We started late and made it to just past Spokane today. Fairly uneventful, but we had a few first day blips. Getting on the was road for any trip is always a bit stressful, but perhaps slightly more so since it’s the two of us in a car for an entire month. Did we forget anything? Do we like each other enough to do this? If we were on the Amazing Race, would we have embarrassed ourselves in front of America?
On the TAR (The Amazing Race) scale, I’m guessing we would have come in around 9th (out of 11). Our navigation skills rocked, but our interpersonal interactions were shaky. Perhaps an earlier breakfast would have been beneficial. We’re the team that your bets would still be out on. Are they assholes or are they cool and just finding their sea-legs? Time will tell.
I woke up with a cold yesterday (hooray), and have been fighting it off fairly successfully, but it’s taken a bit out of me. (Patience, mostly.) And Mark was … well, Mark was cranky. We’re both better now that the camp is up and we’re sipping Basil Hayden on ice out of camping mugs. Thank god for KOA!
Route outline: I-5 North over to Highway 2 was our plan, but I-5 sucked balls traffic-wise. We stopped at a Denny’s (yay America), and found a shortcut to 2 that didn’t involve 5. Then we hit holiday traffic around Sultan. What? You’ve never heard of Sultan, WA? I already was expecting 2 to be slower than 90, but geez … it was even longer than I expected. Still better, though – peaceful and pretty. And I’ve seen that stretch of 90 more times than I can count, so I’m glad we did it. We’ll mainly try to stay off the major interstates, unless it makes no sense not to use them.
We stopped in Leavenworth for a cold one (which we needed – see previous note re: patience & crankiness), and chatted up some of the hippie townie bartenders, who were lovely. We enjoyed the majestic rock faces along the way to & past Wenatchee, and the colors of the WA State desert are stunning! I always forget. The dying sunlight off the wheatfields was amazing. And Mark and I have decided to retire to either Davenport or Startup.
We’re about to go brush our teeth and fall deeply asleep in our comfy tent with the top flap open to reveal a perfect shot of the Big Dipper. Dreamy. We still love each other. All told, any day that ends with that is a good one, no matter how many detours we take along the way.
On the TAR (The Amazing Race) scale, I’m guessing we would have come in around 9th (out of 11). Our navigation skills rocked, but our interpersonal interactions were shaky. Perhaps an earlier breakfast would have been beneficial. We’re the team that your bets would still be out on. Are they assholes or are they cool and just finding their sea-legs? Time will tell.
I woke up with a cold yesterday (hooray), and have been fighting it off fairly successfully, but it’s taken a bit out of me. (Patience, mostly.) And Mark was … well, Mark was cranky. We’re both better now that the camp is up and we’re sipping Basil Hayden on ice out of camping mugs. Thank god for KOA!
Route outline: I-5 North over to Highway 2 was our plan, but I-5 sucked balls traffic-wise. We stopped at a Denny’s (yay America), and found a shortcut to 2 that didn’t involve 5. Then we hit holiday traffic around Sultan. What? You’ve never heard of Sultan, WA? I already was expecting 2 to be slower than 90, but geez … it was even longer than I expected. Still better, though – peaceful and pretty. And I’ve seen that stretch of 90 more times than I can count, so I’m glad we did it. We’ll mainly try to stay off the major interstates, unless it makes no sense not to use them.
We stopped in Leavenworth for a cold one (which we needed – see previous note re: patience & crankiness), and chatted up some of the hippie townie bartenders, who were lovely. We enjoyed the majestic rock faces along the way to & past Wenatchee, and the colors of the WA State desert are stunning! I always forget. The dying sunlight off the wheatfields was amazing. And Mark and I have decided to retire to either Davenport or Startup.
We’re about to go brush our teeth and fall deeply asleep in our comfy tent with the top flap open to reveal a perfect shot of the Big Dipper. Dreamy. We still love each other. All told, any day that ends with that is a good one, no matter how many detours we take along the way.
Comments