Washington State

Woohoo! We are back in our old home state. Well, we used to call Washington home, but not since 1975 as we have been on the move with the Air Force. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from reminiscing, going to our old haunts, and visiting family.

Starting on the east side of Washington, we visited with Dan’s parents, his sister, Sue and her husband Forrie in Spokane. We spent some time catching up with everyone. We spent a couple of hours at the Spokane Riverfront Park. We strolled along a very wide path with one side marked “For Wheels Only”. What a great way to keep pedestrians from being run over. The Looff Carousel was celebrating its 100th anniversary. Dan’s dad used to ride this beautiful old carousel as a child.

~Looff Carousel

We then moved on to central Washington where we first met in high school, got married and well, the rest is history, right? We stayed in a Thousand Trails Park in Crescent Bar on the Columbia River. It was very hot! All our cats went belly up – to keep cool, of course. Crescent Bar is a thirty-minute drive from Wenatchee, where we spent our teen years. It is also where Dan’s uncle lives. It was good to see Jerry and Anne along with their daughter and their two granddaughters. When we weren’t visiting with them, we were checking out some of our old haunts. Yep, it is true – you can never go home, but the foothills and the river views were just as beautiful as we remember.

Our next stop was another Thousand Trails Resort near Lake Wenatchee and 15 miles from Leavenworth. This is a very large park with forested trails and large grassy areas. It is more like camping in a state or national park than a private campground. We were so busy hiking in the woods, checking out the lake, and visiting with Sandy’s brother Steve that we did not spend anytime in Leavenworth. Steve and Deb drove out from Everett to spend the day with us.

After lunch, we all climbed into Steve’s jeep with plans of taking pictures of waterfalls. Steve found two waterfalls – one on the Little Wenatchee River and the other (our favorite), on the White River. It is glacier fed and very beautiful. Sandy and Steve spent quite a bit of time taking pictures while Dan and Deb wandered around looking at the sights.

After dinner, we sat around just catching up and snacking on mini Hershey chocolate bars and nuts. To keep ourselves entertained we were feeding a chipmunk some peanuts. Much to our surprise, the chipmunk turned out to be a chocolate connoisseur. We were saying good-bye to Steve and Deb, when we realized the chipmunk was on the picnic table and he was munching on a dark chocolate bar. Just as Dan reached for the bag the chipmunk threw down the bar and did a head dive back into the bag. He had a second bar in his paws, but dropped it when he realized Dan had picked up the bag with him in it. He did not go far so Dan had to put the bag away. We are sure the chipmunk was looking for a Mr. Goodbar!

We next drove over Steven’s Pass to our new stop in Monroe, again at a Thousand Trails Park. Our current resort is not as large as the last, but does have an adult only pool and spa, as well as family pool, and access to the Skykomish River from right in the campground – very nice with the hot weather we are experiencing. The Steven’s pass highway 2 is very scenic with mountains all around, waterfalls, tall cedar and pine trees, and a beautiful azure Skykomish River. Dan decided to stop along the way so we could dip our feet in the icy river. While taking in the river views and relaxing, we saw two white water kayakers coming down the river. Sandy managed to get some great action shots of one kayaker. She has put the sequenced pictures together in a slide show.

Next stop La Conner and visiting Sandy’s Mom.

There’s Rain in Them There Hills

Weather has not been the best in the Black Hills so we haven't been getting out much to see the sights. For over a week, we have had a heavy mist and/or rain over the southwest area. Could be worse, it could be snowing. The hills are so green right now that we feel like we are in Washington State instead of South Dakota. There are some pictures posted in Webshots under Black Hills. If the weather clears up, we will definitely add to the folder.

The first couple of days were great with beautiful blue skies and fat fluffy clouds. We took it for granted and did not rush around trying to look at all the sights. We drove the Pigtail and Needles scenic highways. We were able to see Mt. Rushmore through the Pigtail tunnels. We stopped to see many different lakes and hiked up a couple of the trails. At one pullover, Dan found himself surrounded by chipmunks. We think Sandy’s camera clicking brought them out. One chipmunk thought he was a model. He would pose – click – move closer – pose – click – move closer. This went on until he got so close to the lens that Sandy finally had to get up before the chipmunk climbed on to her camera. On another rainy day, we drove through Custer State Park and saw many buffalo, antelope, deer, wild turkeys, and of course, the Burro Gang.

On a different day, we drove up to Sturgis. It certainly looks different than it did during Sturgis Bike week. We had lunch in Deadwood at Kevin Costner’s restaurant Jake’s inside the Midnight Star. The restaurant is entertaining with costumes and posters from Kevin’s movies to look over while waiting for lunch to be served. We also stopped by Saloon Number 10 to see where Wild Bill was shot in 1876.

Traffic Jams & Highway Robbery!

We were very happy to see the Black Hills of South Dakota after traveling through the plains of Kansas and Nebraska. Kansas and Nebraska were very pretty with miles of green wheat fields, but we were ready for some pine trees and mountains.

We thought we were done with traffic jams and tolls for a while only to run into both! On our way to Spokane Creek Campground, we spent a half hour in a traffic jam. Please see pictures to the right. Some people tried to reason with the buffalo only to be chased back to their cars. Others tried to sneak around the buffalo only to be blocked in on the wrong side of the road. There was no reasoning with the big guys. It took a group of motorcyclist’s rev’ing engines to convince the buffalo to move off the road.

The next day, we decided to go for a drive before visiting Dan’s sister, Kristy and her husband, Dick. We ran into a highway robbery already in progress. When the Burro Gang saw us, they immediately surrounded us. The leader stuck his head through Dan’s window and started demanding food in order for us to pass. We only had stale tortilla chips, which they took, but we were told next time they would expect something better. Whew! Close call!

We are having a wonderful visit with Kristy and Dick. We enjoyed a quiet Sunday on their back porch watching a variety of wildlife go through their yard. We are also doing a lot of sightseeing so we should have lots of pictures to add to Webshots the next time we post a travel blog.