Driving Home

OK, so Rick wants me to stop playing games on his iPad cuz it eats up the batteries. He suggested I write a blog. I guess that works. We're on I-5 driving home from another adventure, one I've been trying to get timed right and it finally happened.

I've been wanting to see the autumn colors in all their glory on the North Cascades Highway, specifically in the Winthrop area, in the Methow Valley (pronounced met-how).

We'll go back a bit first. Rick had been unemployed for about 6 weeks now and I've been wanting to do this trip but you gotta time it right. Well, for the last cuppla weeks I've been working at the Auburn School District transportation department, subbing in the office. So we couldn't go during the week. Then we had family functions on the weekends. This Friday was a non-school day so they told me I didn't have to work, unless I wanted to. Rick got his starting date for working at Boeing so I don't feel the pressure to work so I opted to stay home. When I got home Thursday I informed Rick that we were leaving on an overnight trip to eastern Washington the following morning. The weather was still pretty good, rain was moving in but it wasn't hitting the east until later on Saturday.

We threw our tenting stuff in the trunk (not camping, just sleeping stuff) grabbed some snacks and took off about 9:00 Friday AM.

I had done a little research to find side trips to enjoy out-of-the-way scenery and our first stop was at Lake Kachess just over Snoqualmie Pass. We were already finding lots of beautiful color there. We helped ourselves to the insecurely (kinda) gated campground on the lake and saw some gorgeous colors.

We made a quick stop at Safeway in Cle Elum, then continued on through Blewett Pass. I suggested we swing over to little gold mining town of Liberty but the road was being monitored by a fire volunteer, the wild fires are still burning. After turning around we noticed more closed roads, smoke rising from the woods and plenty of charred forest. It's obvious why they had to close the pass a while back due to the wildfires.

I tried to get some shots of the colorful foliage by a creek and ended up wading in the creek, barefooted!

When we got to the town of Cashmere we took a detour toward a vineyard, I was hoping they were changing colors also or had grapes left on them. Neither. In reality all the grapevines were encased in bird-proof netting, really ugly. But we did see the old town of Cashmere which is now on a back road. There was a house with a collection of antique farm and forest implements. There was an old rusty snowmobile (didn't know they made them that long ago!) and a BIG chainsaw that had a handle on the far end, it musta been about 4' long!

We got to the town of Twisp right around dinner time and was hoping to find fast food with a dollar menu - not in Twisp! So we looked around and ended up choosing a bar and grill - Mick and Miki's Red Cedar Bar for a burger. Prices were average, the food was good but the place needed some serious upgrades to remove the smell. I say it was old frying oil smell and Rick says old cigarettes, probably was a combination of the two.

After dinner we looked at the map to find a forest service road to set our tent up on. We found it and by the time we were setting things up it was twilight. It wasn't too late so once our accommodations were ready for us we sat in the car and occupied ourselves on the iPad. First we looked at the pictures we took that day, then we played monopoly until it was obvious that Rick was gonna win, then we retired to our tent and watched a movie - "It Happens Every Spring". An OLD 1949 black and white, cute movie.

When we were trying to get to sleep we heard cars driving by on the road not too far from our parking spot. One we eventually called the "Yee-hawers". They were tearing all over the place. Rick said it sounded like they were trying to climb hills in their truck, slipping tires and flying rocks. We were cracking jokes on the way out, where it looked like they may have gone.

Our drive out that road looked very different from when we drove in. It was a beautiful valley! Then the town of Twisp was also very friendly, a busy Saturday market was going on by the library and senior center. We needed coffee so headed to Hank's Market and found the deli had seating and some quick, cheap breakfast. Rick had ham scramble for $2.75 and I got biscuits and gravy for $3. The food and coffee was good, the restroom was clean, it was a great start to the day.

We found the "Old Twisp Highway" and the scenery was amazing. Beautiful trees, rivers and the homesteads were well manicured.

After stopping every half mile or so we finally made it to Winthrop. It's an old-west style tourist town but in a very pretty part of the state, the Methow Valley.

Proudly we drove right out of town (no getting sucked into the whole tourist thing) and headed out to the woods to look for more scenery. We found a beautiful, small but powerful waterfall, the Falls Creek Falls. Then we took a side trip to Perrygin Lake, then to the Silverlilne Resort on the lake. A very pretty resort with a campground, boat rentals, etc.

We opted to try out a side road rather than take the main highway to start our trip home. It started out a nice gravel road but eventually turned into a very rocky single lane goat trail! Not literally, of course, but we did wonder numerous times if we were on the right road. We did and were glad to finally get back on smooth road.

The rain started soon after we got back to the highway. Then Rick started sweating about gas, we were on E and weren't finding a gas station. We got to Newhalem and - NO GAS!!! The next town was 13 l o n g miles down the road but we made it.

We saw turkeys, quail, a great blue heron, a bald eagle and heard an owl and a pileated woodpecker.  Saw about 5 dead deer but never once did we see a live one.  Oh, and we saw lots of hunters!

We were invited to Rick's parents' place for dinner so we had to call and let them know that we'd be late. We were only about a half an hour late. It was another really fun adventure!