Day 7 Ak to Ohio
Nautical
miles same as trip north; car miles 474, 9 hours
We get up in
plenty of time to finish packing and share a breakfast. It’s a sunny warm day and mountains are in
view. We are able to access our car
before the majority come. We are packed
between two car elevators and must wait our turn. One of the car elevators is not working; just
one more indication that the Columbia needs some TLC. (We heard a staff member say the Kennicott is
coming back in November – it is the cross gulf ferry.) Eventually we are able to descend to the road. We pass through the quaint village of Fair
Haven and head south. It’s 70’s with
ocean breeze and bright sunshine. While
the trees and low bushes are lush and green, the ground cover is brown and
brittle. Throughout our trip today we
will see small areas of fire and some involving hundreds of acres. There are signs that say fire danger is
high. We pass through the Skagit valley,
lush agricultural area that thrives on volcanic soil and large river
irrigation. The temps start raising
into 90’s. Traffic is very heavy around
Everett and Seattle, sometimes at a standstill. Besides the huge population,
it’s Friday and people are traveling. We
pass through the heart of the Cascade Mountains, through multiple passes, up
and down. Heavily treed forests covering
low mountains. We can’t see Mt. Ranier.
Boo/
We descend
into the valley and everything changes.
The rounded hills are treeless and golden with dried grasses and large
swaths of scrubby sage brush (we think).
The temperature rises to 100 degrees.
Eventually we enter the Yakima Valley, famous as the fruit and veg basket
of America, Del Monte is located here.
And this area produces 70% of America’s hops and large wine production
with miles of vineyards. The Yakima
River flows through along with tributaries that provide the irrigation needed,
the volcanoes provide the special soil.
There is contrast between golden bare hills and dark green lush crops. We are between 102 and 103 degrees. We come to where the Yakima and Snake Rivers
join the Columbia. Clover Island has a
yacht club and restaurants. We treat
ourselves to patio dinner at the Cedars, overlooking the Columbia. Lots of water craft, including a river cruise
ship pass by. We are in the shade and it
is hot but it is a dry heat and tolerable.
We cross the Columbia and enter Oregon.
As we move east the temps drop into the 90’s, still contrast dry to lush
crops with irrigation. But as we come
down a hill we can clearly see Mt Rainer and the ghost of Mt Adams in the
distance. Both contributors of soil and
water. Volcanoes in Washington, Baker,
Rainer, Mt St Helens (catastrophic eruption in recent past decades) and Mt
Adams. And Oregon has their neighbor
volcano, Mt. Hood. We pass into Oregon
and we are now on Mountain Time, 2 hours from Ohio EST. There is a huge cloud of smoke following
us. It looks like it’s from a blast. Gray/brown but looking sickly peach in the
sunlight. Go away! Apparently BC is still burning because that
is what is north over the border.
We finally
start the climb into Oregon high country, one pass is 4500 ft, and we watch the
thermometer drop, we actually saw 79 degrees.
Eventually we descend and level off at high 80’s. Stopped in La Grand at Best Western Plus
where we stayed before. We made the
wrong date reservation and had to scramble for alternative. All local hotels were full with youth
baseball competition. Luckily we found
another Best Western 35 miles away. It
was dark by the time we got there but glad to have a bed after such a big
travel day. In the dark things don’t
look their best but the staff is kind to give us first floor room and it is
clean and comfortable. Taking another
hour to rearrange luggage after ferry trip and readily for last days of
travel.
Catching up
with blog from backlog. Pics will be
added as we can. Realized we didn’t do the map for return trip. The only change was today and that was a
north west to south east diagonal across Washington State: Ocean, Cascade Mountains, Valleys.
On a sad
note. In all of our activity we have
been keeping brother Pete and kids in our thoughts and prayers. Sister-in-law Wende died while we have been
away. We are so sorry for their and our
loss. We look forward to seeing them in
Buffalo when we visit.
Another day
of heat tomorrow as we travel across the US.
Fingers crossed the storms will hold off. Thankful for AC
Nighty
Night.
