It was sunny while it was raining. Mike drank a lot of coffee. Everyone under 40 was vaping and wore flannel and beards (even some of the women). We saw guys throw fish at each other.

We really liked Seattle. People were friendly and there were so many interesting things to see and do. The drizzle didn’t bother us, because it felt like an authentic part of the Puget Sound experience. Even the state park we stayed in was nicer than we’d expected from the online reviews.

A change of plans

We just drove 5 hours across Washington, and I’m writing this from a pretty little park by the Spokane River. Our original itinerary had us staying here tonight, but we’ve received a generous offer to visit Maureen’s cousin Tony and his wife Celine at their home in Nordman, Idaho. It means a couple more hours in the truck tonight, but it gets us a bit closer to Glacier for our drive tomorrow.

The drive here was more interesting than we’d anticipated from the map. Snoqualmie Pass in the fog and rain was kind of terrifying with a trailer, and the Columbia Plateau of central Washington was a treeless expanse of basalt spreading out to the horizon in all directions. We stopped for lunch in the friendly, but dying, town of Ritzville about an hour out of Spokane where I think we met the entire population in our visits to the diner, antique stop, and whiskey distillery(!).

Now we’re just chillin’ at our non-campsite until we connect with Tony and head into Idaho. Hey, we get to sleep in a new state tonight–cool!