Eastward Ho, Run for Home

Monday we crossed most of Nebraska watching the cornfields, alfalfa fields, and large fields of wheat pass by the windows of "The Bus".


Nebraska sure is flat . . . and they talk about Kansas being flat?

We spent Monday night in Wood River, Nebraska. Then on Tuesday, we crossed the Southwestern corner of Iowa, passed through the Northwestern edge of Missouri, and made it home to Kansas.

We arrived home late afternoon and looked forward to spending a night in our "real" bed, instead of our "mobile" bed.

Eastward Ho, Sunday

Today we crossed the Southern part of Wyoming on I-80. Most of the Western area is hilly with numerous rock formations, but you can see for miles.
















In Central and Eastern Wyoming, we saw miles of wheat fields and lots of cattle. We also saw numerous herds of antelope, many of them just laying in the grass enjoying the sunny day.

We stopped for the night near Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the Terry Bison Ranch. They have a herd of about 50 bison along with a couple of camels and numerous other smaller animals. Quite an interesting place.

Eastward Ho, Saturday

On our second consecutive travel day, Saturday, we got an early start, about 8:00 o'clock. We crossed into Southern Idaho where most of the land was rather flat. We could see some mountains in the distance on both our left and right, but generally Interstate 84 missed the mountains. We drove through areas where they were growing lots of hay and we saw many dairy farms. The patterns in the newly cut hay fields presented a pretty sight.


As you might expect, we also saw lots and lots of potato fields as we crossed Idaho.

We then entered Utah where the Interstate turned East and the landscape turned into red rock formations as is characteristic of Utah.


After cutting across the Northeast corner of Utah, we left those red hills and entered Wyoming where we stopped at Evanston, Wyoming, for the night. We did make up for yesterday . . . we covered a little over 400 miles in our second consecutive day on the road.

I was tired and it was certainly time to shut down.

Eastward Ho, Friday

We slowly and reluctantly packed up and left Walla Walla, Washington. We had certainly enjoyed both the town and surroundings . . . and were so slow getting ready, we didn't get on-the-road until almost noon.

On our first day on-the-road, we drove through Eastern Oregon which is quite rolling with lots of pretty big hills.


Much of the way we followed the Yakima River down through the valley on the Eastern side of the Continental Divide.


As we got into Southeastern Oregon, the land flattened out . . . and we could see for miles!



This was a very agricultural area . . . lots of vineyards, hay fields, and what appeared to be wheat; not Winter wheat like grown back in Kansas, maybe Summer wheat . . . or possibly some other grain.

We stopped for the night at Farewell Bend Truck Stop near Huntington, Oregon, close to the Idaho border. We had only covered 175 miles and we'll have to do better than that as Kansas is still a long way to go.

Wine Country Plus

As we were preparing to leave the "Wine Country" around Prosser, Washington, some neighbors in the RV Park told us that if we thought Prosser was nice, we should see Walla Walla. There are 45 wineries in the Prosser area . . . but there are over 100 in the Walla Walla area . . . plus we were told the town is very attractive and historic with wineries and tasting rooms galore. "Wine Country Plus"!

So we decided we could afford to spend a few more days on our way back home. We drove the 85 miles to Walla Walla, which is a little off of our route, but we quickly realized it was a good choice.

The RV Park in which we selected to park "The Bus" is small, but is laid out very well and is very well cared for. It's uniqueness is in the statuary all over the park. Shown below are an elk and a bighorn sheep, but these are only a small representation of the animal statues here. They have deer, bear, buffalo, cows, sheep, cougars, elephants, wolves, etc. The owner tells me they first bought a large rooster statue and it became the talk of the town. So over the years, they have continued to add more statues. They are all for sale . . . but no one is buying. They just continue to accumulate.
















The big attraction here is the town itself. The downtown area has many old historic buildings and very few of them are vacant. The downtown appears to be thriving . . . probably because there is no WalMart in this town. All of the streets are tree lined and the town is very clean and everything appears to be well cared for.


Of course, this is "Wine Country Plus" . . . as evidenced by numerous wine tasting rooms right downtown. Many are side by side, next door to each other. You can walk from one winery's tasting room to another all the way through downtown. We stopped at several and, of course, bought several bottles of the wines we liked.



But we would prefer going to the actual winery rather than just the tasting rooms, so we drove out of down to an area where there was one winery after another down both sides of the road. Nearly all were small family-owned wineries surrounded by their own vineyards.

We selected the Cougar Crest Estate Winery to stop at first. It is a very modern facility, but is a full scale winery. It is owned by a man and his wife, who started it just ten years ago. He was a veterinarian and she was a pharmacist. They were growing grapes and making wine at home. Their hobby became their avocation. Both of them were working in the tasting room at the winery while we were there. We spent considerable time with the wife and learned their story of how they got in to the business and how they run the operation.


I was privileged to be given a tour of the whole facility. Since it was not grape season, the winery was not in operation, but I got to see the crushing equipment, the fermenting and blending tanks, and the bottling line.

The fermenting tanks are on the left below and the photo on the right below is of the bottling line.
















Of course, the wine storage in their barrel rooms was full. Shown below is one of four barrel rooms which are temperature and humidity controlled. The windows in the overhead door are insulated glass.



Needless to say, we purchased several more bottles of wine here. In addition, we visited a couple more wineries in the area before we called it a day.

Many people have told us this area is also well known for Walla Walla Sweet Onions. We are familiar with Vidalia Sweet Onions from Georgia, but were not aware of similar onions in this area . . . but the people around here sure make a big deal about it.

We were told that the onion season isn't here yet, but on our way back to the RV Park, we drove by an onion field where workers had harvested and bagged onions leaving them in the field to dry.


There had to be a place we could buy some of these newly harvested Walla Walla Sweet Onions . . . and we located the onion stand of a local farmer. We bought a bag of onions, returned to "The Bus", grilled a couple of hamburgers and enjoyed them with slices of fresh Walla Walla Sweet Onions. They are as good as claimed!

We plan to leave this "Wine Country Plus" area tomorrow. This has been a very interesting place to spend a couple of days, but we need to get back on the road to Kansas. Carole wants to go home.

Wine Country

In the town of Prosser, Washington, every street is lined with banners proclaiming this is Wine Country.


We started our day with a breakfast of American fried potatoes (like Mom used to make) with scrambled eggs, toast and orange juice. After all . . . this is my birthday . . . even though we celebrated my birthday last Sunday.

After breakfast, we began the rounds of checking out area wineries. We spent so much time talking with the hostesses ( Carole likes to talk) at a couple of wine tasting rooms, that the morning got away from us quickly. All of the wineries had beautiful landscaping with lots of greenery and colorful flowers.


At lunch time, we drove downtown to a micro-brewery, but found they didn't open until three o'clock. So we stumbled into a coffee house for soup and a sandwich.

Downtown Prosser has a lot of old historic buildings, a wide main street, and a wonderful back drop of the surrounding hills.


After lunch, Carole had to look over a couple of antique stores . . . and spend lots of time "talking antiques" with the owners.


Following our "antiquing" (fortunately Carole didn't buy anything), we went to a couple more wineries.



We discovered we couldn't sample all of their wines . . . and they certainly had more that we could drink! We did pick up several bottles of the wines we liked best to take home with us for later.


The whole area around here is so pretty with vineyards everywhere. It was a beautiful, warm day in a very scenic area.


Even though this area boasts about being "Wine Country", we became aware that it is also the heart of apple and cherry country. In addition to the vineyards, there are numerous orchards. We saw a large cherry orchard with signs staying "Pickers Wanted". I thought about applying, but would probably eat more than I turned in to the grower.

We saw many large apple processing plants around the area. I was amazed at the giant stacks of apple boxes on skids waiting until the apples are ripe. The photo below is the "Tree Top Company" which make apple juice and apple sauce. Just look at that stack of apple boxes . . . and the size of the big juice tanks behind.


It has been an interesting day. This would be a wonderful area in which to live except they tell us that they have a lot of ice in the Winter. At least it is great in the summer.

Eastward Ho!

Carole is anxious to go home. So on Monday morning we packed up and pointed "The Bus" Eastward. It rained all night, misted all morning, and was to remain cloudy all afternoon . . . except that the Seattle weatherman said we could see "bursts of sunshine". Only in Seattle! It will be good to get out of this wet weather.

The first part of our journey over the Cascade Mountains was pretty, with the clouds hovering around the tops of the mountains and in places the mountains actually disappeared into the clouds.

However, when we passed over the summit and dropped down on the other side of the mountain range, we saw some blue sky and the sun was shining in places. The clouds were still hovering around the mountain tops, but it was actually warm.


When we descended into the valley, we began seeing a lot of vineyards and orchards, probably apples and cherries.


We then passed by many fields of table crops. I wasn't able to identify all of them, but the field pictured below is obviously pole beans . . . and that field had to be nearly 100 acres in size. That's a lot of beans!


If you click on the picture, you can see that the whole field is full of stakes, poles, and stringers for the bean plants to climb on. That has to be a very labor intensive operation.

It was getting late in the afternoon and we needed to find a place to spend the night. We knew we were in Washington's wine country, but when we saw the Wine Country RV Park on Merlot Drive just off of Wine Country Road, we just had to stop for the night. We knew this was our place.

We were in the town of Prosser and this RV Park was really nice. All of the sites were pull-thrus on concrete pads with manicured grass in between.

Then when we looked over brochures of the area and discovered that there are 45 wineries in the vicinity, most with tasting rooms, we knew we had to stay here for at least a couple of days to check it out.

We'll get on with our "Eastward Ho!" mission a few days from now. It'll wait 'till we do a little "discovery" here.

Father's Day Plus

Happy Father's Day to all of you Fathers out there.

Carole took her son, Bruce, and her grandson, Alek, and myself out to eat for her favorite . . . Chinese! To kill two birds with one stone (or maybe three), she called this our Birthday Celebration as well.

Bruce and I share the same birthday on June 22 . . . and Carole chose to move it up a couple of days so our "Chinese" would serve as celebration of two birthdays as well as Father's Day for both Bruce and I.

Anyway, the Chinese was OK.

Boeing Tour

Carole's son, Bruce, has worked at Boeing for 22 years, so Carole has been through the Boeing plant several times. She was not interested in another tour, so I went to the Boeing plant in nearby Everett, Washington, to take the plant tour and watch airplanes being assembled.

The building is the largest building, by volume, in the world. The front of the building, shown below, has eight large doors, each one as wide as the length of a football field . . . 100 yards, 300 feet.

The building is probably as tall as a 7-8 story building as during the tour we were on an observation balcony on the 4th floor and we were nowhere near the top.



Cameras, handbags, and cell phones were not allowed on the tour, so I was unable to take pictures inside of the plant. But, needless to say, it was really fascinating to see large wide-body jet airplanes in various stages of the assembly process.

We did get to see Boeing's newest jet, the 777 Dream Liner, in production as well as out on the flight line for flight testing. The first of these are yet delivered to an airline.

After the plant tour, I visited the "Future of Flight" building where Boeing has a lot of displays relating to past, present, and future aircraft.



On the left below is the engine which is in the new 777 Dream Liner. This is made by both Rolls Royce and General Electric. On the right below is a body section of the new 777 Dream Liner which is made completely of composites materials rather than metal. It's kind of like fiberglass, but much lighter and stronger. Both the airframe and skin are made of these composites.
















This was all so very interesting to see, both the tour of the plant and the Future of Flight exhibits.

All in all, a day very well spent.

Vancouver

A couple of years ago when Carole and I made the trip Westward across Canada, we stopped just short of Vancouver and returned South to the States. I've always wanted to see Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and felt now was a good opportunity. Carole has been to Vancouver several times before, so she decided to spend the day at Bruce's, her son's house, while I made a day trip to Vancouver 130 miles North of Marysville.

The highway North along Puget Sound to Canada travels through mountains covered with pine, cedar, and fir trees . . . which is why the State of Washington is referred to as the "Evergreen State". It was a pretty drive . . . although a little overcast, which seems to be fairly normal around here.


Downtown Vancouver surprised me as the architecture of the buildings is much different than in the States. All of the tall buildings have rows and rows of windows. Back home the exterior of most buildings are covered with glass or metal with few windows.


Since I would be here for only a day, I tried to get to as many different parts of the City as I could. The original settlement of Vancouver was in an area which is now referred to as "Gas Town". Much of that area has been renovated with quaint shops, brick sidewalks, and narrow streets . . . pictured below.



A steam line runs underground through this area to furnish heat to many of the buildings. One of the attractions in Gas Town is a Steam Clock. Every 15 minutes or so, steam whistles go off accompanied by puffs of steam into the air. It was fascinating to watch and it must be quite an attraction as many people were gathered to take pictures. In the picture below, you can see a puff of steam coming out the top.



I stopped at a local micro-brewery in Gas Town for lunch . . . a micro-brewery and restaurant called the Steam House. They use steam to cook the malt in the brewing process. The beer was very good. The food was good too.


After lunch, I visited Vancouver's Chinatown, supposedly one of the largest in the Western world. It was all oriental with obviously a large oriental population.



Across the bay to the North was a huge park which I explored. There seems to be water everywhere in and around Vancouver with marinas and yacht harbors all over town, including in this park across from downtown.




On the South side of town was an area called the City Market. It was a collection of old corrugated-steel roofed buildings housing all kinds of shops. It was a very crowded area with narrow streets, lots of people, and no where to park. So I didn't stop at the City Market, but simply drove through.



Vancouver, British Columbia, is a very fascinating city. Maybe some time in the future I will have the opportunity to spend more than a day trip here.

ESP

Every town has a micro-brewery . . . and the Seattle area is no different. But what used to be a micro-brewery grew into a full fledged brewery operation called the Red Hook Brewery.

The Red Hook Brewery also has a nice restaurant adjacent to the brewery. I was not familiar with the various beers they brew here, so I ordered their Sampler . . . a serving of each of five different beers on a place mat which describes and explains the brewing of each of the beers.

It was an attractive and interesting presentation . . .


I thought the one in the middle was the best, the one they call "ESP". So after a great cheeseburger, I bought a six-pack to take back to "The Bus".

We didn't have time to take the tour of the brewery, so we'll leave that for another day. For now, I'll just quietly enjoy the six-pack of "ESP"..

A View From the Top

I have been in Seattle before and seen the Space Needle, but I have never been to the top. So we decided this was a good day for "A View From the Top" as the weather was reasonably clear. Bruce, Alek, Carole, and I drove to downtown Seattle to go to the top of the Space Needle.


The Space Needle, which was constructed for the Seattle Worlds Fair, is about 600 feet tall. Of course, "A View From the Top" is spectacular. This was a good day for viewing (by Seattle standards) even though it was a little foggy (by Kansas standards).

Below on the left is a view of Puget Sound and the Seattle harbor. On the right below is a view of downtown Seattle.


















"A View From the Top" was well worth the time . . . and climb. Just kidding . . . we did ride the elevator up.

When we returned to ground level, Bruce tried to unscrew one of the nuts on a bolt anchoring the Space Needle . . . but he was unable to budge it. Just look at the size of that nut and bolt!


Several years ago, Seattle experienced an 8.8 earthquake and the Space Needle was not damaged at all. I guess the size of those nuts and bolts is why it's still standing.

Back to Marysville

On Sunday, following the ceremonies at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, we returned the 130 miles to Marysville, Washington, so Carole could spend more time with her son, Bruce.

As we left Ellensburg Westbound on I-90, it was a fairly clear day and we could see the snow-covered mountains off to our North. The tallest mountain is Mount Stuart, at 9,415 feet. What a pretty sight!

We then passed by a large mountain lake, then over Snoqualmie Pass.


The rest of the trip back to Marysville was through some very scenic, tree-covered mountains. No wonder the State of Washington is called "The Evergreen State".


We arrived back in Marysville and parked "The Bus" at the Tulalip Casino again where we will be close to Bruce's home. We plan to stay here for a week or so.