The Great Summer Getaway

Hailey has been away at camp and I have been getting ready for our Great Summer Getaway. 

We have a vague itinerary to circle Washington State but nothing specific with dates or reservations.  We will be flying by the seat of our pants so to speak which is just the way I like it.  We have plans to  see the great Volcanic Mountains of Rainer, Adams, St Helen's, the Pacific Ocean, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascade Highway and a whole lot in between. 

I picked up Hailey at 9:00 in the morning form camp with every peace of clothing she owned being dirty.  With plans to get her clothes clean and take off.  Certainly a minor calculation error on my part.  I should have taken them to the laundromat as it would have been much faster.  I’ll have to remember that for next time.

 

By the time we were all put together and ready to go it was 4:30.  I knew that if we waited until the next day, time would get away from us again so at 4:30 we headed out to in search of cooler country.  We didn’t get very far…..Just down the road a hundred miles.  I saw that the little farming town town of Odessa had free camping in a city park with shade and restrooms. 

We set up a quick camp and would head out early in the morning without all the distractions of home to get in the way. 

We were parked next to a little beautiful little church with our back door welcoming any heavenly vibes for our upcoming trip through our back door.

Like many little towns, it was buttoned up early and all the businesses were already closed so we walked around the downtown area and found our own entertainment. 

Another church we found in our walk about.  It was filled with stained glass windows which I would have loved to seen with sunlight streaming through.

We found the local school and notice the playground open, so it was off to play a bit ourselves.  It doesn’t matter how old I am, I there is nothing  a swing.  So that is exactly what we did. 

My hip has been giving me  a lot trouble…. but not on the swing so I gave it all I had!    We had a blast!!!

This was the noisiest camp ever since we were near main street and a train track 2 blocks away with trains and whistles through the night.  But we loved the little town and were ready to hit the road early the next morning.

Near Vantage at the Columbia River, we stopped at a viewpoint to look at the river.  Recently, a huge crack was discovered at the Wannapum Dam from a faulty dam design.  A huge water draw down dropped the water level so that repairs could be made to the dam.. I wanted to see how much the draw down of water for repairs had changed the waterline.  

The sandbar in the middle was previously underwater.  

 

The water line mark.  Without a size reference it is difficult to visualize how huge the water drop has been.

As we were traveling across the arid dessert we were able to catch glimpses of our destinations for our Great Summer Getaway.

 

Mt. Rainier

North Cascades…. we will travel on your great highways later….

We are finally on our way….

Let the Great Summer Escape BEGIN!!!

I