The Wheatland

We caught an early flight from Anchorage, retrieved our car from the airport, and in no time were on Interstate 90 heading east. It was strange to think we had been in Alaska just hours earlier, the furthest point from our home we would be on this trip. With the Pacific Ocean to our backs, we were heading home. I did not like this train of thought. No, we weren't heading home, we were heading to Glacier National Park!

We drove through storybook forests of tall pines and crystal blue lakes. We crossed the Snoqualmie Pass, and drove by Hyak Sno-Park and Keechelus Lake. Highway signs were written in languages more foreign to me than Russia's Cyrillic alphabet. There are 29 federally recognized tribes throughout Washington, and the presence of these Native people was somehow comforting. Names, places, even languages appear to be surviving here.

As we continued east, the forest gave way to flat grasslands of wheat and hay. Tiny farmhouses were dwarfed by hay barns and grain elevators. The farmland stretched uninterrupted, not unlike the desert southwest with one notable exception: water. Lakes and streams were everywhere. I saw more snow mobiles than boats, so I suspect the water is frozen and cold much of the time!

Having not yet replenished our food supplies from our side trip to Alaska, we stopped for lunch at a Dairy Queen in Cle Elum, Washington "Home of the Cascades".

Best. Blizzard. Ever. A few more hours and we were still in Washington, still marveling at how very different the eastern part of the state is from the Pacific Northwest. We stopped for the night in Ritzville. If we were giving awards for the most bucolic town along The Road, Ritzville would get a First Place ribbon. As we drove through the town the next morning before returning to the interstate, the store keeper sweeping his front stoop in the photo below welcomed us to town, and invited us to the Karaoke contest that evening. ARG!!! I have always wanted to try Karaoke! I guess this will have to stay on my bucket list a little bit longer...