They say that all good thinks must come to an end. Whoever "they"are. Why is that, anyway? Never mind. It was time to leave and get back to Seattle. We headed out on the I-84 to Pendleton OR, then to Hermiston, and crossed the Columbia River into Washington, then took the backroads to Yakima. While on I-84, we went down Deadman's Hill, a very steep and sudden drop. I suspect that was the western flank of the Rockies, and that we were then in the valley between the Rockies and the Cascades. I say valley, but perhaps a more accurate description might be rain shadow. The eastern and central portions of Oregon and Washington are surprisingly dry and barren looking, Nothing at all like the lush western edge, which gets nearly all the rain coming in from the Pacific. On the way down, about all we could smell was burning brakes. The thought "I hope they're not mine" flashes involuntarily into one's head at such times. Fortunately I wasn't using mine a great deal, such is the remarkable engine braking capacity of the Gruntmeister. But the truck in front certainly was, We could see a steady stream of smoke coming off the rear wheel assembly. I opted to get a long way ahead of this guy. Not long after reaching the valley floor, there was a burned out rig parked on the side of the road. The entire truck and trailer had been incinerated! Very recently, I suspect. Deadman's Hill indeed.
Anyway, the area around the once mighty Columbia River (which is still pretty big, despite having at least two dams on it, maybe more for all I know) is not a pretty sight in these parts. Hydro electricity and high voltage power lines will spoil any view. Despite looking pretty dry, as one would expect in late Summer anyway (rain shadow notwithstanding), the countryside looked very productive, due to extensive irrigation from the Columbia River. Spuds and onions seemed the go. We saw the onions falling off the back of a truck in front of us, and had to dodge a few. By the time we got to Yakima, there were hop fields everywhere. Keep em coming, guys!! It was obvious that the local Indians and hordes of Hispanic workers had a big hand in the agricultural production in this region.
The Indians have every right to be here, its their country. Some of the Hispanics are US citizens too, I imagine, but a lot are not. Incidentally, there are supposed to be 20 million illegal immigrants in this country. That's almost the entire population of Australia, and its a pretty hot election issue here. Speaking of which, boy, am I over the endless gabfest which has been going on for months, and which has been over analysed and debated till it has made most people catatonic. Just hold the bloody election. Please! Anyway, back to the illegals. The only reason they sneak in is to work, so they must be out there somewhere, doing something. I certainly didn't have any trouble finding a lot of them. Donald Trump reckons he can find all of them, and they should be put on the other side of his new wall. Hillary just wants to pretend they're not there. She might be onto something, actually. Try looking in any motel in the country, or any area that needs labourers like market gardens, or any kitchen that needs dishwashers and waiters and cleaners. In fact, just go to Yakima, you'd swear you were in Mexico. How did all this happen? Because it suits the capitalist system, and because it has been allowed to happen, that's how. A downtrodden underclass that does all the crap work for a pittance and can't complain about it to anybody is fundamental to the economy of just about every country on the planet. Don't expect it to change. Go ahead, surprise me, somebody!
But I digress. All that aside, our plan was to head into Mount Rainier National Park, so we hit WA 410. Immediately the traffic volume dropped off, as the through traffic uses US12, so we were back in the land of nice twisties and great scenery at last. And glacier carved valleys, let's not forget, in case you're thinking I don't appreciate a bit of geology.
Marvellous glacier carved valley, that!
Nice bit of road construction too.
That dot on the road is a vehicle. Then of course, there's this, the namesake of the Park.
Throw in a few alpine meadows carpeted with flowers, a couple of alpine lakes and blue skies, and you have a pretty good combo. Down the other side, and we were soon back on US12 heading for the I-5 and its abundant motels etc. However, it had been a long day, and we were feeling it a bit, so the decision was taken to bail out at the first suitable opportunity. That happened to be at a one horse town called Randle. Talk about a time warp. We drove straight into the first motel, and it was like something from a 1950's sitcom set. I half expected Ralph Kramden to walk in. We weren't expecting much, and we didn't get much either.
The gourmet kitchen with extensive bench space. Mm-mmm.
Loads of storage space, unless you need the other bed. Note the fat screen TV. That's not a misprint.
Original not retro furniture. What's been going on in here? How the hell do you set fire to a chair??
Using a portable gas stove in your room, possibly. (I know, I know!)
And here's how you set fire to a switchboard! There are never enough power points.
And the patched-up bathroom was not a pretty sight either but it came with one useful accessory. A super heavy duty plunger for clearing those annoying obstructions in the sewer line. It was required. Twice. And fly screens? You couldn't fault those. There weren't any. But the place didn't promise to be anything else. Believe me, I've paid good money to sleep in a lot worse, even on this trip. Day's End in Durango, CO and Americourt in Elizabethton, TN spring to mind. Now they really did suck.
So, next morning, we headed away from Seattle for a bit, to visit the Mt. St Helen's National Volcanic Monument. This is centred in a large, un-populated region, due largely to the volcano's spectacular eruption in 1980. Nice ride in too. The 1980 eruption blew the top of the mountain right off, with a shock wave that splintered the surrounding forest into matchwood, and the filled the valleys with ash and soil. This has since consolidated, and begun to erode. Nature doesn't stand still. Its an eerie sight, even after 36 years, and the scale of the devastation is incredible. We were reminded that the volcano is dormant, as opposed to extinct. Click, click, can we go now?
So, after all that excitement, it was time to wrap it up, and go back to Seattle. This time we stayed off the I-5 as long as possible, until we realised we were actually going nowhere, fast. So we bit the bullet and got amongst it. Most of the time, the traffic moved at a reasonable pace, but every so often, there was a bottleneck, and the traffic would screech to a halt, then crawl forward. As much as I tried to position myself where I could get an overview of the traffic, I mostly found myself behind a truck/van/semi-trailer, where I was the last to know what was going on. As much as I tried to leave some space in front, it usually disappeared as someone else stole it by changing lanes. I am not pleased when someone tailgates me either. But such is the dog eat dog world of the I-5, even 70 miles from Seattle. Then it gets worse! It was a revelation to Kaz too. I concluded that I would really struggle to live in a city where I had to spend hours every day battling this kind of congestion to get anywhere. I even complain about Adelaide traffic. Hah.
However, we eventually got here, back to the relative sanity of Tukwila. Time for bike cleaning, shipping and repacking. It was kind of weird to think of all that had happened in the last three months. That was 20,499 km ago, and it seems like an eternity as I look back on it. I visited 28 states, including 9 for the first time, and 3 Canadian provinces, including one for the first time. I caught up with some old friends, and I made some new ones. I had a pillion passenger to share the adventure with for the first time, and it helped make the journey a lot more fun. And there are some things better left unsaid, because I still struggle to find the right words. Ok, thanks for reading. Well, I've got a plane to catch. Hasta la vista, baby.
Anyway, the area around the once mighty Columbia River (which is still pretty big, despite having at least two dams on it, maybe more for all I know) is not a pretty sight in these parts. Hydro electricity and high voltage power lines will spoil any view. Despite looking pretty dry, as one would expect in late Summer anyway (rain shadow notwithstanding), the countryside looked very productive, due to extensive irrigation from the Columbia River. Spuds and onions seemed the go. We saw the onions falling off the back of a truck in front of us, and had to dodge a few. By the time we got to Yakima, there were hop fields everywhere. Keep em coming, guys!! It was obvious that the local Indians and hordes of Hispanic workers had a big hand in the agricultural production in this region.
The Indians have every right to be here, its their country. Some of the Hispanics are US citizens too, I imagine, but a lot are not. Incidentally, there are supposed to be 20 million illegal immigrants in this country. That's almost the entire population of Australia, and its a pretty hot election issue here. Speaking of which, boy, am I over the endless gabfest which has been going on for months, and which has been over analysed and debated till it has made most people catatonic. Just hold the bloody election. Please! Anyway, back to the illegals. The only reason they sneak in is to work, so they must be out there somewhere, doing something. I certainly didn't have any trouble finding a lot of them. Donald Trump reckons he can find all of them, and they should be put on the other side of his new wall. Hillary just wants to pretend they're not there. She might be onto something, actually. Try looking in any motel in the country, or any area that needs labourers like market gardens, or any kitchen that needs dishwashers and waiters and cleaners. In fact, just go to Yakima, you'd swear you were in Mexico. How did all this happen? Because it suits the capitalist system, and because it has been allowed to happen, that's how. A downtrodden underclass that does all the crap work for a pittance and can't complain about it to anybody is fundamental to the economy of just about every country on the planet. Don't expect it to change. Go ahead, surprise me, somebody!
But I digress. All that aside, our plan was to head into Mount Rainier National Park, so we hit WA 410. Immediately the traffic volume dropped off, as the through traffic uses US12, so we were back in the land of nice twisties and great scenery at last. And glacier carved valleys, let's not forget, in case you're thinking I don't appreciate a bit of geology.
Marvellous glacier carved valley, that!
Nice bit of road construction too.
That dot on the road is a vehicle. Then of course, there's this, the namesake of the Park.
Throw in a few alpine meadows carpeted with flowers, a couple of alpine lakes and blue skies, and you have a pretty good combo. Down the other side, and we were soon back on US12 heading for the I-5 and its abundant motels etc. However, it had been a long day, and we were feeling it a bit, so the decision was taken to bail out at the first suitable opportunity. That happened to be at a one horse town called Randle. Talk about a time warp. We drove straight into the first motel, and it was like something from a 1950's sitcom set. I half expected Ralph Kramden to walk in. We weren't expecting much, and we didn't get much either.
The gourmet kitchen with extensive bench space. Mm-mmm.
Loads of storage space, unless you need the other bed. Note the fat screen TV. That's not a misprint.
Original not retro furniture. What's been going on in here? How the hell do you set fire to a chair??
Using a portable gas stove in your room, possibly. (I know, I know!)
And the patched-up bathroom was not a pretty sight either but it came with one useful accessory. A super heavy duty plunger for clearing those annoying obstructions in the sewer line. It was required. Twice. And fly screens? You couldn't fault those. There weren't any. But the place didn't promise to be anything else. Believe me, I've paid good money to sleep in a lot worse, even on this trip. Day's End in Durango, CO and Americourt in Elizabethton, TN spring to mind. Now they really did suck.
So, next morning, we headed away from Seattle for a bit, to visit the Mt. St Helen's National Volcanic Monument. This is centred in a large, un-populated region, due largely to the volcano's spectacular eruption in 1980. Nice ride in too. The 1980 eruption blew the top of the mountain right off, with a shock wave that splintered the surrounding forest into matchwood, and the filled the valleys with ash and soil. This has since consolidated, and begun to erode. Nature doesn't stand still. Its an eerie sight, even after 36 years, and the scale of the devastation is incredible. We were reminded that the volcano is dormant, as opposed to extinct. Click, click, can we go now?
So, after all that excitement, it was time to wrap it up, and go back to Seattle. This time we stayed off the I-5 as long as possible, until we realised we were actually going nowhere, fast. So we bit the bullet and got amongst it. Most of the time, the traffic moved at a reasonable pace, but every so often, there was a bottleneck, and the traffic would screech to a halt, then crawl forward. As much as I tried to position myself where I could get an overview of the traffic, I mostly found myself behind a truck/van/semi-trailer, where I was the last to know what was going on. As much as I tried to leave some space in front, it usually disappeared as someone else stole it by changing lanes. I am not pleased when someone tailgates me either. But such is the dog eat dog world of the I-5, even 70 miles from Seattle. Then it gets worse! It was a revelation to Kaz too. I concluded that I would really struggle to live in a city where I had to spend hours every day battling this kind of congestion to get anywhere. I even complain about Adelaide traffic. Hah.
However, we eventually got here, back to the relative sanity of Tukwila. Time for bike cleaning, shipping and repacking. It was kind of weird to think of all that had happened in the last three months. That was 20,499 km ago, and it seems like an eternity as I look back on it. I visited 28 states, including 9 for the first time, and 3 Canadian provinces, including one for the first time. I caught up with some old friends, and I made some new ones. I had a pillion passenger to share the adventure with for the first time, and it helped make the journey a lot more fun. And there are some things better left unsaid, because I still struggle to find the right words. Ok, thanks for reading. Well, I've got a plane to catch. Hasta la vista, baby.
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