From Vancouver to Spokane

Aug 18th, 2011


We left on our journey at 7:30am, and passed through the "forbidden gates" of the US border patrol by 8:45, officially running late. We started off on Highway 2 (The scenic route) through Leavenworth. We were too far gone and chose to ignore the signs that said HWY 2 closed at Mile Point 84. We charged on, coming upon a detour, which took us up through Steven's Pass to Chumstick Hwy. An almost vertical climb up the mountain, then straight back down into the valley. Once in Leavenworth, we stopped at this quaint little restaurant known as Subway, devoured our sandwiches and then jumped back in the car to continue our epic quest.

We left Leavenworth, turned on HWY 97 past Old Blewett road (ya...you read it right...Blew It..haha), we went down past Blewett Pass with an elevation of 4102, no measurement though...for all we know it was an ant hill.

We passed by Indian John hill at 2:34PM. We figured that most of the side streets were named after people who live in the area, or did live in the area excluding those saying D42F street etc.

So while filling up on gas in Cle Eleum, Kim made a new friend out of a Llama in the neighbouring field. BACK ON THE ROAD!

We finally made our way back to I-90, managing to hit almost every rest stop on the way due to the temperature hitting 31 degrees C, between the two of us finishing about 4 bottles of water each.


One of the amazing sites of the trip so far was in Kittitas. Here is the Kittitas Solar and Wind Energy Farm. The giant windmills spanned for miles along the horizon. Quite spectacular. This was a first for both of us, as neither of us had ever seen a wind farm before.

About 120 miles outside of Spokane, we noticed that the farms along the way were labeling their crops with signs on the fences facing the free way. I take it they get many questions from passer's by.


We finally reached Spokane, hit extreme traffic due to construction, now feeling frustrated and tired, we decided to turn on our beloved GPS "GLadOS" (kim lovingly named it after a diabolical robot from a video game). We were thinking..."Oh this will help us get to the closest campground, so we can set up and get some rest. but NOOOOOOO. Of course, it makes us do a U-Turn, drive 10KM back down the I-90 to a small campground/RV park at a truck stop in Medical Lake, directly under a flight path.

We pull up to the campground known as Overland Station RV Park. For a whopping $16 we pitched our tent and made ourselves comfortable.

We grabbed some dinner, and are now comfortably settled into our sleeping bags, in our cozy 6 man tent, ready for a good sleep before hitting the road bright and early tomorrow morning.

Our goal for tomorrow:
- pay attention to signs that say "Road Closed"
- use the GPS before you get to the middle of town
- get to Billings, Montana in better time!

So far this day has been excellent, having lots of fun!


keep checking in!