Washington!

(note, the post below was written last night. We’re still in Ione now, finally able to make it out of the tent after 3 hours of consecutive storm fronts kept us pinned inside. Now we’re in the gas station eating breakfast. One more storm front is about to hit, but then we should be able to make a run for Kettle Falls as planned.)

(Susan here)

With Brice’s brand-new birthday present (Fig. 1) installed, we hit the road yesterday for Newport, WA, just over the border. We made it nicely, but were disappointed that there was no “Welcome to Washington” sign. This morning we had to cross briefly back into Idaho and then back into Washington on another road so we hoped we’d get one to take a picture of this morning, but no dice. The atmosphere is pretty unmistakably Washington, though (Fig. 2).

The nice people at the nice RV park where we camped last night insisted that we camp under the picnic shelter because of the forecast thunderstorms. Even though we have a really effective tent, it’s nice not to have to dry out the fly the next day or get wet when getting in and out of the tent, etc, so that was great. Today more thunderstorms rolled through. We got hit by a fast-moving nasty one just as we got to a house, continuing the serendipitous trend we’ve set all trip. Brice booked it for the open garage while I ran up to the porch to ask the family if it was ok if we waited out there, but the lady was already at the door by the time I got to the porch, saying, “come in, come in, hurry!” before I could even open my mouth. So we waited out the storm in their living room instead.

We travelled up along the Pend Orielle River (Fig. 2) today and now are camped alongside it at a significantly less-nice RV park in Ione. I can’t complain about the view, though (Fig. 3). It’s actually cleared up now and is nice and sunny all of a sudden, so my clothes will probably dry which is Very Awesome.

Fig. 1:

Fig. 2:

Fig. 3: