Destination: Washington
Wow, it is hard to believe that it has been nearly two weeks since my mom, Levi, and I left home. The reason I have not blogged about it before now should become obvious.
On Tuesday, the 3rd, we left PR in conditions that were cold (-26C), but clear. We had to get to Edmonton to pick up Levi's passport (which was supposed to be ready after 3 p.m.) before the passport office closed. It looked like we were on track for most of the day, but after a couple of potty breaks, we started wondering if we would actually make it on time. Thankfully, we stopped in front of Canada Place with 15 minutes to spare, and there was hardly any line up so I was able to pick it up quickly. After that, we only had to endure another hour of rush hour traffic before we were able to leave Edmonton.
Levi was feeling a little under the weather that day. And by "under the weather", I mean he didn't want to eat, and barely even woke up. As the day progressed, I became more and more concerned, and by the time we got to my uncle and aunt's that night had determined that if he had not perked up at all by morning, I would be taking him to Emergency to make sure he was okay, possibly delaying our trip by a day--or however long was necessary.
However, on Wednesday morning the Little Man was actually a little more lively and decided to eat, and since this looked a lot like the cold Noah had had the previous week, I figured he was fine to keep travelling.
We got started bright and early that day, since it was our longest leg--Google Maps said it was 9 1/2 hours without traffic (or weather) between Lacombe and Summerland, BC, where we would be staying with our friends, the Burdicks. When I realized that we could organize our route to see our dear friends Wes and Serena, who had moved from PR in 2013, I was ecstatic, and thrilled that their schedule allowed for it. The weather was not bad for most of the day, a little light snow here and there being the worst of it--until we actually got to the Okanagan Valley. Then, the forces of nature were unleashed and wet, slippery, fluffy snow obliterated any light trying to penetrate the gloom. So the worst weather we experienced that day was in the "nicest" climate zone.
"Welcome to Winterland!" Serena joked after we pulled into their driveway that night.
Since the last leg of our journey was only about six hours long, and Logan had alerted us to an appointment that meant he would not be home until after 4 p.m., so we had a leisurely breakfast with our hosts--as leisurely as possible with kids rushing around to get to school on time, and Wes having to get to a meeting. However, we sure enjoyed the extended visit with Serena. ("Girl time" is always great.)
We had an adventure as we were leaving. Their driveway is at a very steep slope down from the road to their parking pad. With all that new-fallen, wet snow, our first four (yes, FOUR) attempts only got us up about 2/3 of the way, Serena cheering us on the whole way. Finally, when it became obvious that the maximum distance potential had been reached and we could be there a while, she came and grabbed a shovel of sand from a pile by the shop. When I jumped out to help her, she said that they had just gotten the pile for circumstances such as this.
"Fifteen years in Peace River, and I never had to get spikes on my tires until we moved here," she said, laughing.
The weather was fine for driving that day. We opted for a route that took us through Stevens Pass over the last ridge of the Rockies into the little town where my brother's new house is, just east of Seattle. The sides of the road were covered in small piles of snow--evidence of a recent dump--and we even had snow floating down on us throughout our trip down Highway 2 over the mountains. That is, until we started descending the western side. Suddenly, gone was the snow. Rain fell in its stead. The trees were green and covered in lush blankets and strings of moss. It was almost as though, in cresting that ridge, we had jumped through a time portal from winter to a sub-tropical spring.
Leaving Canada that morning, I had wanted to stop for coffee at Tim Hortons, but since Summerland is so close to the border, we were crossing into the United States before we seemed to find one. That didn't seem to be a big deal, as a fairly decent night's sleep (and a morning nap in the van) sustained my energy. But now, on the western side of the mountains, we passed a little roadside coffee stand business billing itself as "World Famous Espresso". Well, whether it was or not, I decided I wanted to stop.
As it turned out, the site has a bit of "claim to fame" - it was the site of the filming of the 1986 movie "Harry and the Hendersons" (which I loved as a kid). The proprietor showed me a picture of what it looked like at the time (which reminded me of the movie even more), and said, "That's what we looked like at our worst."
I got permission from the lady to take a few photos of the little museum they had there. It was raining, so I didn't get great shots (I don't have protective gear for my camera and didn't want to get it too wet), but here are a few fun ones:
We reached Logan's without further ado late Thursday afternoon, and were very grateful to get our butts out of car seats and to have reached our destination.
But with another 10 days to go, the adventures were just beginning.
To be continued...
:-)
