Driving on.

 10/10/10

 We crossed in Abbottsford and are officially back on U.S. soil. We’re driving in Washington by 11:30 AM. There are farms everywhere and farm machinery in the fields, not moving. It is Sunday after all and the churches that we passed looked a little full.

Nooksack seems like your typical sleepy, small American town. Where the American flags are flying with pride and the old buildings still house running businesses.

Dairy farms and the smell of poop surrounds us as we drive with our windows down trying to breath in all that sunny farm air. Old farm houses that I assume have been there and passed from generation to generation. Some with their names visible on signs and other objects from the roadside. Calf huts filled with new life and corn being taken out of the fields.

The sun is shining down on produce on either side of the road. There is a strawberry field so large my eyes couldn’t span quick enough. This whole town is like a big garden! There are vineyards every so often.

We just smelled a skunk and got a bit of a giggle out of it. There is more road kill, or “sleeping” critters according to Rico, that lay on the roadside. At least it’s small now and not the size of the van itself.

Everything is so green and it smells so fresh outside. Maybe this is where the scent mountain fresh was captured.

We are in a two-lane not bumpy highway. Definitely no buckin’ bronco rides here.

It’s funny how the smell of cow poop tickles my senses and stirs up memories of home. I did before a prom once go to a dairy in my dress and hair all done up to drink some beers. Don’t ask. We followed a silage truck that made it seem like we were being shaken up in a snow globe.

It must have just rained. The sun is glistening off the rumble strip in the center lane.

We stopped at a house that had a lot of VW vans, bugs and other old treasured vehicles to see if they maybe had a spare gas cap. Ours got left on a gas pump in Canada by someone, I won’t name any names. :) They didn’t have one but it was fun to look around and take some pictures. The house was built in 1901 and was painted bright yellow, like big bird. The lady was really kind.

We pulled into Bird’s View Brewery outside of Concrete, WA. They had excellent, flavorful beer. The boys each got growlers to go.

Concrete itself has roads that are shadowed by the massive trees on both sides. Orange leaves are littering the sides of the road. The Skagit River is flowing on the right, with very few views of it. The small towns and trees are the obstructer. Little businesses and nice homes are nestled by this muddy river and in the tree line.

People are out riding bikes and walking in the sunshine. The ferns are turning brown. The trees are all covered in a thick moss that is almost neon when the sun hits them. Old railroad tracks and bridges look sad and unappreciated. Some of the ditches look like they are about to spill all the contents of their water onto the highway.

Old vehicles are parked up against old barns in their final resting places. Some of them are completely over grown with vines; you can only catch a glimpse of their roofs of them. Cows and horses wander lazily, eating the bright green grass. It is Sunday after all.

We stopped in Arlington at Moe’s Espresso I actually got 24oz. of iced latte. Never again, it was way too much. Talk about peeing excessively.

Got on I-5 South. Yuck! Such a shit show of cars, concrete crap and people in too big of a hurry to notice anything. Four lanes of old, new, broken and used cars and trucks. It sure is faster getting places don’t get me wrong, I’m just not a city girl. People actually do this every day, I feel for them. I see one or two houses among all the new concrete monster, mega stores and can’t help but wonder if they are too stubborn to sell or are putting up a fight? Then again why would you fight for a view like that?

It’s funny marking on the map where we’ve been so far. We’ve put some miles on, very exciting miles.

10/11/10

We made it to Cape Disappointment on the Oregon Coast and stayed in the park there. It’s part of the Lewis and Clark Trail. It is known as the “graveyard of the Pacific.” Some 2,000 vessels have crashed there. Hence the Coast Guard station there now. The Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, that is what made it so deceiving for vessels. We pulled in and it was dark, we could hear the waves but couldn’t see them.

When we pulled in Rico went to use the bathrooms and Hoku and I were across the street and seen some animals creeping-crawling around. I grabbed the flashlight and shined it on them; still don’t know what they were. I said it looked like a koala bear and Hoku said a wolverine, he was probably closer given our geographical location. I think it was actually gigantic raccoons now. I panicked Rico enough when he emerged from the bathroom that he ran back in. I then couldn’t stop laughing so he thought I was kidding. Later when we showered Hoku said a deer walked right by him. There were some at the entrance of the park to greet us too.

10/11

When we woke up I was on a mission to find the waves that so peacefully put me to sleep. We walked down on the beach and got to look at the huge glorious waves crashing into the shore. There is the oldest working light house on the West Coast here and another one down the beach. We walked in hopes of getting closer to it but realized it was a ways away. We settled on looking for treasure instead and enjoyed the salty air with awesome background noise. I would love to spend more time here. Well worth checking out.

We drove over the massive Columbia Bridge. The size of the bridge matches the hugeness of the river. Hard for me to imagine people out there building such a structure.

Astoria is a cool little port town. We stopped at an eclectic little store called Mr. Fishheads. Very cool collection of stuff from around the globe. A big pink rabbit head greeting you on the porch, not far from a pink mannequin’s leg being held by a body with Richard Nixon’s face on it. It had a fish net along the ceiling with hats dangling from it.

We just passed a flower stand with a sign that said $3.50 and a collection box. Nice to know that people still have faith in others. The way it should be.

We went down part of highway 101, I love it! Rockaway Beach could be my new home. JI want to stop at every little town and check everything out but we are on our way to Vancouver,WA  to see a friend and then to Portland the next day. We did stop and walk around in Nehalem. Had a really cool art scene and a pretty cool Emporium.

There is something quite amazing about coastal towns. I don’t know if it’s because they’re small or because we are driving parallel to the ocean and beach. I don’t remember all of this last time I drove it.

We stopped and took the tour and ate some samples of cheese at the Tillamook cheese factory. And bought some for the road of course. Seeing the factory line brought back some memories of old jobs. They do make some damn tasty cheese.

10/12/10

Stayed in a RV park in Vancouver last night. Didn’t get to see our friend but Hoku and us go on separate voyages tomorrow so we went out and had some drinks. He is going to Florida for his job. We went to some dive bar where I had to wait and wait for some older guy to play the juke box. He really wanted to rock the Kenny Rogers and couldn’t find it, so he left the bar music-less while he searched. Kind of an entertaining place. I couldn’t imagine living there. Just kind of seemed like a funny place with lots of characters. The night kind of went south so I went to bed.

We stopped and checked out a Salvation Army store. It’ s kind of entertaining to see how the “stuff” varies from place to place.

We are in Portland now. The van is parked in our friends, Matt and Sam’s driveway. The door was open earlier and I went to grab something to find that we had a little friend, a frightened, disoriented bird.It went out the back without much of a fight. It’s nice to be somewhere during the day. I tried to take a little nap but couldn’t due to all the city noise. They live in a quiet neighborhood I’m just not used to it. I woke up to people singing next door. I think we need to shower and meet Matt for a drink, while he watches baseball. I’ve never actually spent any time in Portland. This too shall be another exciting adventure. Peace.