The Start of the Trip – August 12, 2014
Aug 20th, 2014 by rallyadmin
I’ve gotten so far behind on this trip that I’m just throwing out a short history of the trip far:
I left South Carolina on Tuesday the 12th And made it to Bozeman, Montana by Thursday night. I stopped for the night to visit Gene and Joyce Shea, some old and wonderful friend from long ago. The plan was to leave the next morning, Friday, and stop somewhere in eastern Washington and then make it to Kirkland, WA on Saturday for the start of the Alcan on Monday.
Everything changed on Friday when I got a call from my usual co-driver/partner-in-crime, John Alkema. He was down in Oregon with a friend getting lost on some obscure mountain roads. “Why don’t you come down and join us and we’ll drive up to Seattle together?” “Sure, why not?”
Well, “why not?” should have been “That’s a long way out of my way.” But it didn’t and we met up in The Dalles, OR on the Columbia River. I had always wanted to see the Columbia River Gorge and they wanter to see Mt. St. Helens. “I’ll be there in 5 hours.” A left turn off Interstate 90 and a 5oo mile detour. Dinner in a fine restaurant. A night in a very strange budget hotel.
Saturday morning the run down the Columbia. The drive down Interstate 84 along the Columbia rive is one of the most beautiful drives in the US. A huge, powerful river coursing through some majestic mountain ranges. Truly awesome scenery.
Then right in Portland onto Interstate 405 and north to Castle Rock and the Mt. St. Helens Parkway to the Johnston Ridge Observatory to see the specter of the collapsed north flank of the volcano. The matchstick piles of destroyed trees blown down by the volcano’s blast are long gone and the scenery is much greener than it was in the early 2000’s when Barbara and I were here last but the grey, weathered tree stumps are there as a silent reminder of the force of the blast. There are still obvious signs of the devastation caused by the eruption.
A few hours and we’re off again to Seattle. We split up. John is droppin his friend at a friend’s house in Tacoma and I’m stopping by a discount sporting goods warehouse to get a cheap fleece. I’ve left for the Yukon and Alaska without anything but a Gore-Tex rain jacket. I have no idea what I was thinking. I did find a great fleece for $14, not a Patagucci or North Face but not $150 either.
Finally, into the Baymont Inn in Kirkland. Dinner with some of the early rally arrivers at Cafe Veloce. Then back to the Baymont and sleep. It’s been a very busy 5 days. What should have been a 2,800 mile drive turned into a 3,300 mile drive with the detour to meet John. Only 16 days and 9,000 mile sto go.
Obi-wan
One Response to “The Start of the Trip – August 12, 2014”
500 miles in 5 hours, wow!
Sound like a blast. Wish I was there.
Say hi to John A for me.