Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick was a very well-kept park with level trailer spaces that had little grass strips between them, wi-fi that was exceptionally fast, full hookups, a friendly staff, excellent roads, a beautiful pool, a well-stocked store and a great lodge. Unfortunately, it is located right next to a road used extensively by trucks that utilize unmuffled exhaust braking on one side and railroad tracks on the other. Early this morning we were awakened by a flurry of trucks going to work that were proceeding downhill and running their Jake brakes. The exhaust braking noise was periodically interrupted by the two longs, a short and a long blasts from locomotives passing the nearby grade crossings.
We departed this land of early morning racket and headed further down the Columbia River, crossing the river and the state line at Umatilla, Oregon. We then took I-84 to the point across the river from Maryhill Museum and turned south on US-97, entitled the Dalles – California highway. As we continued south, we were treated to crystal-clear views of St. Helens in Washington along with Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters west of us. They are all dormant or mostly dormant volcanoes and all of them were blanketed with snow. We passed through the ancient town of Moro, the almost-town of Shaniko and continued on through Madras, OR, where we got off 97 and headed for an Oregon state park called Cove Palisades.
We stayed at this park in 2014 and were delighted to return. Cove Palisades encompasses some gigantic gorges where the Crooked, Metolius and Deschutes rivers come together. The campground is near the top rim of the canyon and those foolish enough to step over the edge would soon find themselves bouncing once or twice before landing in the rivers several hundred feet below. The two stratovolcanoes, Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, are the primary features of the western horizon. They are spectacular.
It was a pretty long drive for us to get here – about 4.5 hours. That is about as far as we want to go in one day when pulling the trailer due to our self-imposed rule against long drives when scheduling is not a constraint. We were delighted to arrive at this favorite of ours and we took the rest of the afternoon off so we could drink and loaf.
Some pix of the Gorge can be seen by clicking here

It was a travel day today so we packed up our stuff and departed from Leavenworth RV Resort. We took the long way back to WA-2 because the short way through an area called Chumstick has steep hills, frightening curves and some interesting sections where the road seems to have fallen off a cliff. The Chumstick area also has gorgeous views so we liked driving it but not with a 34′ trailer attached to the back of our truck.
Fortunately, the easy way out took us down Tumwater Canyon again and it is hard to be disappointed with the views along this spectacular section of road. We passed through Leavenworth, Cashmere and Wenatchee before turning south on WA-28. This is a gorgeous road that runs alongside the Columbia River through apple orchards and some spectacular cliffs. The Columbia River Gorge is very scenic even this far up river from the Pacific Ocean.
In the town of Quincy we turned off WA-28 onto WA-281 which took us to I-90 westbound for about 10 miles. We then turned south again on WA-243 which is perhaps the road with the worst paved surface in the entire state. Smoothness was apparently not one of the requirements during the contract to build this road and many little items in our trailer rearranged themselves as we passed over it. The scenery is pretty good along this stretch and there is a particularly gorgeous but unforgiving set of curves where the road has an abrupt dropoff to the river below on one side and postpile rock cliffs on the other.
After about 20 miles skirting the Columbia, we crossed the river on WA-24 for a short time before continuing south on WA-240 to through an area called Hanford Reach to Richland. After that, I am not too sure what roads we took because it seems we turned every which way before Peggy, through superb navigation, got us right to the door of the Columbia Sun RV Resort. A nice guy named Al led us to our spot, backed us in and cut us loose. This park has nicely sized spots, wi-fi, full hookups but has a fairly busy road running right behind our space. We are not aware of too much nature stuff to see in Kennewick so we will probably be on our way tomorrow. The drive here was very scenic but that does not necessarily mean this place has any of it.
There’s a few pix if you click here

Today is our last full day in this part of Washington and we elected to take lunch to Peggy’s nephew, Ian, and his family because they have generously decided to welcome us to their home for the last five days. We are not particularly imaginative so we took over a load of bratwurst and fixings for fruit salad for lunch. Ian barbecued the brats and we all devoured them while playing with Ani and hobnobbing with Bree.
We bailed from their place about 3:00 and returned to our campground so I could do fascinating stuff like dumping the waste tanks. Readers will certainly be uninterested in the fine points of sewage so I will cut it short here.

We woke up this morning to a gorgeous, clear day. After virtually no deliberation, we decided to go exploring. Our journey started with a second trip to Lake Wenatchee because the weather was different than the last time we were here a couple days ago. Sure enough; the lake and surrounding mountains look different in different lighting but either way the vistas here are breathtaking. We checked out the state campground here but it seems unlikely we will ever stay in this great spot because we have a great spot about 8 miles away in the Thousand Trails Leavenworth RV Resort.
We departed the lake after a bit and drove a few miles south to WA-2 where we headed down Tumwater Canyon through which the road and the Wenatchee River share the skinny bottom of the gorge. There is a tremendous amount of water moving down the river here and it makes for about 8 miles of spectacular rapids and cataracts right next to and in plain view of the highway. If you fall in the river here, you may soon find yourself in Cashmere about 20 miles downstream.
Tumwater Canyon runs right down to the edge of Leavenworth and almost as soon as you pass the town’s nifty welcome sign there is a turn to the south that will lead you up Icicle Creek and the gorgeous canyon it runs through. Near town are some residences that follow the architectural look of Leavenworth (probably at great expense) before the road turns northwest and heads up the canyon. The canyon is absolutely spectacular; raging rapids, pine forests, hillsides covered with large yellow flowers, snow-covered peaks in the distance. Although we had to turn around after ten miles due to road closure, we still required about 3 hours to make our way through this magnificent canyon. This drive is comparable to some of the other top ten rides we have taken in the last two years; Yosemite Valley floor, Highway 12 in Colorado and the Blue Ridge Parkway are in the same class.
Late in the afternoon we finally emerged back in Leavenworth and we turned east on WA-2 again for the drive of 10 miles to Cashmere. We met Peggy’s nephew, Ian, and Bree, his spouse, along with their fascinating kid, Ani, in a brew pub called Milepost 111. The porter here is good and my fish and chips were good, too.
Peggy and I figured we would not be able to make today any better through more fun so we drove back up to our campground and called it a day.
There are some pix of this gorgeous drive if you click here

We started the day by taking a vote on going out to breakfast and home cooking lost. We took the beautiful drive from our campground north of Plain down to Leavenworth where we stopped in at a restaurant named Louis’s. I tried the chicken fried steak and Peggy got the Monte Cristo sannitch. My chicken fried steak was not very large but was certainly adequate and the sausage gravy they applied was great. I can state for a fact that Peggy’s Monte Cristo was good because I ate the 3/8 of it remaining after she crapped out. I also got a side bratwurst and it was pretty good, too. Cost was reasonable.
After we ate, we drove down the Wenatchee River to Cashmere where Peggy’s nephew, his spouse and their daughter live. There we met Peggy’s sister who was filling in as primary caregiver for the kiddo while mom got a short break to perform pesky chores. Peg’s nephew has gone to John Day, OR, for a few days for some training associated with trying to keep all us dummies from being incinerated each summer.
A couple hours of banter later, we departed and drove into the completely unremarkable town of Wenatchee where we stopped in at the local visitor information center. From there we were directed to a bookstore so we could acquire DeLorme maps of Washington and Idaho. These maps have ALL the roads on them, not just main highways like our road atlas. It took very little time to determine that there was not much to interest us in the town of Wenatchee but almost everything visible around it is quite stunning. The Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers have a confluence in Wenatchee and driving up either is a treat.
We selected to drive up the Columbia today, going up the north shore as far as Lake Chelan. The terrain adjacent to the Columbia is markedly different than up the Wenatchee. The Columbia passes through a deep gorge with gigantic rock bluffs on the north side and a skinny farming strip along the south shore. About 5 miles up river from Wenatchee is the small Rocky Reach Dam which was open for business and releasing quite a bit of water. Behind the dam is Lake Entiat which is actually the backed-up Columbia. The river still looks like a big, calm, linear lake where we crossed from the north shore to the south shore near Chelan. From there we drove back down the south shore to Wenatchee and up the Wenatchee River to our camp above Plain. We took the slow way from Leavenworth to Plain on Chumstick Creek Road which is very curvy but the scenery is fantastic. The balsam root plants are happily blooming and entire hillsides are covered with vibrant yellow flowers.
This part of the world is very scenic as long as you stay out of the city of Wenatchee. Abundant water is charging down creeks, waterfalls and rivers almost wherever you look. Deer and birds lounge in emerald green pastures. Even the estates of the rich out here are gorgeous outside and may even be nice inside as long as the residents are not home.
There’s some pix if you click here

We awakened this morning to some dull thud noises coming from our trailer roof. We pulled back the blinds and found that, contrary to all the expert weather forecasts we could get last night, it was all white with snow outside. Everything we could see was covered with a couple inches of snow and the snow kept coming down until about 10:00 AM. After a little lull in the inaction, a bit of rain fell before the skies cleared up at about 2:30 PM.
We enjoyed our forced isolation by texting and calling friends and family before Peggy got down to business and finished the dreaded taxes. The always-benevolent IRS only wanted about $1200 more than we had withheld and the Franchise Tax Board in California only extorted about $237. It is fortunate that we live a frugal lifestyle or paying these bloodsuckers might empty the entire fund of our unearned cash assets.
Once the snow on the roads melts, we will mosey down into Leavenworth and send our tax forms, vouchers and personal checks to the undeserving for their unreasonable uses. At least the IRS and FTB fun for this year is over, thanks to Peggy’s diligent work and my pension fund.
Since the weather has defied the experts and is turning nice, maybe we will go meet Peg’s relatives in Leavenworth for some chow.
There’s a couple pix if you click here

We originally figured we were going to do mundane, routine chores like blog writing, laundry and tax form preparation but we were thankfully rescued from this stuff by Ian, Peggy’s nephew, stopping by our campground and offering us alternatives to boredom. His mom and Peggy’s sister, Tonie, also texted us that she was headed this way from her place on Whidbey Island over in Puget Sound. She is just delighted with Ian’s baby daughter, Ani, and misses few chances to visit her.
We piled into our truck with Ian doing the navigating for a short trip to Lake Wenatchee which was not ten miles from where we are camped. Lake Wenatchee is the source of the Wenatchee River which we followed through the gorge on our way home from dining in Leavenworth last night. It is a relatively small lake and one can see the other shore across the water but it is surrounded by very steep, snow-covered mountains and it is quite a striking view from the state park at the east end. We bought a Washington State Parks yearly pass in the parking lot because we believe we will be visiting some other state parks while in this section of the north central part of this pretty state.
We were sitting along the shore chatting when we got a phone call from Ian’s mom who had already covered the distance from Langley to our campground. We rolled back over to the campground where we all got to chat a while before Ian and Tonie went on to take care of their bizz and we were sent back to our boring taxes and laundry.
Some photos are available by clicking here

Our new glasses had arrived at the Woodinville Costco so this morning we took the half hour drive over there to get our new specs before returning and loading up our stuff for departure. We pulled out of Monroe at about 11:30 and turned east on scenic WA-20 for the trip over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth.
The first thirty miles were pretty flat as we followed the Skykomish River into the Cascades but once we got close to Stevens Pass, the road got pretty steep and we did the last 5 or 6 miles at about 40 miles per hour while pulling our large trailer. As usual, our Charlotte performed admirably and soon we were at the top and starting the long decline into Leavenworth.
The scenery on both sides of the pass is magnificent. The east (downhill) side is markedly different than the west side. The west side has fir trees and heavy brush, the east has pines with little forest floor vegetation. The east side has more exposed rock mountain surfaces and it is pretty plain that the earth is still making changes in this part of the world. After dropping from 4000 foot elevation at the pass to about 2000 foot elevation, we turned north on WA-207 for about 10 miles to Leavenworth RV Resort, another Thousand Trails facility situated about 8 miles as the crow flies or about 20 miles by road from Leavenworth. Leavenworth RV Resort has full hookups, a big lodge with wi-fi, a store, a laundry and pools, all surrounded by mountain views and tall pines.
Peggy’s nephew, Ian, lives in Cashmere near Leavenworth so we called him and he suggested we meet at a restaurant named Munchin Haus in Leavenworth for dinner. About 5:00 PM we departed the campground and drove into Leavenworth which is a gorgeous little town done up in a German alpine village motif. All the businesses are located in nice Bavarian style buildings throughout the whole town. Even McDonald’s looks like it is from Munich.
Once we arrived at the restaurant we encountered Ian and his wife, Bree, along with their baby daughter, Ani. We had never met Bree nor Ani before but we were delighted with the results. Bree is a federal firefighter (as is Ian) and she is sharp as a tack in addition to being gorgeous. Ani was sitting next to me at dinner and, initially, was concerned that I was a funny-looking stranger with a deep voice and she spent some time giving me the fish eye before deciding it was possible I was okay. She was a very sweet kid during our dinner only making noises indicating she was comfortable and happy.
The restaurant was just the kind of place Peg and I like; outdoor dining in a place with an assortment of sausage and wurst to choose from in addition to great beers on tap. The food was excellent as was the beer. The prices are very reasonable, particularly because Ian picked up the food tab using the excuse that we had fed him when he came to visit us in San Diego in the past. I don’t remember being particularly generous but it was great that he paid.
We drove home after dinner via a route Ian suggested up Tumwater Canyon. He was correct – the drive alongside the Wanatchee River passing through this basalt canyon is truly gorgeous and we will be passing down this way again during our six days here in this remarkably scenic section of this stunning state. Six days here may be insufficient to see all the exquisite scenery around this area.
There is a couple pictures if you click here

Today we drove about an hour from Monroe to Auburn where we visited the new residence of John Robert, my nephew and brother’s oldest. We had been through the Seattle area before and JR and Maria, his significant other, had come to see us when we were in both Chehalis and Concrete in 2014. This time we went to visit them at their newly acquired house and it is a beaut. It is situated at the end of a steep and circuitous road overlooking a magnificent valley.
No sooner had we wandered into the back yard when we spotted a bald eagle soaring about 50 feet from his back fence. In the distance is Mount Rainier and the rest of the snow-covered Cascade range. We also got to see JR’s two dogs, Bruno and Bodie, who are Tibetan Mastiffs and both are as big as houses. We had met Bruno two years ago and he has merely gotten a bit bigger and is very calm. Bodie, on the other hand, is only about a year old and although he liked Peggy (a female) he was not very happy about me (a male last time I checked) and it was quite evident that he would have been happy to take off my arm. He got sequestered downstairs while the group all hobnobbed upstairs. They are beautiful creatures but I would not like them to be pissed off at me when not sporting a muzzle.
Maria’s daughters, Dominique and Marianna, both came over to the house to see us. We normally only get to see these two in Mexico some years where our family get together in Cabo San Lucas each November. When we first met these two they were adolescents but both have evolved into attractive, articulate women and we were delighted they took the time to come see us.

Today we hung around in camp because we knew Dana, our daughter was scheduled to come visit from her new place in Mukilteo, WA. She told us she was bringing her boyfriend along so we could meet him for the first time.
They arrived about noon and we got to meet Devon. He seems like a good kid and our daughter seems to like him which is okay with us. We sat around our spot for a while and chatted before Peggy suggested we go for a drive up into the Stevens Pass area since we liked it so much when we drove through here a couple days ago.
It was a beautiful day and the scenery along the drive up as far as Skykomish was gorgeous. This road is the southern end of the Cascades Loop which runs around the northern half of the mountains in WA. We drove the northern leg when we visited Washington in 2014. If you ever visit Washington, set aside some time for travel up WA-20 because it is spectacular.
Dana indicated she was getting pooped, probably because she has been working a lot of hours and was scheduled for a shift starting tomorrow at 4:00 AM. We drove back down to the campsite returning Devon and Dana to her truck for their drive of an hour back home. It was difficult for me to watch her go when we have no idea when we will see her again.
Since we got back home relatively early in the day, we barbecued some steaks and then drove over to the Evergreen Fairgrounds in Monroe to watch some automobile racing. They had some great fun racing a variety of classes including some on a figure eight track which resulted in the almost inevitable midpoint crashes of cars going in opposite directions. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and we called it a day at about 11:00 PM.