This morning there was a medium-sized stampede of RVers exiting the camping area and lining up at the dump station. Lots of folks were going home after the 4th weekend. We have a couple more days in Bow so today we chose to go west and then south onto the blindingly white enclave of Whidbey Island. We left Bow going south on I-5 for a few miles before getting on WA-20 and heading west toward Anacortes. Just before entering town, WA-20 turns south, crosses two bridges spanning rock-lined Deception Pass and heads south down Whidbey Island.
The drive down the island is gorgeous with the road passing through dense forests, along shorelines, through massive pastures and between a myriad of stunning residences. Glimpses of Mount Rainier west of Seattle and Mount Baker west of Bow pop up between the trees. The drive along WA-20 on Whidbey Island is quite pleasant but hurrying is not possible. WA-20 is single-lane each way with short sight lines, curves and grades. The maximum speed limit between Anacortes and Freeland is 55 and that only applies to a fraction of the road.
In Freeland, we stopped off to visit Peggy’s sis, Tonie, and her husband, George, who have just moved into a new (for them) residence. They have found a peaceful place that is hidden from the road and offers plenty of living space in a sound, handsome structure. There are some nice, rather tasty-looking deer that bed down in their back yard nightly. There is also a soccer pitch’s worth of grass and George had just finished an enduro-mow shortly before our arrival. It smelled nice.
Peggy’s relatives were nice enough to feed us some great fish for dinner augmented with fine porter before sending us back home to Boe. Washington’s islands, straits, mountains and marshy areas make for a slow passage, particularly on Whidbey Island. Accept that the passage will be slow and you’ll be fine.
We took a few pictures along the way and you can see some if you click here