Washington state does something that I think every state and province should do. They offer 'free' coffee at their rest stops. These are manned booths run by charities so there are donation boxes. The ones we stopped at offered free cookies too. A nice touch.
Driving west, we were now climbing into the mountains where Glenn snapped this picture from the car. The elevation at Washington Pass is 5477 ft.
At some point while driving along the highway, I managed (still can't figure out how) to drive over a shred of tire, a piece of branch/log, I-don't-know-what that made a resounding thunk under the car. We were concerned enough to pull over so Glenn could check the car. It seemed ok so we carried on.
Shortly after, we rounded a bend and saw a huge boulder in the middle of our lane. This wasn't a rock that could be pushed off the road - it must have been 3 or 4 feet in diameter. Glenn said it was as high as the car window as we passed by... but I had other things to look at. The road ahead was straight enough to see that no traffic was coming so I got into the farthest lane while keeping an eye on the smaller rocks still tumbling through the dust down the mountainside, and once I determined that no huge rocks were on their way, I put the pedal to the floor and sped past.
It would have been great to have a picture of that boulder, but we weren't about to stick around and see if a major rock slide would follow. Whenever I saw those "watch for rock on road" signs, I didn't picture a rock that could crush your car or knock it right off the cliff. I'll probably be a little nervous driving through mountains from now on.
Glenn figured the boulder probably rolled down just moments before we got there since rocks were still tumbling behind it. We'll never know if our unscheduled stop saved us from disaster.
It was icy cold in the Cascades. Down near the other side the weather was wet and miserable.
I would have stayed in the warm, dry car if Glenn hadn't told me about this view. Couldn't decide on which picture to use so am including both.It was 6:00 pm or later by the time we got back to Marysville. We got a room again at the Holiday Inn Express, this time one with a bathtub. Good news - it was about $20 cheaper on a weekday. Then we went to our favourite restaurant, Maxine's, where we shared a good turkey supper for only $8!
The next morning we'd have a long, boring drive down the I-5 to northern Oregon.
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