May 18th - Yakima, Washington

We arrived in Yakima a little after 5 PM. It was about a 270 mile drive. Everything went fine. I had thought we would be routed up near Seattle and then back down to Yakima. Instead we went across US 12. I was a little apprehensive about the trip across the Cascade Mountains. Other than a LOT of 35 mph miles, everything went well. Part of the reason for the 35 mph was the grade and part was all the curves, even while on the grades. The slower speed gave us more time to admire the views. The highway was in good shape with wide lanes and at least a small paved shoulder everywhere. Traffic was light.

Before leaving Twin Rocks they had a nice going away get together for us at the Staff Room. Quite a few of the staff were there (maybe for the free donuts <grin>) to say thanks for the help and goodbye. It was nice of them, but as Kathy said later, "We need to tell future places where we volunteer that we prefer they just let us leave with no fuss."

One interesting thing that happened was than almost at the start of the long grade up to White Pass (elev 4,500) we passed a semi pulling two trailers. The trailers were loaded with bags of something that must have been heavy. We were doing at least 10 mph faster than him and he was soon out of sight behind us. When we were about halfway back down he blew by us and was out of sight in short order.

When we left Twin Rocks we continued up Hwy 101 to Astoria and then across 30 until we crossed the Columbia river and into Washington. We then got on I-5 and stayed on it up to US 12.

Below are a couple of photos of the bridge over the Columbia river, taken through the windshield of the RV. Just to the left of the windshield wiper note the spot of white. That is Mt. St. Helens, covered with snow. The peak is around elevation 8,400.

We stopped for lunch at a rest area near Castle Rock, WA.

 I know I keep mentioning it, but look at the flowers at the rest area.

Kathy drove from Twin Rocks to the rest area and then I drove the rest of the way to Yakima.

 We drove through an area where there a fair amount of snow on both sides of the road. None of it was on the roadway but the ditches and slopes had over a foot of snow. The coldest it got was a very sunny 57.

 There were several beautiful mountain lakes. There is an island in this one.

We did get several looks at Mt. Ranier (peak elev 14,400) on the drive but didn't get any decent photos of it. We were quite lucky getting to see the top of it. Most of the time the top is shrounded in clouds but today it was clear.

A startling change is the way things look after you cross over the pass and head back down. On the "back" side of the mountains it looks a lot like it did in Arizona and New Mexico, dry.

 At "home" in Yakima.

 We went out to a Mel's Diner for supper. I has a steak with an egg and toast and Kathy has liver and onions with mashed potatoes and a salad. Both meals were excellent. Our bill was less than $17.

Time to get to bed. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.