Weekend trip

On Friday, July 12th, Sharon and I headed for Poulsbo, Washington.  Poulsbo is west of Seattle, a thirty minute ferry ride across Pugent Sound.  But before we get to Poulsbo, and why we went there, let me give you a quick ride through some of Washington.

As we left Idaho into Washington the scenery was petty much the same.  There was not much change in one state to the other.  We saw plenty of the rolling hills and open spaces, but half way across Washington the land took a big change.  All of a sudden the green farm land turned into Texas.  The land started looking like a desert.  From the pictures below you can see what I mean.

The first picture let's you see the sandy, rocky soil, very similar to some areas that we saw in Big Bend National Park a few years ago.  You can see the Columbia River in the background.

The flowers that were growing here are very much like the ones we saw in the desert.

And how about this little fellow.

Sharon standing along one of the many little trails that are available to explore the area.

Back on the road, and just about fifty miles from the desert, we started seeing the mountains again.

In the middle of July, and still seeing snow on the mountain tops.  As we passed through the Snoqualmie Pass, the outside temperature dropped 20 degrees.

We arrived at our destination in Poulsbo at about 5:00PM.  We were hoping to be there around three, but we hadn't considered the ferry ride across Puegent Sound.  The ferry only took about thirty minutes, but we had a two hour wait to get onto the ferry. 

When we got to Poulsbo, we had an easy time finding our destination.  Our destination? Oh yeah.  We were going to visit some friends that we haven't seen for about 14 years.  Nick and Irene, and their daughter Grace.  Irene is a childhood friend of or daughter Angela.  Irene and Angela have kept in touch with each other since the sixth grade.  Irene used to be a Girl Scout camp counselor working with Angela when we lived in Virginia.  The girls would visit us on their weekends to rest and do laundry.  We got to know Irene like another daughter.  Nick is retired Navy, but he is still a great guy.  We had a wonderful visit with them, just short.  We spent a lot of time seeing the area they live in.

On one of our drives we ended up at Point No Point Park.  Hey Wayne, what do you think of this house boat.  It is the bridge from an old Navy ship.  Wish we could have seen the inside of the house.

Sharon and I are really enjoying the great weather while in Washington.  The sun was out all of the time, and the temperature was a perfect 80 degrees.

Nick and Irene are enjoying it too.

A little history of Point No Point.

The light house at Point No Point, on the shore of Pugent Sound.  The light house is in service, but is open for tours only on Thursday and Friday.  We were there on Saturday.

It is a little hard to see, but that is Mount Rainier way in the background.   Mount Rainier is about forty miles south of Point No Point.  It is 14,411 feet above sea level, we are at sea level.

This is the view from Nick and Irene's back porch.  Those are the Olympic Mountains.

We left Nick and Irene's on Monday morning headed back to Twinlow Camp to pick up the RV.  We made a couple of stops at places that we saw on the way to their house that we had missed.  The Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park is across the Columbia River where we stopped to look at the desert.

This is a view of across the river where we were on Friday.

Sharon and I have visited other sites that have petrified forest, but nothing like the displays here.  Inside the visitors center there are many different types of wood in the petrified state.  I didn't know that so many different woods had been petrified.  Sharon says that they just feel like rocks.

We saw this buck as we were leaving the park.

Back on the road and across the river from the park is a monument to the wild horse.  The horses on the top of this mountain are steel statues.  From a distance they look real.  We did not walk to the top of the hill, but between the first horse on the right, and the second one, you can see a man standing.  That gives you some idea of the size of the statues.

 

I have never seen an Exit 0.  It is posted on both sides of the sign.  It is located at the border or Washington and Idaho.

 







 

 

We arrived back at Twinlow late Monday evening and started preparing the RV for travel.  It takes a little time after living in it for a few weeks.  We were back on the road early on Tuesday morning headed for Yellowstone National Park.  On the way to Yellowstone we stopped in Deer Lodge, Montana for the night.  In Deer Lodge we visited a couple of interesting spots.  The first was the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.  It was one of the first ranches established in the area back in the 1860's.  The picture below is the visitor center to the site.

 

I have lots of pictures of the ranch, but thought this one was neat.  The ranch offers samples of food cooked on this chuck wagon during the day.  I got a sample of old west style coffee.  The old kind that is boiled, not perked.  It was actually very good, not bitter like I expected.

Also in Deer Lodge is the site of the first prison built in Montana.  It started out as a federal territorial prison prior to Montana becoming a state, then it it became a state prison. 

This is the "yard".  At the far end is a baseball field.  I don't guess many home runs were hit because the "kill zone" was just prior to the wall on the left.  I can just see a guard trying to shoot the ball for trying to escape.

This is a theater that was built for the prisoners.  There were movies, concerts, and plays performed in side.

It also appears that other forms of entertainment was provided for some.  There are three ropes hanging from the gallows.

Sharon found a new fried while visiting the prison.  He was a little shy and didn't talk much.

Down the street from the prison there is a display that depicts what an old frontier town might have looked like.  This picture shows the blacksmith shop, stable, store, and the jail on the right corner.

Found a nice place to take a nap.  Was doing fine until Sharon started looking for a lid.

We were back on the road Wednesday morning anxiously looking forward to getting to Yellowstone.  We were only about ten miles from our destination when we ran into a little trouble.  It had been raining, very hard, for some time when we come across this mud slide across the road.  Actually it was mostly rock. 

After about an hour this road equipment showed up and started removing the rock.  It was a bit more than it looked like at first.  More heavy duty equipment was called in to remove the rock.  We were told it could take any where from three to twelve hours to remove it all, and then they didn't know if the road had been washed out or not.

Along with the many others that were now stopped by the slide, we turned around and headed back to find a place for the night.  We elected to pull into a rest area and rest for the night.  There were signs that said no camping, so we just rested.  It is a very nice rest area, just along side of the Yellowstone River, so I guess we did reach Yellowstone for our first night.



 

 

After a good nights rest, we headed on to Yellowstone the next morning.  Our destination was a RV park in Gardiner, Montana.  Gardiner is at the north entrance to the park. 

 

 

I think that this is enough for this post.  I know that it has been a long trip, so I will let you take a break for now.  I have many pictures and tales to share with you since we got to Yellowstone, so come back in a couple of days and I will take you on a tour.

 

Thanks for traveling with us, have a great day, and remember,

 

God Loves You.

 

Gary