I am sure there are better travelogs than this one for the next stretch of my trip. I had kind of wanted to overnight in Walla Walla (remember my Pogo reference from a post or two back) but settled on Yakima.
Now, I picked Yakima because my friends once told me that they were putting the Yakima on their car. I had never heard of a Yakima before – I assumed it was some sort of groovy new flotation toy, like a kayak. I was a little surprised to learn that they were talking about something more like a luggage carrier.
Anyway, I never forgot the name, so when I saw Yakima on the map and I saw that it was on my way, I decided to stop at the Yakima Sportsman State Park for the night.
It was so nice to have some dry weather! I made camp and then went to replenish my larder. My map app showed that there was a Grocery Outlet Bargain Market in town, so I decided to head over there. Some Facebook friends had said that it was a great place with wonderful prices. I don’t remember ever seeing this chain before, so I thought I check it out.
I swear Tops is following me around! I found a Tops store in Redding, California. Tops is a supermarket chain that we shopped at in my hometown.
Yep – Tops never stops!
I didn’t have much that I needed to do in Yakima, but I did have one thing that I needed to do before I left Washington.
I needed to put Washington on the map!
It was my 42nd sticker and Washington was the 42nd state to join the union.
The next day, I hitched up Bart and headed out.
There were some scenic roads ahead.
The climate changed. I had heard that it was drier on the east side of the state, and you can see that it is.
I rolled into Oregon. I stopped for gas at the first station I saw – well, the first station that I could pull into easily. Of course, I jumped out of the cab and went to pump my own gas. The attendant came out and greeted me, and I said, “Oh! I forgot that you pump our gas for us in Oregon!”
While I was standing there, a local resident came over and wanted to talk Airstreams. I’m always happy to talk to Airstream enthusiasts. It turns out that he has one, and it’s even longer than Flo. He claims to get 20 miles to the gallon.
Yeah, right.
I paid the attendant and got back on the road.
Beautiful land.
The cloudscapes were so dramatic.
I finally got to the Snake River and crossed over into Idaho.
After stretching my legs at the rest stop, I rolled on toward Boise.