Lone Butte, BC, Canada

 Good early morning, my friends! Yay! Internet! As long as we have a view of the sky, we're golden! Oh my gosh. I have so much to tell you. How's everybody doing? You might want to fill your coffee cup because I'm just about to cover some territory. Ready? Here we go.

Well, first, I wanted to show you a few more flowers that bloomed before we left home. The coral sunset peony graced us with its presence after being such a teaser for so long.

And more poppies bloomed.

Can you believe the size of this one? It's enormous!

And one of the Edda clematis blossoms opened. You can see the purple of two more in the background.

Finally, the purple rhododendron. It's always the last to bloom.

Here's a close-up of its flowers.

The kitties' last day at home was the most boring on record. Nobody would open the door to let them out. They were so furrustrated, they decided the only thing to do was to take a nap. (Napping is a kitty's favorite solution for most problems.)

My packing was mostly done by Monday, and so I had some time to finish the Kitty Lover's Redwork. I quilted it simply using two straight lines. It ends up at 9 x 11 inches.

Here's how it looks from the back.

Okay, but enough of this gardening and sewing. Let's get this show on the road! The kitties were 'spicious all morning. Sadie decided to hide under the bottom rung of the scratching post where no one could see her. The head-in-the-sand approach works purrfectly for her.

While she contemplated her future, we were busy hitching up the Jeep and making final preparations. Looks like we're set to jet. (No jetting, please.) Alaska, here we come!

From our house, it's about an hour before we cross the Columbia River into the state of Washington.

It's mostly a city drive until we reach the Kalama area. Here, I snapped this not-very-good picture out the back window as we sped by. In the background of this image...that green mound that you see...that's where they piled ash and silt after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens 45 years ago. For decades, it was just a huge gray mound. Now, you can see it's all covered over in grass and weeds. And this is only one of several you see as you drive north on Interstate 5.

I took at least 20 pictures that look like the one below. I was trying to get a shot of Mt. Rainier, which is dazzling, when it shows itself.

Mt. Rainier is kind of a teaser of a mountain. Despite its immensity, it's hard to get a good look at it until you're right on top of it.

Finally, finally, finally, I found a gap in the trees and power lines large enough to get a good shot of it.

We hadn't been on the road two hours yet when a gravel truck passed by and threw a piece of gravel at our windshield. The sound it made was LOUD!!! It sounded like gunfire, and it made our ears ring. And...crap...it starred our windshield. The crack you see there has now traveled vertically the entire height of the windshield. Another developed that is heading to the left. We expect it to cross horizontally the entire width of the windshield. 

So, shoot. That was kind of a bummer of a way to start a long trip like this. Something similar happened when we made our USA Perimeter tour back in 2017. We drove almost all the way around the United States with a broken windshield. Oh well. If that's the worst thing that happens on this trip, we'll be happy campers.

So I didn't take a lot of pictures on this stretch of our journey. There's a reason Washington is known as the "evergreen state." The interstate is lined with fir trees as far as the eye can see, and on both sides of the road.

We saw the occasional barn along the way. (I should say here that if you've not traveled with us before, you're going to see a lot of barns along the way. I like barns, and it's my way to stay awake while we're going down the road. Gotta keep the driver entertained, you know.)

Stopping at a rest area, I walked around a little to stretch my legs. This field of tiny wild asters was downright enchanting.

Here's a close-up. They're about the size of a dime.

Moving on, we could see the Olympic Mountains off to the left.

Here's another shot. (Dratted power lines.)

Eventually, the city of Seattle (the Emerald City) came into view. You can see the Space Needle on the left side of the image below.

The traffic getting through Seattle was heavy, but it wasn't as bad as we've seen it at other times. When we were more north of the city, I was able to get this shot of Mt. Baker. On a very clear day, we can see the tippy-top of Baker from our house. It's kind of amazing when you consider how far away it is.

The landscape opened up north of Seattle, and we saw more barns there.

Isn't this an idyllic setting?

Eventually, we turned off the interstate and headed west toward Larrabee State Park. As we rounded one of the bends in the road, this incredible view of Samish Bay and the San Juan Islands opened up.

Finally...after many miles and many hours...we reached our first stop. 

While Mike unhitched the Jeep, I took pictures of the wildflowers. There were buttercups a-plenty.

These are wild blackberries.

This next one is a wild geranium.

Sadie sat chanting "Cat-i-o! Cat-i-o! Cat-i-o!" while Mike got that set up.

Smitty joined in from his perch on the table.

When we were set up, we went for a little walk. We passed by this plaque, telling us that Larrabee was Washington's first state park.

Here's a sad little blurb of history about the park. Sad, because I feel for the Indigenous peoples that used to call this place home. And there were many tribes here. The park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Samish Indian Nation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Lummi Nation, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, Nooksack Indian Tribe, and Suquamish Tribe. For thousands of years the lands and waters around today’s Larrabee State Park supported habitats for a diverse community of life that formed the basis of their cultures. Local tribes ceded the land to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855. After a government survey was completed in 1860, the land was transferred into private ownership by a Coal Land Patent to Peter W Strader on April 23, 1892. It was subsequently purchased by Charles X. Larrabee.

The state park idea gained a foothold when Washington State Governor Ernest Lister sought to “secure, by donation, small tracts of land along State highways” for the “comfort of automobilists and other travelers.” On November 22, 1915, the Washington Board of Park Commissioners met in Governor Lister’s office to accept the donation of 20 acres of land from Charles’ widow, Frances Larrabee, creating Washington’s first state park. The park was originally known as Chuckanut State Park, named for the nearby bay, derived from an Indigenous word purported to mean “long beach far from a narrow entrance,” which accurately describes its situation. The park's name was changed to honor the Larrabee family on February 15, 1923, although Frances insisted that her late husband would not have wanted such recognition.

Okay, so let's have a look. As always, let's get the rules straight first. You'll have to put down that beer if you're coming with us. Also, keep your dogs leashed, please.

And no eating of the clams. You don't want to miss the rest of the trip, do you?

To reach the water's edge, we had to pass through this tunnel under some busy train tracks. (The park website warns of the train that runs through the park. Also, a state highway bisects the park. We could hear both, but it was quiet for the night.)

We walked down these stone steps...

and wow. What a view! I've never been in this part of Washington.

Walking down to the beach, it looked like this to the right.

Looking to the left, it looks like this. I believe that is Sequim (pronounced Skwim) across the bay there. We visited Sequim for the lavender festival a few years back. 

And there were more flowers. These were some very fragrant wild roses.

These are the flowers that will turn into salal berries. They grow up and down the coastlines of Washington and Oregon, and the berries are edible. We've had them served in restaurants.

Here's some honeysuckle.

Back at the camper, you can see where I hung the new little quilt. It's for instructional purposes, and you can see why we need it.

Back on the road yesterday morning, we passed by more barns in northern Washington.

Ahead is Sumas Mountain. This is on the Canadian side of the border. Also...another barn.

We got fuel, and then (cue scary shark music), it was time to cross the border. For all the fretting I did about this, it took just a few minutes. We waited in line for longer than we spent talking to the border agent.

He asked nothing about alcohol or marijuana, and nothing about food. He only wanted to know if we were carrying firearms...no...where we were coming from, where we were going, how long would we be in Canada, and how long was our trip. That was it. And there we were! In! Just like that! Yahoo! I have always loved your flag, Canada. I captured this one as we passed through Cache Creek, so named because fur traders used to cache supplies nearby.

Our first stop in Canada was to meet up with my dear friend, Terri. Terri and I have been blogging friends for many years, but we met face-to-face for the first time yesterday. Terri's family has moved into a new (to them) home nearby, and we heard all about their new place. She also gave us some good information about the roads we would be traveling. Her new home sounds lovely, and it was wonderful meeting up with Terri. We had coffee and lunch at Tim Horton's, and then we were on our way again...a long drive ahead of us.

We traveled up Canada Hwy 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) until we reached Cache Creek. There, we headed north on Hwy 97 (the Cariboo Highway). And it was beautiful country all the way.

Good roads too.

We were traveling through the Fraser River Valley. This route is also known as the "Gold Rush Trail," so named for the Alaska gold rush. We passed by lots of waterfalls.

And we crossed over the Fraser River. The river paralleled our course for much of the day.

We passed through many tunnels blasted out of solid rock.

And here's your favorite old joke...and, sorry, I can't help myself: Oh look! It's the light at the end of the tunnel!

Here, I was trying to show you this tunnel after a tunnel. Mainly, I wanted you to see the progress of the cracks on the windshield. Aside from being an annoyance, this isn't anything to worry about.

Here, another mountain peeked out at us.

The route was mostly green, but we did pass through some areas of burn scar. We sometimes get smoke from fires in British Columbia. This fire must have been relatively recent because we could still smell it.

We passed by this cute little chapel.

And, finally, we reached our spot for the night in Lone Butte. It was one of the longest days of driving for this trip, and we were happy to be here. From our spot, the lake is just a few meters away. (And, look at me, switching to metric. Impressive, no?)

We walked over to the lake. Looking to the right it looked like this.

Looking left, it looked like this. I was shooting directly into the sun here.

Turning around, there is a row of cabins at the lake's edge. This is Horse Lake, and it was a lovely quiet place to stop for the night.

Our shadow selves were ready for some rest and relaxation. We plied them with margaritas, and we hit the hay early.

And that brings me up to this moment in time. Our drive today will be shorter, but still 211 miles. (That's about 340 kilometers. I'm trying to brush up on my metric system while we're here.) We'll end up in Prince George for the night, and then on to Dawson Creek tomorrow, where we'll have two nights. For this trip, I planned a day of rest after every three days of driving. Besides, Dawson Creek marks Mile 0 of the Al-Can Highway. There is a place commemorating Mile 0 where one is required to take a selfie or risk ruining the whole trip. Surely you understand this.

The kitties are doing great. They hate being loaded into the RV when we take off on a trip. Once we get going, they settle right in. They've traveled the entire lower 48 with us, and they know the ropes when it comes to RV travel. So I've brought you up to date. It's time to have some breakfast and prepare to get back on the road. As always, I'll see you on the other side.