Snohomish, Washington

 Good afternoon, my friends. I wrote a one-sentence post a couple of hours ago in which I indicated I wouldn't be in touch for a couple of days. If you're old enough to remember Gilda Radner in her Emily Litella character, please remember her voice when she said, "Never Mind." (And if you're not old enough to remember Gilda, just know she was very, very funny, and she died way too young.)

We find ourselves in Flowing Lake County Park in Snohomish, Washington, this afternoon. We're in an area with dense forest canopy, and so Starlink is out of the question. It needs to be able to see the satellites, or it's nothing but an expensive hunk of plastic. 

When we know we won't have internet access, we check our phones to see how much cell signal we have. My initial check of mine gave me two bars with only LTE service. And who knows why? When I checked it about five minutes later, it still gave me two bars, but 5G service, and I think I can work with that. It really depends on how long it takes to upload pictures. So let's just give it a try. You can set your stopwatch now, if you like.

Okay, here we go. And IT WORKS!!! INTERNET ACCESS LIVES!!!

Ahem. Settle down, now. 

Backing up to yesterday, we knew it was going to be a dark and stormy day. And it was. It rained, and rained, and rained for most of the day. And you know me...when the going gets tough, I bake a pie. This is a Dutch Apple Pie for Two. I was happy to be able to use some homemade apple pie filling that was getting a little old. Also, I'd made too much of that streusel topping at some point in time. There was a sandwich bag of it in the freezer, and I brought that along too. Add one Pillsbury pie crust, and you've got yourself a delicious pie. For a while anyway. Ours is history now.

We kept ourselves occupied in various ways. I had word games and crossword puzzles to catch up on, and I had this little bit left to stitch on my embroidery project.

It didn't take long until I had it finished. This is Block 12 of 12 of the "Snowmen and Reindeer" project. When we get home in a couple of weeks, I'll put it with its brethren and move the whole thing to the "Quilt tops to finish" portion of my white board.

So, next up will be the center block for "Home is Where My Flock Is." Originally, I'd planned to stitch this one last, but realizing it was a good take-along project, I decided to do it next. There are still a few smaller blocks to finish.

And with the party just a few days away, I'm making this my project for October's...

Like a boy scout, I like to be prepared. It's hooped up and ready to go, but I have not done any stitching yet.

Today was our day to move along. The beginning of the drive had us driving the interstate which was as hectic and slow as ever. We drove past the city of Bellevue.

You can read more about Bellevue at its Wikipedia page right here. In short:

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the fifth-largest city in Washington. It has variously been characterized as a satellite city, a suburb, a boomburb, or an edge city. The population was 151,854 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from the French term belle vue ("beautiful view").

Bellevue is home to some of the world's largest technology companies. Before and after the 2008 recession, its downtown area has been undergoing rapid change with many high-rise projects being constructed. Downtown Bellevue is currently the second-largest city center in Washington state, with 1,300 businesses, 45,000 employees, and 10,200 residents. In a 2018 estimate, the city's median household income was among the top five cities in the state of Washington. In 2008, Bellevue was number one in CNNMoney's list of the best places to live and launch a business, and in 2010 was again ranked as the fourth-best place to live in America. In 2014, Bellevue was ranked as the second-best place to live by USA Today.

More than 145 companies have been located in Bellevue; companies currently headquartered there include PACCAR Inc, T-Mobile US, and Valve. The technology company Amazon was founded in Bellevue by Jeff Bezos. It's also the home of Ann and Nancy Wilson, co-founders of the rock band "Heart."

Okay, and when we finally left the interstate, the off ramp took us into Monroe, Washington.

This is what Wikipedia tells us about Monroe: 

Monroe is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located near the Cascade foothills at the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers, which form the Snohomish River. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Seattle. Monroe's population was 19,699 as of the 2020 census.

The confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers had originally belonged to the indigenous Skykomish tribe, who predominantly occupied the area between modern-day Monroe and Index. The confluence itself was known as Tualco (Lushootseed: squa'lxo), and a nearby Skykomish village named S'dodohobc acted as a trade post between several Coast Salish groups. A separate settlement near modern-day Monroe was used by the S'dodohobc band of the Snohomish people. The land around the confluence was cleared into a prairie and used to cultivate berries, hazelnuts, and other plants. The Skykomish were among the tribes to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, effectively ceding their traditional territories, including the Tualco and confluence areas.

The original name of Monroe was "Park Place."  The original Park Place post office and general store were abandoned and replaced by a new building that opened in 1890. John Vanasdlen, operator of new store, petitioned for the reopening of the post office but was rejected by the U.S. Post Office Department, which only allowed a single-word name for new offices. "Monroe" was chosen by Vanasdlen to honor of U.S. President James Monroe. The new post office for Monroe was granted by the U.S. Post Office Department on March 19, 1890.

Okay, and finally, we were into the rural areas I was expecting when we started the day's journey. We saw a few barns along our way.

I was surprised I could capture this one, it was a distance away and behind me when I took this shot.

And then this one. Is it a barn? Hard to say, but that bale of straw that says it is.

Okay, so that's all I have for you today. We're here for the next three nights, and we have a couple of hikes planned. I'll say more about those as we do them. Today I'm just happy to be back online. We were in a good area at our last spot, until the storm knocked out power to the campground. Apparently the park is on a well because we had no water either. (The well pump is electric.) So I paid for a site with electricity and water, but we only had it for one of our two days there. Since it wasn't the fault of the park, I'm not expecting any compensation for that. When I make reservations, I'm looking for the least price per night and the best ratings. I'm just glad I didn't reserve a site in a more expensive park.

And now, the weather is significantly improved. We should have good weather for the next several days. I'm looking forward to getting out and doing some more hiking. Don't put your hiking boots away just yet, my friends. We'll get out there again tomorrow.