Yeah, so I had to take a little hiatus. (OK - so it was sort of/kind of a BIG hiatus; but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!) I told myself I would only blog if I wanted to and when I felt inspired. Our trek across Rte 20 was, sincerely, beyond awesome. But then I got burnt out trying to keep the posts in order, which was frustrating if I was all enthusiastic about something but couldn't post it until I was able to articulate what I wanted to about a previous stop. Then I would be all proud of myself for sitting down and typing what I wanted to say and then was unable to upload the pictures that went with it. Don't get me started on being able to upload the pics to the app on my phone, but then not being able to add it to the draft because of lack of connectivity...!! But in my defense - the fact that I kept keeping at it after I lost an entire day of inspired writing in Nebraska despite my auto save SUPPOSEDLY saving throughout was actually pretty impressive. There were times that the behind the scenes blogging was, um, I guess I will just say "NOT pretty"!
So I'm going to give you a brief summary here to catch you up to our world up to the close of 2021 (aka the year we sold our house and left our beloved family, friends and neighbors and hit the road full time in our trailer). It pains me to not share all the details because we HAD A BLAST!!!! We stayed at some AWESOME SAUCE Harvest Host (and Boondocker's Welcome) places and met some really nice and some really inspiring people. Karl points out that the highlight of our trip was the gift of re-instilling our belief in humankind! There are some amazingly kind, thoughtful, generous people out there. I can't tell you how many small business owners, farmers, ranchers and the like that we met who, despite dealing with horrific droughts or supply chain shortages or price increases, still went out of their way to take care of the less fortunate people in their communities. It was beautiful and it was inspiring and it did our hearts good...
After completing our Rte 20 East to West adventure we saw some more of Oregon via campgrounds and wineries and breweries and alpaca farms etc... When you talk about the differing crops in various states, Oregon was all about the HOPS!!!! Yes - beer hops everywhere...we drove for miles and miles not knowing what the heck these tall things were and we were beyond amazed to learn about them! We went to lots of different independent breweries and these Oregonians get this brewing stuff right!!
We also got to meet up again with our new full-time buds from Minnesota, Mark & Judy, (who we met in SD) for a couple of "play dates". We got together in the Dalles and again at The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and had some more memorable times. We camped right on the Columbia River Gorge and that was pretty impressive scenery!
Once in Washington (state) we made some more friends; special recognition to Cindy & her "niece" Donna, "grand-niece" Cameron (and Winnie - the world's cutest CKC puppy). We met these lovely ladies at the Redgate Winery in Montesano, WA and instantly formed a bond. Cindy invited us to her home near Enumclaw, WA (where we happened to have reservations a month later) and we took her up on her offer and had a fabulous time!
Washington also included the world's most hidden gem of a distillery nestled in the heart of Tenino (pronounced Te-NINE-Oh), the one and only Sandstone Distillery. This was one of our Harvest Host stays and we ended up staying an additional night because they were throwing a birthday party the following evening for John, the owner and distiller-extraordinaire! This guy engineered all his own distilling equipment from re-purposing various farming equipment etc...and it was literally mind-boggling (not to mention impressive). They also had some wonderful entertainment from a talented musician, Tyler Dhone. Tyler is from Texas and was traveling around the country with his wife and dog in a very cool big green school bus that had been renovated and repurposed into a home on wheels. His wife was working remotely and he was calling ahead to the areas that they were going to visit to see if local businesses were in need of entertainment while he was in town. We felt very lucky that the stars aligned that he happened to be available to attend/perform at John's party and that we were invited to be part of it. It was truly a spontaneous and magical weekend there!
While in Washington we got to check out Mt. Rainier via both driving through the National Park and getting out for photo ops along the way, and then a week or so later taking the Mt. Rainier Gondola ride (with our Penny in tow!) up Crystal Mountain. Unfortunately, we made the decision to forgo the gondola ride and hike DOWN Crystal Mountain on our return trip, but alas that's a story unto itself...Just know that it was a long, long, long way down and I pretty much couldn't walk for a couple of days afterwards.
So I've included some pics here from Oregon and Washington that I've discussed. This brings us up to date through August. I am going to do another post to get us caught up through the end of the year and then I can discus our wintering!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks SO much for being here and reading about our adventures. It makes me feel connected to my peeps.
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