We left the Coeur d’Alene Elk’s Lodge Sunday morning. Our first stop was at the fairgrounds dump station. All three lanes were open, so we took care of business without any delays and hit I-90 westbound. Our next stop was two miles from the Washington border – I wanted to top off our tank in Idaho. Everything, including diesel fuel, costs more in Washington.

Once we crossed the border, we stayed on I-90 for about 22 miles through greater Spokane traffic. We exited at Airway Heights and took US2 which brought us west through farm land and small towns – Reardan, Davenport, Creston. On the west side of Wilbur we turned northwest on WA174. This took us to Grand Coulee where we dropped down into a gorge, then climbed back up again.

WA174 became WA17 at Leahy. After passing by the Chief Joseph Dam, we crossed the Columbia River at Bridgeport. We were on familiar ground when we turned west on WA153 at Pateros. This followed the Methow (met-HOW) River through the valley and up to Twisp and finally our destination for the day – the Pine Near RV Park in Winthrop. This was our fourth visit to Pine Near. We had an easy pull-through into site 7. We were only staying for one night so I connected power and water but didn’t bother with a sewer connection. We also didn’t try to hit the Schoolhouse Brewery on the river. Donna took a walk through town but couldn’t get there via the Shaefer Museum stairway – the museum was closed due to COVID-19 and the grounds were locked up tight. But on her way back past the museum, she spotted a deer on the grounds.

Winthrop is at an elevation of about 1,800 feet above sea level. We got an early start Monday morning and were on the road just after 9am. We only had about 150 miles to cover, but I knew it would be a fairly long drive. First up, we had to climb across Washington Pass on WA20 (North Cascades Highway) – it’s 5,477 feet above sea level. After reaching the summit of Washington Pass, the road descends quickly then climbs again to Rainy Pass at 4,875 feet above sea level. It’s mostly a downhill run from there.

The area is very rugged with high mountain peaks still covered with snow in places. The Skagit River originates in British Columbia, Canada and flows into Washington where there are a series of three dams providing hydroelectric power to western Washington. They create three lakes – from east to west there’s Ross Lake, then Diablo Lake and finally Gorge Lake. The North Cascades Highway follows the Skagit River all the way to Puget Sound.

We stopped briefly at the Diablo Lake Overlook. We’ve made this stop a few times over the years and took a selfie photo.

There’s a small town west of the dams called Newhalem. It’s an interesting town as it’s owned by Seattle City Light – the power company. All of the residents are employees of Seattle City Light working at the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, or in local county, state or federal agencies.

We didn’t know the North Cascades Highway was closed west of Marblemount. We had to detour to the Rockport Cascade Road which is very narrow, twisty and not much fun in a big rig. We hit WA530 at Rockport and were able to get back on WA20 westbound. I don’t know why the road was closed.

I made a second detour on our route when we reached Mount Vernon. I didn’t want to follow the GPS routing through the old downtown area. I stayed on WA20 toward Anacortes instead and went south on Best Road and came around to Memorial Highway which brought us to the Mount Vernon RV Park. We pulled in around 2:30pm and set up in a 70-foot long pull through site. The sites are a little tight here and we’re right under a tree blocking my satellite reception.

We made a run to Walmart – Donna needed some produce and I needed to buy a new sewer hose. Our Rhinoflex hose had a pinhole. It seems to happen after a few years of use.

Later we drove over to my oldest daughter, Alana’s place. She was at work but we’ve had several packages delivered there and wanted to pick them up. We had so much stuff there that Midget-San was overflowing. The trunk was packed tight and a couple of packages were poking out from behind the seats.

I was like a kid at Christmas opening packages back at the RV park. I got the ham radio I ordered – A Yaesu 991A – and a bunch of other ham radio related goodies. Now I need to pass the exam on Sunday so I can use this stuff!

We’re about 30 feet above sea level here and no longer in high, dry country. The humidity here runs right around 50%. It really feels different after being in 15% or lower humidity for the last three months. The forecast looks good with temperatures ranging from 70 to 80 degrees for the next week and little chance of rain.

We’ll head back to Alana and Kevin’s place this afternoon. Alana is an emergency room RN and has today and tomorrow off from work.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!