A mid-winter trip across the country

After driving over 6500 miles in the past month, to a lot of the country, I have to say that we didn't experience the "crumbling infrastructure" of the country.  It appears to us that there is a LOT of road and bridge building all across the country.  My unofficial truck count is way up and things seem to be booming everywhere.

First stop, visiting my family in Los Angeles area.  Pretty area with lots of sunshine and an interesting little farm in the middle of the asphalt jungle.

Enjoyed a great visit with my sister and niece and family.

On to Georgia, where we enjoyed views every day from the house.

Sunrise in the morning. Wheel line over the peanut field outlined against the morning sun coming up. 

(East view)

• Sunsets and lake views from the front of the house.

(West view)

We enjoyed watching the bass fishermen boiling up and down the lake on Saturdays for tournaments.  It sure felt like Spring!

Lots of blooms and warm sunny days made me anxious to get home and get the garden planted.  It was warming up nicely in Washington when we left in the middle of January, and I usually plant peas in February.

Then we took a trip to Florida and visited our good friends Patti and Fran where it felt like summer.  I was really ready to get home!

OK I get it - it's still winter.  Too many years without snow has left us expecting early springs every year.  The sun is shining, and it's beautiful, but it doesn't look like I'll be planting peas yet.

Is it Spring Yet?

We managed to choose the wettest winter on record to stay home in Washington State.  We haven't spent a winter in Washington in about 20 years, so it has been a bit of a challenge.  

The Hellebore blooming since November has helped us to feel like it isn't really winter.

Daffodils blooming through the rain have given us hope of spring to come.

Now the wild flowers, salmon berry, and huckleberry bushes are blooming, and the forecast says "SUN all week next week"

We're ready!

Some work, some play

I decided I had way too many flower beds.  So my solution was to expand my iris garden and salvage all the poor iris plants in a small weed bound flower bed on the other side of the driveway.  Luckily, I have a rotovator on a small Kubota tractor, so I was able to till another path alongside the original flower bed.  When I had trimmed and planted all the iris I used the last of my bark to cover the entire area.

While Ron mowed, I weeded the big dahlia garden.  Then I went into the garden, picked raspberries, and weeded some more.

The peas were starting to fall over as they had far over reached the top of where I had string, so I added a couple more loops of string to this raised bed.

Squash are finally starting to put out blossoms.  I discovered a couple of Kale plants that survived the slugs, bunnies and deer also.

Beans in the second raised bed are starting to climb, so I may actually get some beans this year.  I finished off my day Tuesday picking raspberries, leaving yesterday free for a nice long bike ride.

We left early, heading South and taking the back roads to Monroe.  It is a perfect motorcycle road, winding along by a few farms, lots of forest, and rivers and lakes.

For several miles, we looked over Lake Roesiger before we came to Woods Creek Rd.

 Woods Creek tumbles through this pretty farm.

The blueberry farm on Woods Creek Road.

Duvall

Taking the back road between Carnation and Fall City, we enjoyed the Carnation Marsh area, then views of the flower farms and Tall Chief Golf Course.

Final destination - the beautiful park at Snoqualmie Falls.

The park is wonderful - so many species of native flora, 

and lots of interpretive signs.

It was a beautiful day - riding in shirtsleeves all the way back, smelling the smells, breathing the fresh air, and glad to be on the bike and not in our hermetically sealed temperature controlled car. 

Day One - North Cascades Highway

We got a late start because of a plumbing problem with our well.  In the middle of the night, we realized we had no water.  We stumbled in the dark under a beautiful starry sky down to the well house, where we discovered a lake!  The pump was still running so we turned that off and went back to bed to let the water recede.  Fortunately, this happened while we were still here, and we were able to replace the broken valve in the morning and still be on the road by about 11 a.m.

First stop, Henry Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport.

Nice clean restrooms, interesting artifacts.  It is a great place to rest for a minute in the middle of a long road trip.

At Rockport, we turned onto the North Cascade highway.  We followed the beautiful green Skagit River up into the mountains.

If you take the N Cascade Highway, be sure to stop at the Gorge Creek Falls.  There is a parking lot and a walkway next to the road and the views are spectacular.  We have been this way many times without stopping, but it is worth the stop.

The waters are a beautiful emerald green in all the waters across the mountains.

The overlook of Diablo Lake shows geology and development of the lake system.

We had a late lunch at Duck Brand in Winthrop.  The food was delicious, service slow, and yellow jackets plentiful, so kind of a mixed bag.

 My amazing hunter of a sister-in-law with her trophy buck from last years' hunt.

My brother David, and sister-in-law Barb

We ended our first day with our son and his family in the Aeneas Valley just outside Tonasket.  275 miles so far