The Trip Begins

We had hoped to get away by eight but you know how plans tend to get changed. That is the beautiful part of being this age. When you misplace your glasses and have to spend a half hour looking for them it really doesn't matter too much.

We were at the border and even though we had to use the RV line and couldn't use our Nexus cards we were through in about 5 minutes. we were officially out of the country at 9:24

There are many ways that we could have traveled East but because we are "older" and not in a hurry and because I have never travelled through the North Cascade Mountains it was decided that we would travel along Route 2.

It is an amazing trip through the mountains and up and down the mountain passes.

Rainy Pass at 4855...Washington Pass at 5477...Loup Loup Pass at 4020....,

Wauconda at 4310 feet and   Sherman at 5575 feet are some of the passes we crossed. The views were spectacular with boreal forests on the west side, Pine forests and dry lands on the leeward side.

Because of the heights all of the snow has not melted so inspite of it being above 30 degrees most of the time some snow banks could be seen along the sides of the highway.

Most striking for me was the contrast between areas with water and those without . There were lush green areas of orchards and crops and cattle along the river banks and within range of irrigation and beyond that was dessert.

Because we were taking our time and enjoying the scenery and because it was so very hot,( at our lunch stop it was 102 F) we stopped early at a place called Frontier in Washington State.