It's incredibly windy as we drive along today. Chris is getting quite the workout controlling this beast.
I'm using our road atlas more and discovering there's all kinds of interesting things printed on the map that you don't see on the iPhone app. Not far from where we are driving is Stevens Pass ski resort where Ryan and Meredith ski. And south of Tacoma I see the Lewis - Mc Chord Joint Base where Chris used to live when it was just Mc Chord Air Force base.
Our final day of driving took us along stunning terrain. We passed through the Cascade mountain range (according to our handy atlas). Low-lying clouds were trapped in the valleys where tips of mountain peaks were sometimes peeking through.
As we entered Seattle, we crossed the Lake Washington bridge that Ryan ran on in last year's Seattle marathon; a great view and nice memories of watching Ryan.
The dogs have calmed down a lot since Day 1 when they spent the entire time panting. Now they are relaxed enough to sleep almost the whole time we are on the road. They have the daily routine down, plus it's not quite so crazy hot. It's nice to have access to power outlets while we move so I can run a small fan pointed at them in the back of the coach. We can't run the air conditioner back there when we are traveling and Captain Chris doesn't allow them to be up front with us. He runs a tight ship.
After navigating the Seattle traffic, we approached the ferry entrance to get to Whidbey Island. There is also a bridge to access the island but it would've added over an hour to the trip. In proportion to the 2400 miles we drove, that doesn't sound that bad, but who wants more driving at this point?
The line to drive onto the ferry was backed way up the road and it wasn't clear which lane was for the waiting vehicles. So this part of the trip got a little stressful. We realized we had missed the back of the line, but it's not that easy to turn this beast around. We ducked into a side street, which turned out to be narrow and hilly, and found an area to turn around, which may or may not have been someone's yard. If it is their yard they really should remove that large rock that we got stuck on. Anyway, we finally made our way back to the main road and turned right to slip in the line. Only, that wasn't cool with the people we cut in front of. So more turning around fun on a little neighborhood side street, and this time all the way back up the road, where now a sign has been conveniently placed to specify what lane to be in.
Chris handled the stressful situation well and skillfully maneuvered us through the ticket booth, and onto the ferry via a very narrow lane. After a nice calm float across the Sound, we were on the island! We picked up a rental car and convoyed to an amazing house overlooking Puget Sound. After unloading, Chris backed the RV up the hill and parked it in a lot on the property. Whew! Time for a break for Thor and us!
And so ends our five-day trek; now our three-week stay begins. Let the adventure continue!
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