BC Canada to Oklahoma Day 1 & 2

Day 1

Well, this trip has been long awaited and I was exhausted from all of the preparation that had to take place before we starte out on this longggggg road trip. Since our condo is currently on the market for sale, we had to be sure that the house was still ready for showings while we were away. Which meant three long weeks of packing and planning before we even left! Chris was happy about the trip and enjoying it before we even we even started! ha   Needless to say, I was simply exhausted when we finally did pull out at 5:45 and head to McDonald's drive through.





We finally, after a small breakfast....made our way to the border which was 1 1/2 hours from our house.  We decided to use the "Peace Arch" crossing this time and were glad we did.  The border guard looked at us and said "you guys are good"....so we just flew right through the border.   

I was glad to be back in my own country for a while........even though things are quite messy here right now.  Sorry about blurr....:-(

 by the time we had gone for a few hours, that 4:30am wake up started wearing on both of us as we did not get to bed until after 1:00am!  Poor Christo!  He was driving with his eyes closed and I was praying that mine didn't close as well!

Hey, Somebody had to keep their eyes open and look fabulous! Might as well be me.....haha.  By the way, all that stuff behind me.....well, I had to have "some" creature comforts....haha....

 We got to the first rest stop in Custer, Washington just across the border and used that time to check on "Maj" and "Ms Vickey"........:-).  Seemed like they were tired too as they were leaning a bit!  We got that straighted out before going further.....

 tires.....check.  yellow and orange tie down straps....check.  wheel bearings.....check.  Good to go!

We stopped at a place called "North Bend, Washington" and had some lunch.  Clam chowder and a mushroom/swiss burger seemed to be a good idea.  We were starving!  AND...it gave us a chance to test out our new phones that we had just gotten the day before.  Talk about  a learning curve!

The burger was so big we decided to split it....I mean after all, we were going to be sitting for over a week!  Who needed a whole burger!  hahah

I didn't want "Ms Vickey" to feel abandoned, so I took pic with her and "Maj"...She was already a little embarrased that she didn't have a "bra" on since we took her and "Maj's" windshields off to help with the wind drafts that would hit them.  So, she was pretty happy to see me....:-).

This is Keechelus Lake at the Snowqualmie Pass.....but it was very cloudy as there had been several fires in the area. You cannot even see the sky for the smog.  It was like this for several miles and the air was thick with the smell of burning pine trees.....

I was glad to see this truck stop called "Price Creek" rest areaas I was in need of a serious potty break!!!

After having lost about 5 pounds between the two of us in the rest room, we were "relieved" and ready to keep moving!  haha...Thank God for weight loss!



And then the air started getting thicker as we got close to where the fires had been.  But you still couldn't see anything as of yet.  I thought the landscape was unusual as it looked like someone had draped these slopes with a camel color velveteen fabric.

This was a lake you could barely see because of the smog just south of Yakima.....

More velveteen covered hill......:-).  Wish it wasn't so smoggy....:-(.  The picture doesn't do the beauty any justice.  But it got old after several hours of ......welll...."nothingness"!

I mean miles and miles of GEN-U-WINE ....nothing!  One could get road hypnosis real quick out there! 

We finally made it to Kennewick, Washington....the smog was still thick and was really bothering both of us....at one point, I put my blouse over my nose just to filter some of the air...it was coming through the vent system of the car!....sheesh! You can see how hazy the sky is in this picture.
 

After 12 hours on the road, we were hungry again and decided to get dinner before going to a hotel.  This sounded like a plan.....:-)

Poor Christo was tired, but the tought of some chow seemed to give him some "renewed" strength....haha... Notice the eager look on his face?  ha

I was in desparate need of some protein and decided to get some fried chicken, the shrimp and noodle something that I should have left on the food bar and some green beans that weren't terrible, but not that great either....but hey.....it's dinner and I was hungry. Now, the dressing on the other hand was a slam dunk!

After dinner we checked into the Quality Inn and crashed for the night!  What a long day it had proven to be!  We covered the bikes before we went in and made sure we parked where the security camera was pointed at the parking space.

Day 2

As you can see, the sun is barely up and we are rolling again.  First stop, the post office to mail a package and then we're off again.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear? 

Yes, it is a donut shop that Chris visited with his parents in 1962!  They make their donuts out of potatoe flour.....:-).  Now, we're in trouble!!

A master at work.......:-).

 Chris was filling the lady in on his last visit......:-)

the sky was turning "pink"......:-)

and the sun was still trying to break through the smog........wow.....I just discovered that my camera lense was dirty and I had nothing to clean it with.......:-(.  Sorry 

We decided to take a short detour and visit the locks and see if we could spot any big ships coming through.....  NOPE......not a one.  Just a few little boats fishing.

But we did see these just above us where we were parked.....they are Basalt cliffs.  Basalt is the kind of rock that these are and they are used for retaining embankments along the highways and for road construction in some places......(Christo told me that).....:-). 

You can't really see the tiny boats in the water, but they were there...

We decided that we had lost enough time between potatoe donut stops and this so we started across the bridge......

I've always liked bridges as they speak to me of "transition"........:-)

and then.......BOOM!  We had made it to Idaho!  Home of the famous potatoe...ha



Christo celebrated out progress by devouring one of his donuts! hahah 

We drove for hours and saw a lot of NOTHING......I could not believe how much uninhabited land there is ..........then we started see some water.......this is the "Snake River"..........

Then it was time for lunch.......I'm getting worried about this fast food habit.  But there is no room in the car for anything else.  We have a small cooler for water and milk to make our own coffee in the mornings......Anyw, we ended up here for lunch, but ate in the car.

 

It wasn't a large lunch.....just a couple of egg rolls and some water....ha

After 10 hours of driving, it was time to call it a day..  We stopped at a Walmart super store and picked up a couple of things to heat in the microwave and came back to this hotel that we spotted on the way in.....this looked like a good idea...ha.  I am road weary and could use an egg-cellent breakfast in the morning! 

  

We got checked in and was glad to have a nice place to sleep again.......4:30am comes early!

Chris started checking mail on his new phone and started heating up dinner......



I wrote my "drive report" and headed for bed!  Good night.....