Through Snoqualmie Pass to Spokane

Washington State is an amazingly diverse part of the world.  From the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula to the the urban sprawl of Seattle and it suburbs, through the coastal mountains and across the long cleft down the middle of the state that is the Columbia River, to the vast rolling expanses of the Palouse,  the large plain in the east of the state, the geography is incredibly diverse and beautiful. 

Today we went from the crowded cities and highwways to the open spaces of eastern Washington.  We got a bit of a late start after yesterday's full day of getting ready to leave, then facing traffic jams and slow customs line ups, and finishing up at almost 8 p.m.  Traffic was quite smooth all the way through to I-90, and it was a real pleasure to blow by all the slower traffic in the HOV lane because motorcyclists can do that. Just another added bonus for riding a bike!

The first 125 kilometres took a little over an hour and a quarter which would have been unheard of had we left during the morning rush hour. Leaving Issaquah on I-90 we rode through Snoqualmie Pass.  This pass is not at high one but there are mountains and the highway twists and turns as riders make their way to Ellensburg by way of one of the stranger names for a town that I have seen - Cle Elum.  A little more than a third of the way through the pass though we ran into another traffic jam. Stop and go up to 25 km/h in the middle of nowhere. I'm getting tired of traffic jams, having been in two in two days.  There was some kind of road work going on but for the jam it caused it hardly seemed worth the effort the workers were putting into it.

By the time we arrived in Ellensburg the temperature had climbed to the low 30s, we were low on gas, and needed to fuel up ourselves.  At Subway we ran into the first of several people who asked us if we were going to Sturgis. I guess we just look 'badass' and our Harleys are loaded down with camping gear.  We also met the first of several guys who talked to us about Sturgis and had to drop in a motorcycle crash story. Why the hell do people think they need to tell us about bike crashes? Do they think we are not aware of the fact that people crash bikes and get hurt?  We don't need to hear gory details about how badly they were hurt and why they crashed.  Riding bike is inherently dangerous and that's one of the reasons we do it, but we also do our best to ride in such a way that we minimize the risk.  We don't need to hear horror stories about bike crashes just like pregnant women don't need to hear gruesome stories about deliveries gone wrong.  Some people need to give their heads a shake!

Enough of my rant for the day. We left Ellensburg and crossed the Columbia River at Vantage. From both sides of the  views are incredible.  We stopped for pics on both the west and east sides of the Columbia River.  On the east side there is a series of sculptures of wild horses arranged along the bluff. The art is quite striking and a real extra for people who have just stopped to look at the view of the river.

Garry on the west side of the Columbia River at Vantage, WA

Me at the Columbia River at Vantage, WA

Looking south over the Columbia River from the east side.

The Wild Horses Monument above the Columbia River, Vantage, WA

We carried on to a small place called Ritzville.  I don't know if the founders had pretensions of greatness when they named the town, perhaps aftert the famous Ritz hotel in London, or perhaps they just had a real fondness for the crackers of the same name!  Three people asked us if we were going to Sturgis. It seems that along that highway so many people go to Sturgis that guys on bikes heading east must be going there.  I wonder what they would say if we told them we were on the way to Disneyland instead.

Downtown Ritzville, WA ;-) (Not really!)

The last hundred kilometres to Spokane went very smoothly and when we arrived we had the task of trying to find a motel for the night. The first one we tried, the Laselle, had no air conditioning and the first floor windows all had bars on them.  We tried one more motel but it didn't have wi-fi so we stayed at the Days Inn where we were told there was wi-fi.  There was not so we had to choke down a MacDonald's meal in order to get free wi-fi so I could do this blog tonight.  The area we are in is decidedly seedy.  The people in the room in front of the place where we parked our bikes look like crack addicts.

The plan now is to walk to Starbucks after I post this blog and upload some pictures that will be added while we have a very liesurely coffee.  After that it's back to the motel hoping that our room hasn't been broken into.

Today was a very sunny day and Garry forgot to put on sunscreen. I won't need to turn on the light if I haave to go to the washroom in the middle of the night because his nose is pretty bright right now!

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Bozeman.  It will be about 700 kilometres but the road is good.  All in all today was a really good on and after making 311 km yesterday we made almost 600 today.  We're amping it up.  Sturgis is about three more days away!