Spokane, WA -> Seattle, WA

Woke up with the sun. After Sami went off to work, I was next. Patrik and I said our goodbyes and I was off into the cool morning air. I enjoyed it while I could, today was forecasted to be hot. Spokane has some pretty areas around it. The house I woke up in is right by Riverside Park, a crater of lush, forested land right on the edge of the city. I saw the other parts today. Eastern Washington is renowned for its wheat production. It was a lot like the midwest but smokier and hotter. The smoke from the fires got so bad that at one point I pulled into a gas station to try and buy a surgical mask. All they had were cloth, not enough to keep out the fires' gift. I pressed on and was rewarded. Route two was today's road and after I got through Waterville, the brown, flat landscape morphed into beautiful tones and lush forrest almost instantly. I motored on to Leavenworth for lunch.

Leavenworth was a logging town. Once the trees dried up(?) they made a switch to tourism. Inspired by the gaudily Dan(ish) Solvang, California they became a German village. Having lived near Solvang I was told that this was a must-see. I must say, it was strange. One detail stuck with me. The street signs say 'strasse' instead of 'street'. This is an imitation of the German word 'Straße' which means street. I imagine a German speaker would be annoyed by this inconsistency. Whatever. I settled down to lunch with some teutonic plates and headed West. On my way down the mountain I saw an old man on an older motorcycle. The bike was a /5 BMW airhead from the 60s, complete with bar end turn signals and an Alaska license plate. Even up here, that's a far trip on an airhead. Badass. More forests and I was spat out in Seattle where I met up with Julia.

Julia is staying here with a friend from Chile. We walked an hour around the sound to a beer garden where we met up with my friend Michael who moved here two years ago. Michael and Julia had tangentially met years ago in Thousand Oaks and had a fun time getting to see each other again. We grabbed dinner and I split off to see my friend Brandon, another Californian transplant and the last person that I had seen in the area on my last visit. I was planning originally to stay with him and spend more time together but he has fallen ill and needed to take it easy. You may recognize his face from my third blog post, he was at the virtual memorial in Albuquerque.

Looking Good

A hop across the bridge and I was at my last stop for the night, my great aunt and great uncle's house in West Seattle. My gruncle Ritchie did a similar trip around Europe in the 50s and has some interesting stories to tell. The two of them have been exceptionally kind to take me in, especially on the short notice that I seem to provide. I'm excited to rest my bones for a day in one spot. No more Westward travel.

Today's Distance: 303 Miles

Total Distance: 7534 Miles