I never left Kalispell until 9:45 am - later than I expected. It was a hassle driving through Kalispell on the way out of town. Since everyone was at work the little old ladies were now out doing their errands. Slow and confused drivers!
I stopped near Paradise, MT and took a few photos of the Clark Fork River. The morning light on the water and the mountains in haze against the morning light was beautiful. I guess the town's name isn't far off the mark!
The highway to the interstate followed the river much of the way. While mainly pine tree forests, there were a number of quaking Aspens along the road and intermingled with the pines. The Aspens are turning color and they were a yellow or yellow/orange intermingled with the green pines. When I reached the east side of the Cascade Mountains, the non-pine trees intermingled were a red to red/orange color. All were very pretty.
Central Washington was brown as the irrigation season is over.
In central Washington on the radio I got a few Spanish language music stations. It was a welcome change from the classic rock or Top 40 stations. I got words here or there, but mainly I enjoyed the different music. It was amusing to hear English words mixed in the rapid and excited Spanish.
One commercial: "Spanish.. rapid Spanish... 'Trip of a lifetime'... Spanish.." You would think 'trip of a lifetime' could have been translated into Spanish! Words like 'vcr', 'dvd', etc.. I understand using the English Words.
Another commercial from the 'Washington Public safety Council' (only English words) was a conversation between a young boy and a young woman that ended in a police siren. Hmmm.. wonder what that commercial was about?
I enjoyed the Spanish music which was mainly was Mexican Polka music.
When nearing and entering the Cascade Mountains I started to lose my Spanish language stations. I did a scan and usually was able to find another one. There are lots of fruit orchards in central Washington. :)
Earlier had I listened to a public radio station that had an hour of what seems to be Spanish guitar (Spain, not Mexico) mixed with classical music. Pretty good.
I stopped at the Columbia River overlook to see the view. Back in 1998 (?) when Tina and I drove this way I thought there were metal horse statues on top of the hills east of the Columbia River and the overlook. I didn't see them this time. I did like the looks of the rocks at the scenic overlook. And no... I did not take any with me.
Washington state has a law that drivers must drive in the left lane except when passing. Minnesota needs a similar law. The drivers there drove slowly in the left lane and that drove me crazy when I lived there. The drivers in Washington state seem to be better and more considerate than Minnesota drivers. I wasn't cursing out the Washington drivers like I did in Minnesota.
The only hitch came when I left the interstate on highway 18. The state was repaving the highway and I drove the highway during rush hour. What should be a 6 lane highway - and is a 4 lane highway - was now a 2 lane highway due to the paving. The line of cars stretched for miles!
Unlike Minnesota where drivers switched lanes constantly to whichever lane was moving faster, the drivers here didn't do so. I was surprised. They also would let in the cars merging onto the highway. That slowed the traffic down. In this case I would have preferred a little of the "Minnesota Nice" where the drivers seldom did that. Maybe I would have gotten through the bottleneck sooner. It took 45 minutes to drive a half mile. Then another 15 minutes to do 5 miles before I got through the bottleneck.
What made the waiting worse were there were no good radio stations to listen to. The Top 40 announcers were idiots and I think my intelligence declined listening to them. I was tired of classic rock. I found one country music station and found the announcer had a pronouced Southern accent which seemed so out of place. In Montana the country music announcers speak normally. They don't play up a hick accent. I liked the music but couldn't stand the announcer.
I was later slowed down by more rush hour traffic. At that time I had a great view of Mt. Rainier. I tried to take photos from my car window but the traffic would start up as I was about to take the photo. That explains my tilted photo (I wasn't trying to be artsy-fartsy.)
Larry said you can see a deer's head on MT. Rainer as to how the rock and snow are located. I can't quite see it in the photos so he will show it to me outside tomorrow from his front yard.
All-in-all a successful drive. At a little over 500 miles, certainly easier than my 700 mile Montana/North Dakota trips and my 600 mile Minnesota/North Dakota trips in the past. The Washington state interstate roads are the best of the states as the road was smooth and without cracks or bumps. That made the drive easier.
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