DAY 19- Longview to Longbeach & Plenty of Cars...

I left the crummy Econolodge rather early.  The weather was cloudy, overcast and looked as though it could rain at any time.  I did a quick look at the Econolodge’s  “Continental Breakfast” and opted to just have coffee.  Nothing looked good and I questioned how fresh everything was.  I drove along the Columbia River on Hwy 4, a pretty drive.  I tasted the coffee after a while and OMG; can you say bad coffee?  The person who made it must not have been a coffee drinker at all.  It was that bad!

Photo- The drive along the Columbia River on Hwy 4.

I ended up stopping at a General Store in the hamlet of Skamokawa (please don’t ask me to pronounce this name!) It was right next to a little two room post office.  I thought while I was getting a coffee I would mail a couple of postcards too.  I tried the post office and it was locked.  So I went to the General Store and talked with the clerk as I got a cup of good coffee.  I guess that the postmistress had left out on her run and would be back later in the afternoon.  I guess I’d wait on the postcards.

Photo- The General Store where I got some good coffee and directions!

I continued to talk with the clerk and discovered a cover bridge near Hwy 4 that I was on.  She gave me directions to the turn off and said that it then again looped back into Hwy 4.  It sounded great to me.  She also told me of a couple other places to check out too while in Longbeach and later in Astoria all that were on my planned route of the day.

Photo- The covered bridge.

Photo- Signage for the Covered Bridge.

I found the turn off for the covered bridge and drove 2 miles to it on a winding country two lane highway.  It was fun driving across the covered bridge.  It was dark and had a distinct nose as you drive the car over the wood planking of the bridge.  It was one of another first for me; the first time I had driven a car over a covered wooden bridge. 

It was as I was trying to get back to Hwy 4 that I ended up getting a bit lost or so it seemed.  I ended up asking a farmer that was out by the road with his pit bull mixed dog named Spud.  I thought the farmer had said Bud, when I asked the dog’s name as I went to pet it.  The farmer corrected me twice and said that his name was Spud.  The farmer had a bit of a lisp.  “Oh,” I said, “like the potato!”  The farmer just looked at me like I had two heads.  I thanked him and continued on following his directions.  I ended up back on Hwy 4.

Photos- Art along the Art Interpretive Trail at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. 

Next I stopped off at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge just off of Hwy 4.It is tooted as being one of the most pristine estuaries in the U.S. and has over 260 square miles of water surface within its boundaries.  It has several bird and fish species; as well as Roosevelt elk, deer, river otters, bobcats, porcupines, raccoons, and black bear. I took the two hikes they have at the Headquarters: the Art Interpretive; a ¼ mile boardwalk with art displays, and the Cut Throat Climb; 2/3 mile that climbs up and down in a valley area next to a ridge.  It was a wonderful hike and just amazing that it was such a short distance from the road but you felt like it was miles.

Photo- The Cut Throat Climb Trail at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge.

Then, I got out to the stretch of land that had Longbeach on it and just wandered around.  I happened to stumble into the middle of the 29^th Annual Rod Run to the End of the End of the World.  I drove by the fairgrounds area and there was a sea of fancy cars parked out on display.  There were tons of people and the road was backed up in both directions.

Photo- Backed up traffic and classic cars.

As I’m driving along, cars of all shapes and sizes are coming up in the other direction.  There were classic cars, old cars, Model T varieties, sports cars, and muscle cars; just anything you could imagine was there.  It was pretty amazing but what I thought was even more fun was watching the people on the side of the roads.  They were in chairs; whole families with their dog and kids in tow camped out with coolers and snacks.  The whole atmosphere was like the circus had come to town.  There was also a large abundance of misc. cars in all kinds of conditions that were parked along the road with for sale signs on them.

Photos- Car, car, and more cars!

I parked on a side street a couple of blocks over and I grabbed lunch; a bowl of delicious crab chowder at Captain Bob’s.  I sat down outside on a bench while I ate and also people watched.  It was all so fascinating.

Photo- Cape Disappointment.

Then, I swung by the beach for a bit.  After all, it's the longest beach being Longbeach.  Then, I moved onto Cape Disappointment about 4 miles from Longbeach.  It’s the lighthouse that served the area where the Columbia River goes into the Ocean a very treacherous area of water to navigate.  It was a short hike of ¾ mile out to the lighthouse.  I took a few pictures but now was getting to a point where I had enough sightseeing for the day. 

It was time to head on.  Off to Hwy 401, to the 5 mile bridge that crosses the Columbia River and also serves as a go between the state of Washington and Oregon.  About 2 miles out of the Washington side is when you are actually crossing into Oregon.  They have a sign above as you go through on the bridge.  Goodbye Washington and Hello Oregon!  And thus, I’ve finished one state of the lower 48.  I might need to pick up my pace a little bit now; but we’ll see.

Photo- Hello Oregon!

 

DAY 17- Mount Rainier...

I stayed the night at a Motel 6 in Centralia, WA.  The clerk at the motel asked for ID and it felt like 10 minutes of computer stuff she did while looking at my ID.  What do you need a federal background check to stay at a Motel 6 now?  It almost seemed like an afterthought when she asked for my credit card to pay for the room. 

For breakfast the next morning, I went to a place called Country Cousins.  It was a fun rustic family restaurant.  The servers wore black t-shirts that featured a version of Grant Wood’s American Gothic where the man is wearing a cowboy hat and the woman is wearing a pink with white polka dot apron with white gingham edges.  Then under the picture it states: “Let’s get Country Fried.”  The inside of the restaurant is like going into a barn and has old farm tools and “antique” type things hanging and sitting around.  The tables are light wood that have old photos and prints that are decoupage onto the surface.  I had the Hazel’s Omelet and it was a plate full of food for the $10.  What a fun way to start off the day.

I then fueled up real quickly (Thank you Jay & Patty for the Chevron card!) and off I went on I-5 South to Hwy 12.  On Hwy 12 I went through towns named like Ethel, Salkum, Mossyrock, and Morton.  It like those names a mother would give a kid to embarrass them for the rest of their life.  Mossyrock seemed to the most scenic of them as I went by at 55mph.  At Morton, I drove north on Hwy 7 to town of Elbe (another wonderful name) where I took a right to go towards the Mount Rainier National Park.

Photo- My first view of Mt. Rainier while I'm still aways away.

I stopped at a gas/grocery station in Ashford, the last town before the Park, to pick up a cold beverage and a little snack before heading in.  It’s there that I got into a quick conversation with a motorcycle guy while in line.  He asked if I was going into the National Park today and I said yes.  He went on to say that Hell’s Angels would be visiting the Park today too.  WHAT?!!?  Go figure the day I’m going to visit a National Park all of Hell’s Angels would be there too.  Well, I did see a great deal of motorcycles but whether they were Hell’s Angels or not I couldn’t say for sure.  But I will say quite a few of them were kind of rough around the edges.

Photo- Of me with Mt. Rainier in the background. 
The guy that took the picture was kneeling that's why I look so tall! :)

Mount Rainier National Park was amazing!  I drive along on a road edged by tall evergreens and the whole time I get little peeks at Mount Rainier through the tops of the trees.  The road winds around quite a bit and there are tons of areas to pull out and stop or look at sites or take a hike.  I got out at the first area and took a couple of pictures of Mount Rainier but it was still a ways off.  Back in the car, I went and continued driving up.  I felt like I was getting into the “nose bleed” section of the surrounding mountains when a large over look came up.  Wow!  I had a guy nearby that took a photo of me in front of the mountain, and I took several other pictures too.  The overlook where I stood has a sheer cliff drop that goes down to very rocky streambed of a river that runs off the mountain.  It had to be at least a few hundred feet down.  Needless to say, I didn’t want to get too close to that edge.

Photo- Bridge over stream with waterfalls.  So pretty!

Photo- Another name for restroom at the National Parks?
Comfort?  Where's the jacuzzi or how about a pedicure?
Comfort? A Men's and a Women's with three stalls each.  Hmmm?

Next, I continued up the road for as far as I was able.  The Steven’s Canyon Road was closed for road construction.  They started that the day after Labor Day.  I got up to a picnic area and there was a wonderful bridge with stream that waterfall a couple of times down.  Unfortunately, the Nierda Falls trail that I would have loved to have seen these waterfalls from the other side was closed too because of the above construction.  Darn!  I went back to Longmeir and walked around the a bit; saw the gift shop, restaurant, and an old fueling like station that had historical info.  I guess that President Taft’s car was the first car over the Paradise Road Pass in 1912 and for part of it the car was pulled by mules.  Now, that would have been something to see.

After I left the park there was still quite a bit of day time hours.  The night before I had visited the website for a RV/Camping place that looked rather nice; so after a little back tracking I went back past the town of Mossyrock and turned off to Paradise RV Resort.  Let me state for the record--Don’t always believe in a place named Paradise and don’t always believe what you read on the internet. 

Photo- The ONLY view at the Paradise RV Resort before you went in.

The only view that the RV Park had was just prior to you going into the RV Park, and I felt a bit like I was in the movie Deliverance.  Most of the men had wife beater tank tops, wore either farm caps or cowboy hats, and a few of them were toothless too.  There were some old married couples where the guys looked like they have served in the military.  At least that what I saw as I set up my tent in the tents only section.  I was the only tent in that section for the night.

I set up my tent real quick and then decided I would catch a bike ride; after all it was only 5pm.  So off I go, up out of the valley with no view and down to towards the pretty little Mayfield Lake.  Now this was nice.  The road I took was lined with little farms, cottonwood trees and evergreen trees.  Down I went to the lake and crossed over the bridge and then took a quick loop through a cute little state park; which I could’ve camped in.  Live and learn! 

I took a quick shower when I got back to “Paradise” which the facilities were relatively clean and well kept up I have to say.  I then proceeded into town of Mossyrock to grab a bite to eat because “Paradise” didn’t allow any open flame.  I soon discovered that most of the restaurant places close in Mossyrock about 7 or 8pm. In fact, quite a few of the businesses close down by 6pm on a week night.  Not much of a nightlifr type of town here.

I ended up going to Tavern that also served food.  I ended up ordering the DAM Bacon cheeseburger; which is how it is on the menu and toots itself as the best in the entire county.  I will say that it was a good pretty good burger and very large too.  I ended up ordering a Bacardi Silver with it and the gal wasn’t sure what that was but I pointed to it on the menu.  " Oh," she said," mostly everyone orders bottles or cans of beer here."  Well, I said it’s probably obvious I’m not from here; and thus, I ended up talking on and off during my meal and a couple of drinks afterwards. 

I also met some more locals that sat down near me; Jerry, a contractor, and his brother Steve. They seemed like some nice local guys and it was fun talking with them.  I ended up talking with Jerry and explaining what I was doing.  Then talking about what I had seen in the state of Washington. What was funny is that he didn’t know about or where half the things were that I had seen.  He said that I probably knew his state better than what he did. 

I’m not surprised though.  It seems like quite often people get in a rut of doing the same thing or don’t explore their local areas that much because when its vacation time all they want to do is get away.  And away, most often is outside of their state or a hot tourist attraction that you fly to.  It’s sad because I’ve spent a little over a week and a half in Washington State and feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface of seeing all that is here.