GA Gypsies – Fulltiming

We went on a little adventure today. Left Yakima around 2:00 PM, warm and sunny, in the 70s. We were both dressed in shorts, I had on flip flops, but we do always carry tennis shoes and hiking shoes and jackets and rain jackets. With that said, it was about 50 miles to Mount Rainier and we drove a beautiful scenic highway. The landscape changed from high desert to lush, green, almost rainforest trees and mountains. Lot’s of water falls. Lots of trees. Lots and lots and lots of trees. And the clouds started rolling in and the fog and the temp. dropped to the low 40’s. It was pretty, but we couldn’t even see the mountain because of the cloud coverage. There was still a lot of snow on the sides of the road at 5,000 feet. Although we couldn’t see Rainier, we did see some of the other mountains/volcanoes and they had lots of snow at the top. We are going back in a few weeks to camp (from the other side) so hopefully we will have a sunny day. Didn’t take many pictures because there was nothing to see except trees and clouds (and more trees). It did smell really, really good. We saw a Mama black tailed deer with two very new babies. They were crossing the road – the Mama and one baby on one side of the road and the other baby just stopped in the middle and looked at us, then ran/slid across the road to Mama.

We can NOT find a good Mexican restaurant out here. Sure am missing El Som!!!! Everything here is “authentic” – doesn’t have all the cheese and sauce that we are used to. We are getting back to typical weather – really cool in the evenings. It is supposed to go down to 43 tonight. Last night, we had the bedroom window open. The wind was howling and it blew a little box off the windowsill. Tony thought someone was trying to come in the window. Last week, we found the trail head to Cowiche Canyon but decided not to walk it because the sagebrush was so overgrown and the trail was very narrow. Too good of an opportunity for rattlesnakes. I read in the newspaper yesterday that a cougar has been spotted near the trail, so I am glad we didn’t go. We did walk a short ways on the Greenway yesterday, along the river, but it was still hot and the mosquitoes were biting. Our best walks have been up and down the streets from the house. We can go later and it is cooler. We are enjoying housesitting. It gives us enough time to really get to know an area. Looking forward to being on the west side of the Cascades and on the beaches of Oregon and Washington. We definitely have to get some bear spray before heading out. We will be in some wilderness areas, and as someone from here told us, we’re not at the top of the food chain out here.

I can hardly believe that June is almost over. We are still in Yakima, Washington. Still house/pet sitting for David and Monica. They return on July 2nd and we will be leaving on July 3rd, heading for the west coast. We have been spending our days exploring Yakima and the surrounding valleys. We bought some fresh cherries from an orchard heading into town – they are delicious! Have been steadily picking (and eating) raspberries every day. We’ve been walking up and down the roads of the neighborhood in the evenings. It has been cooler the past couple of days – cool enough to open the windows at night. This is a very dry, desolate place if it is not under irrigation. All the homes have small patches of grass that are watered daily. Then the rest of the property is rock or just dry, dead grass. So why is this valley the number one producer of such a variety of produce? It’s the soil – loess – the same thing we saw in the hills of Iowa, except here it is the silt from volcanic ash that settled in the valleys. The orchards and vineyards are all on hills, rows and rows and rows of trees or vines. Peaches are supposed to be ready next week. Between Bozeman and here, a big truck passed us and a rock cracked our windshield, so we got it repaired yesterday. Nice to not have a growing crack running across it! We discover new places every day – we will take a road and end up winding through a canyon and sometimes we come back out at a place we know and sometimes we don’t. Good thing trucks have reverse and can turn around! We are really enjoying the housesitting opportunities – we get to really “know” a place. Yakima is nice, but I wouldn’t want to live here. It is too dry and it has gotten hot some days – in the 90’s, although that is not typical highs. And it usually cools down at night – we picked raspberries and walked last night around 8:30 and it was actually cool. We’ve been trying to get a picture of the quail here – they are the ones with the little curlycue topnotch. They are too fast! We will keep trying.

Saturday Tony took Monica & David to the airport. We rode into Yakima late in the evening with the intention of going to a Civil War reenactment at the fairgrounds. After eating at Outback, we headed that way and it started raining. We sat in the parking lot for about 15 minutes, then decided to not get wet and we headed back home. Sunday, we went looking for the Cowiche Canyon hiking trail and we spent about an hour wandering around the valley, ending up two towns north of where we are outside of Yakima. We did finally find the trail, but it didn’t look too friendly! Way too much sagebrush next to the very narrow trail – way too “snakey” looking, so we walked when we got back to the house. It is very hilly here, so we got a good workout walking down the street, then back up. Everywhere you look, there are apple trees, vineyards, or hops growing on the hillsides. There seems to be a vineyard with a wine tasting room about every mile. According to some information we picked up, the Yakima valley produces more hops, grapes, and produce than anywhere else in the nation. They grow over a thousand varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. David and Monica have raspberries and blueberries growing in their yard. The raspberries are beginning to ripen. I have picked some for the past two days and eaten all of them. I have never liked raspberries, but I’ve never had them fresh off the vine. The dogs have gotten used to us. They sit in the backyard, like a pride of lions, watching and guarding their property. On the hill, they can see for miles around and they do let us know if anything is going on within their line of vision.

What’s left of my afternoon snack.

The house and the four huge babies.

A few pictures coming from Spokane to Yakima. The land is very dry, high desert and nothing grows, not even trees, unless irrigated. The river is the Columbia, coming through the Columbia River Gorge – windy, windy, windy. The first picture is a “dust-nado” formed from all the dust that was in the air from farmers plowing the fields.

We had such a nice evening last night. We have made new, lifelong friends with David and Monica. Tony & Monica went to the grocery store. When they got back, we talked about what to do for supper and decided to do Mountain Man, so Tony & I went back to the grocery store. It was so good and the conversation around the dinner table made it all the more better. Monica is packing today and washing clothes – they are leaving for Norway for three weeks. We have become acquainted with the dogs and their routines of being fed and put away. Their house is beautiful – we have a view of the surrounding valley from the living room window. It gets really nice and cool in the evenings, but last night was chilly – the wind kicked up around 7 PM and it was really blowing. Today we are just hanging out. Tony will take them to the airport tomorrow. We have some day trips planned and just some time to relax and hangout here. I’ve got two baby quilts to finish that I started last year! Now seems like a good time to finish them. Will take some pictures soon to post.

Left Cheney yesterday around noon. Driving across eastern Washington was very much like Wyoming. Dry, dusty, lots of sagebrush. Farmers were busy in the fields, harrowing or cutting hay. The only places that were green were the ones under irrigation. We saw a sign that said for the next 14 miles, the crop types would be written on a sign on the fence. We saw alfalfa, Timothy (hay), potatoes, peas, carrots, sweet corn. We also saw a huge dust tornado. The flat land turned into hills and we entered the Columbia River Gorge. It was windy, windy, windy. The truck and camper were both being blown all over the road. It was actually a little scary. We made it to our house in Yakima around 4 PM. Had some difficulty getting the camper into their fenced in yard – we were backing in from off the main road. Monica & David are wonderful. We all went to eat supper at a Mexican restaurant. We slept very well last night. The temperature dropped during the night and it was very cool. David is a doctor and he is working today. We are hanging out with Monica today.

Wow! What a difference one day makes in the weather – we’ve been in the low 70’s most all afternoon. Got out of Missoula around 11 AM. Had a beautiful drive on I-90 across the panhandle of Idaho.

Coeur d’Alene was absolutely gorgeous and then, POP, we crossed a river and we were in Washington.

Great picture made out of the window from the left side of Interstate at 70 mph! I thought I had missed – didn’t even see it until Tony yelled, “Over here!” I just aimed and shot. We didn’t think we had gotten it. Made it to campground in Cheney, Washington, about 10 miles west of Spokane, around 3:15. (Pacific Time – we lost an hour.) Got the camper situated, then checked out Cheney and ate at a Mexican restaurant. Home again, chilling. Tomorrow we make it to our next house/pet sitting in Yakima. They have 4 mastiffs. We’ve picked up another housesit at Lake Tahoe in September. Yeah!

BRRRRRR!!!!!! It is cold today. Old man winter has returned to Montana. Saturday, Bozeman had a record high of 93 degrees. Sunday morning we woke up to rain, wind, and about 45 degrees. We spent Sunday getting packed back up in the camper and ready to leave today. We slept in the camper Sunday night – nice to get back in our king size bed! We had to run the heater! Got up this morning and left around lunchtime. It was still cold and cloudy. As we drove across the pass & Continental Divide heading into Butte, the temp. began dropping, the clouds were rolling in over the mountains and it starting sleeting. As we got closer to Butte, the temp. dropped all the way to 34 and we were in a late spring blizzard – SNOW!

God was displaying His Works with the rain, sleet, snow, wind and the shadows from the clouds playing on the mountains. All of the high peaks around us were coated in a dusting of snow. It was absolutely beautiful. Made it into Missoula around 4:20 and we settled in for the night after eating at the Wheat Montana Bakery and Restaurant. We were bad – we shared a caramel sticky roll. (And it was good!) Off to Spokane tomorrow – first time in Pacific Time.

Our stay in Bozeman is quickly coming to an end. Just one more day here, then we leave Monday heading to Washington. This afternoon we took a scenic drive to Big Sky. Beautiful. The Gallatin River is running high and fast but that didn’t stop people from whitewater rafting on it. We stopped at a pullout and waited for some to come by.

I’m going to wait until later in the season when I can take a slow drift down a river.

The weather has definitely changed since we first got here – it was in the high 80’s this afternoon and sunny. At this altitude, the sun feels hotter to me, although there is no humidity. When we left Big Sky, we searched for Hyalite Reservoir and drove up forest service roads to a beautiful, busy reservoir. People were stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, boating, swimming and I think every other person had at least one dog with them, throwing sticks in the water for them to retrieve. Beautiful national forest campgrounds all along the way up there. June 1st must be the official start to summer in Montana and the locals take advantage of every hour of warm weather. The sun is coming up around 5:30 and doesn’t set until nearly 10 PM. I hear birds singing around 4:30 every morning.

The lake looks uncrowded from the pictures Tony took, but he was trying not to get pictures of the people.

We are still alive and kicking. Just haven’t posted for awhile. On Monday we went into Bozeman and looked around. Tuesday, we drove to Livingston and planned to walk down the old Main Street, but all of the old part was blocked off and they were re-doing the streets. The stores were still open, but we didn’t go down there. We went into some other shops and then drove one of the Scenic Highways south towards the north entrance to Yellowstone. Beautiful, ranching country. We watched a storm approach us over the mountains and when it began raining, the temp. dropped 20 degrees. We were pelted with some of the largest raindrops I have ever seen. No hail. Wednesday, back into Bozeman for supplies and to look around. We ate at a Ted’s Montana Grill in the old Baxter Hotel. Thursday we went to the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University. They had a T-Rex that was found in Montana on display, along with many, many other dinosaurs, most all found in Montana or Wyoming. They also had a section on Native Americans, Yellowstone, and the pioneers. There was a living history outside, but we did not walk through it.

 

Some pictures from the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody.

Bottom picture of  guns are from the Longmire series and the others are like the one used in Quigley.

A 1966 Pontiac GTO that Tony hopes to win from a raffle at the Cody Museum.

Our newest, best friends, Gato and Pepper.