Washington to Oregon

Tuesday July 1 – CANADA DAY!!!
Ken met a real live red neck today at the spot where we ate breakfast, a sleepy little American town called Myrtle Creek. It had a nice park where we ate breakfast in our CANADIAN flag lawn chairs.






We had lunch in Grant's Pass. We found a park near end of main and back in behind on a river. I drew a duck. We also found Dutch Bos. Coffee and had a freeze – what a treat! Great thrift here.
I painted strawberries and the duck while we drove .












Shout Wipes do work to remove strawberry stains. By the way, Grants Pass is where you turn on the 199 from the I-5. The 199 SW is a windy little road, very tree lined with the Redwoods forest in part of it. You turn south at Crescent city, right on the ocean. There are great ocean views then, suddenly you are driving in Redwoods forest again on the 101 highway (which goes all along the coast). We went to Eureka Co-op to stock up and get food for supper. We then went and ate the food on the ocean side.

Monday June 30
We went to Knob Hill area of Portland or Alphabet District we are not sure of the official name. Best thrift, great food. Looked for a suitable eating establishment. We settled on a place with a cheap happy hour. It was decorated with extreme metal work– Ken says says they use plasma, high temperature cutting torches controlled by computers to make the designs. You learn something new everday.
We drove passed a hotel we stayed at a few times in Portland – The Riverside Inn. It is on the river, obviously, but now has a new name.


We went to Powell Street books and to a Natural Foods Market (cheap compared to some places) and they do stock Buffalo butter if you need some.






















Sunday June 29
We arrived in Seattle and drove immediately to our favourite Value Village in Redmond. We ended up with little but that is good because space is an issue. Then we drove to the Capital Hill district – our favourite restaurant (unfortunately closed, Sunday). We walked around in this area and went to the Capital Hill Value Village.






We found a farmer's market and bought peas and strawberries which were eaten very quickly while looking for a restaurant. We drove to the Grand Buffet near SeaTac. Their best foods, according to me, are the crab legs, shrimp, stir fry and the sesame balls – yummy!

On the Road begins

Saturday June 28
We were made a wonderful breakfast by Sharon then waited in the Swartz Bay ferry line up and caught the 12:00 pm ferry for the mainland. We hung out with Sharon and Larry on board. Sharon let me use sunglasses then ended up giving them to me. We hugged, said good bye and off we went – on another big adventure.




















We waited for about 40 minutes in a hot line-up with mosquitoes waiting outside the window. We were waiting for the Albion Ferry which crossed to Maple Ridge to go to Vivian and Tony Kapusta's home to drop off my "Family Trees: Healing" quilt.
She showed me her studio, shortarm Juki, B-line (wonderful wooden quilting frame, I want one) set-up, all the quilts she had for the Canadian Expressions, all her quilts including her eagle quilt (wow, by the way!!!). Tony and Vivian invited us for supper–pizza. Their house has the appearance of a flat roof rancher which is built around a pool and a garden. Ken thinks that is how we might want to build; he got that idea when we came to Mexico last summer. We got to also see the cat she inherited from her Father. He is a lovely, big, fuzzy, reddish, orange boy that seems to be quite friendly. Later while in California we would hear of his unfortunate fate.

Road Trip 2008 - Oaxaca Mexico

Friday June 27, 2008
Finally we left Gabriola, quite late in the day but we are packed, the van has been washed and Gunnhild will house sit and take care of things while we are away.

Pueblo to the Canadian Border

Tuesday August 21
This was was a day of power driving.










We drove from Cheyenne, WY to Bowman, North Dakota. We drove right through the state of South Dakota. The Black Hills in SD was a beautiful spot in the otherwise prairie landscape. The Black Hills were mountainous and treed. There was a small river running alongside the road. The temperature was cooler than we had become accustomed to. Back on the prairie we saw herds of mule deer and herds of antelope.


When it was later on in the evening we figured out where to camp and promptly decided against camping. The mosquitoes could have carried us away. Ken just could not face his most hated bug. Gee, they seem to really like him. We stayed in a motel.












Monday August 20
From Pueblo we drove to Denver, CO and arrived there just after noon. Ken wanted to have Denver sandwiches in Denver so decided to park the van in a Park and Ride parking lot and take the light rapid train into the city. I saw a drastic difference between the fast transit here and in Mexico City. In MC there wasn't any air conditioning, each train was not that clean or new. In Denver the trains were air conditioned, clean and likely quite new. In fact, the whole town seemed really clean and well groomed. Tourist information directed us to see a historic building - the Equity Building - with marble curved stairways and stained glass windows. We ate lunch in a building made of stone. The building had been elsewhere and was torndown and rebuilt in its present site We were more fascinated with the antler chandelier, oh and the food. The landscape around Denver is very prairie like. There are mountains in the west. Once back on the road we drove to Terry's Buffalo Ranch which was just south of Cheyenne, Wyoming. We stayed there because it was a buffalo ranch and had lots of other animals, too, like camels, horses and ostrich.