Washington

When we left home we had planned to spend three weeks or so meandering home.  Some family and friends happenings back in Albq, though, led us to decide on a more direct trip home, arriving by Aug. 15.  We're planning two nights in the Reno/Tahoe area, but otherwise, just keep moving. 

Stopped for the first night, Friday, after leaving Vancouver at a KOA on the banks of the Yakima River near Ellensburg in south-central WA.  Kind of stumbled in to a nice evening, there.  Took a drive through town, including a stop for groceries, and picked a downtown soup and sandwich place to eat, getting there just before it closed.  While waiting for our meals I picked up a local guide on things to do in the Ellensburg area (E-burg, for one thing, is home of Central Washington U).  Noticed a picture of an unusual, to some, controversial, it said, sculpture - a bull sitting on a park bench: sitting bull?  Asked the cafe-lady where the bull was sitting.  Just a block over, she said.  And by the way, our monthly First Friday art gallery open houses are happening right now.  You might enjoy that, too.

So, we walked over to see the bull.

Then, we spied some artsy activity across the street.  It was the Clymer Museum - a tribute to western artist, John Clymer, an E-burg native.  Among the Clymer art displayed there were several Saturday Evening Post covers - that's his era.  Here's an example of his art that I found on the internet.

In addition to art, the museum had a folk/bluegrass group entertaining and chips and dip to graze on.  My kind of art gallery!

We strolled through a couple of other galleries, one of them really grotesque, then, culturally saturated and a bit enchanted by what we found in Ellensburg, headed for Tuzigoot for the night.  Here's one of the nicely apppointed downtown buildings.

  

Next morning I got a couple of barn pictures in the area.

We got some locally-grown cherries that were really good.

Saturday we drove on south, headed for Bend, in central Oregon.  Had hoped to stop at the Columbia River crossing, but didn't see, or saw too late, a good opportunity.  Anyhow, we (all) gave a nod to Lewis and Clark one more time as we crossed the river.

I'm finishing this Washington posting several days later.  We've had some motor home problems and are now in Sparks, NV.  The problems were nothing serious, just annoying.  Also I made a couple of goofs on routes where I should have disconnected, turned around, and re-traced our path, but didn't.  I'll post that ugly story later when I have more computer-time.  We spent yesterday driving around Lake Tahoe.  Spectacular!  Pictures to come.  Planning to get home Sunday.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie