Centralia, Washington

June 22, 2009

Up until the Rutherford’s departure, we had had an agenda of sorts. We clearly wanted to get to specific points and geography dictated the order. We had a specific date to meet Rick and Pat and then 4 of us were in the planning. Now, we had a wide open map and time frame. Too many options is confusing! I don’t know that we had ever had this particular problem before. Russell met the challenge and decided it was time to head for San Francisco – YEA! We were enjoying Washington, so there was no hurry to leave. In addition we had yet to visit the volcanic peaks that hold so much beauty, mystery and power. I selected the town of Centralia, so named for its location between Seattle and Portland. The plan was to be able to easily drive to the coast, Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helen’s. The reality was that we were equally far, not equally close, to all desired points.

Still, Centralia, and the neighboring town of Chehalis, was a great stop. We were out of gloomy pines and in the bright sun. We needed to repair the RV, restock provisions, and generally get reorganized. We were also forced to take stock of what traveling had done to our bodies. It was seriously time for revisiting a diet plan. This is also where we picked up our bicycling adventures. We were busy!

We found a wonderful path courtesy of the Rails to Trails program again. We rode through several miles of countryside, the farms and hay fields of central Washington. We took a day trip to the coast which whet our appetite for more coastal towns.

We set our sites on Astoria and the Columbia River. Silly me! We were coming up on the July 4th weekend, any campground within 50 miles of Astoria had been booked solid for months. And so we headed next for Woodland.