I-90 in Eastern Washington State

“I don’t know what we are looking at, but it is really beautiful!”

“It’s some water.”

 You will have to guess which of us said what, but that shouldn’t be a trick!

 We have just stopped at a rest area on the eastern side of Washington state, same one we hit 3 years ago when passing this way. I was thinking about blogging and decided that I could do it now and transfer to online later. We will stop in about 150 miles for a few days in central state.

We are entering the farming section of the state. It has wider expanses of pasture land and more than just hay type grasses in cultivation. The fields have been beautiful with a variety of greens and yellow-tan colors depending on the level of irrigation and rainfall. The predominate color is what I have decided to call DRY. It is sort of golden. At some places the farmers are working at bailing. Is the grass ripe or just tired? It is full and the corn is really pretty, not like the shrunken variety we drove past in the drought stricken corn belt.

 Some nice things about traveling in a motorhome: With the generator on, I am free to blog, and I can go make lunch so the chicken salad will be ready at the next rest stop! Very Cool!

 Back on the road and we ate too soon. Just past our stop is the fabulous river view I remember from our previous trip in 2009. You are driving along these wide, barren, rolling hills when you start to get glimpses of a massive river. As you near the bridge, there is a Scenic Overlook area to gape and stare at the gorge made by the Columbia River as it flows from the north and makes a turn west. We kept going, but I took as many pics as possible along the way. We were barreling down this 6% grade, curving toward this bridge with traffic on all sides. I’m all over the cab trying to get the very best on-the-move photo when here comes a Model T (yellow), 2 motorcycles and a camper on the on-ramp. Good news! I got the picture!

We entered another farming region, and a number of Vegetable Stands that looked really great from I-90. We were starting to glimpse snow-capped mountains between the ridges closer at hand. Then all of the traffic began to slow as we saw smoke ahead. Firemen were on the shoulder fighting the grass fire before it got to the trees. Fire in the median was being allowed to burn as long as it didn’t get any wilder than it was. We exited at the next town and saw more trucks on their way to the blazes. It was no surprise to see the FIRE BAN sign as we neared the RV park.