Road Trippin'

Just back from an Eastern Washington Road Trip.  Over 1500 miles on the Dodge pick-up.

Went through many of the towns whose names I have heard my whole life, but never been there, or hadn't been there for many, many years.

• Glenoma
• Packwood
• Soap Lake
• Ephrata
• Coulee City
• Electric city
• Colville 
• Tonasket
• Metaline
• Metaline Falls
• Ione
• Republic
• Twisp
• Mazama
• Keller
• Kettle Falls
• Winthrop
• Omak
• Oroville
• Cashmere
• Okanogan
• Chelan
• Wenatchee 
• Manson
• Selah
• Nachez
• Yakima
• Ellensburg

And many, many more.

The most interesting thing was that every community, no matter how small, had a great natural foods store.   Our favorite towns were Republic and Twisp. Some communities felt healthy and welcoming.   Others were less than thriving.  The Wal-Mart on the edge of Okanogan seemed to have made a hugely negative impact on the downtown store fronts of both Okanogan and Omak.

We traveled the road that takes you to the furthest NE corner of the state and then hiked in a few miles more.  Could see the Rockies in Canada, the Sawtooths in Idaho, and the North Cascades in Washington.

We saw funky!

We saw beautiful!

We saw amazing!

We also saw stupid ugly!

(Lest you begin to think that Washington State is perfect.)

And for me the best part of any trip is the gravel road that brings me home....satisfied, reinvigorated, and ready for whatever comes next.