NxNW... MT to WA

The Cascades

Tuesday I finished off my journey by arriving in Seattle. Suprisingly, today featured what I thought was the most boring section of driving on the whole trip – the roughly 150 miles between Spokane and the Cascade Mountains. It was completly flat, and I don't think the highway turned once. Very few trees either, just miles upon miles of irrigated farmland and grassland. Pretty much the only interesting things I saw along this portion of the drive were giant house-shaped stacks of hay.

The Missouri River

Going through the Cascade Mountains however was quite enjoyable. Snowqualmine Pass looked like it was pulled right from a Gran Tourismo or Forza map. Beautiful, evergreen lined forests everywhere in sight as the highway snaked up and down through the pass. It even passed a lake and went under a short 'tunnel' designed to protect from falling rocks and debris from higher up.

I finally arrived in Seattle around 6PM. I met up with Joel at his place just east of the downtown district and we headed out to Beth Cafe as featured on Man vs. Food. The walls were completely covered in colorings that patrons had done (both kids and adults judging by both the subject matter, skill and language used in them).

Twelve egg 'Northwestern Exposure'

The artwork on my menu

Of course, I opted for the 12 egg 'Northwestern Exposure' omlette. It was filled with cream cheese, green onions, and smoke salmon; an interesting and quite tasty combination. The omlete was served on a pizza tray laid over a massive pile of hash browns (that were all-you-can-eat!).

The 'Six-Fiddy' shake.

I also got the 'Six-Fiddy' shake, six dollars and fifty cents of amazing peanut butter and chocolate milkshake topped with whipped cream and brownie pieces. I was so full after that meal I couldn't even get another free helping of has browns... Check out some of their wall art (or pictures of their food!) here.

  

Tuesday was pretty relaxing.  I think I was suffering from 'car lag' as I woke up around 5:30AM (which would have been around 8:30AM on the east coast0 and could not get back to sleep so around 6:30 I got up and started sorting through photos from the trip and typing up these blog posts.  When Joel woke up we headed out and he showed me around Gasworks Park which is a pretty interesting and unique park built on the site of an old, you guessed it, gas plant.  

Ingersoll-Rand is still in business

Gas work machinery

On the way back home we stopped by an Ezell's Chicken for some tasty fried chicken.  In the evening we drove to a bike shop and Radioshack so that I could pick up some stuff that I needed for my trip before heading over to Blue Highway Games to play some D&D in an ongoing nationwide campaign that Joel is partaking in.  Joel created a character for me (online no less - no more dice rolling and the chance of crappy starting hit points!) so that I was able to jump right in.

I hadn't played since middle school and things had changed quite a bit for the better now that it's owned by Wizards of the Coast.  The store itself was probably the nicest and most well designed hobby shop/game store I have visited.  It was very family friendly as well.  No miniatures games, but a massive selection of casual to serious board and card games as well as puzzles and a small selection of wood model kits.

An interesting note about public transit in Seattle – instead of trolley cars or subways, busses are connected via flexible wiring to a network of power lines above the street, enabling them to move with the freedom of cars (at least along the roads with the necessary power lines), but have the efficiency and 'green-ness' of electric trolleys and subways. Seattle is also suprisingly hilly. It reminds me of the iconic steep San Francisco streets that you see in movies and pictures.

All in all, the trip out to Seattle, all 2900+ miles of it, went easily and smoothly. I stayed entertained with music and new sights along the way and never felt bored or uncomfortable sitting in the car for long days. I think I would make a good truck driver! The next post you read I'll be out on the road on my bike for the much longer haul home!

At Gas Works Park