North Bend, Washington

Sept 23, 2008 North Bend, WA

Well here goes, an attempt at an online travel journal, typing not handwriting as I like to do. I make my way from WA -- East. I'm not sure tonite how far my drive will take me overall. Only a little less than 2 days ago, we were traveling together for a month through OR, WA, British Columbia and instead of heading back to San Diego to start my fall trip east, B decided to fly home to get business/jury duty done and I thought, why not leave from WA instead.

Exciting, though at first it was unsettling and scary to think of launching into a solo journey so fast with so little preparation (I have mostly summer clothes), all my maps/books, notes at home - and so comfortable and relaxed traveling with another person.

Late this afternoon I dropped B off at the Sea-Tac airport and headed East. Not wanting to slog up I-5 in rush hr, I tried an eastern diagonal Hiway 18 to I-90. Hundreds of stop lights later I finally found I-90E but soon it climbed into the rugged mountains and pine filled canyons that create a giant grand spine down WA. Afraid of running out of lodging options, I'm at the iffy scruffy, old North Bend Motel in one of their last rooms, a non-smoking room that's seen dozens break the rule - very smelly, probably a headache in the a.m. and noisy - as 2 men got into an argument earlier, crunching all over the gravel parking lot. This is a tiny 2 motel town, next to an even smaller village - Snoqualmie, with no lodging and a giant RR museum of rusted broken down train cars that stretches the length of Main St. I'm only about 50 mi from the airport - not much mileage today.

Before it got totally dark, I drove back to Snoqualmie Falls. The very 'New Joysey' motel owner who came west when his "brother got really sick", said I should be sure to check out the Falls at dusk, but he really wanted to tell me about living in WA, "where most days you have a choice - you're indoors and depressed or outdoors and wet."

I really miss B tonite. To forget, I totally rearranged all the food/kitchen supplies we've been hauling. I washed out the inside of the 2 coolers we have and cut up a huge celery I bought, as well as radishes and 3 containers of cherry tomatoes in a very tiny bathroom sink. For dinner I bought a half lb of jumbo shrimp and standing in Safeway waiting for the butcher to wrap the bundle, it felt strange not to share the anticipation of our favorite dinner on the road as we have these past weeks.

It can be lonely when you're used to the daily movement, activities and affections of another person. I know I'll find my solo travel groove. I'm looking forward to a lot of poking around with cameras and not feeling I'm holding someone else up. I even stopped to pick some wild black berries tonite.