Idaho or Bust

Yesterday i trekked (well, drove, really) the 350 miles over to my parents place in the Idaho panhandle. Once i hit Interstate 90, it was other worldly...

This is Snoqualmie Pass (aka Seattle's Ski Area, Alpental.) The snow up there has been amazing this year. They had just opened the interstate once i left home...it had been closed some of the morning for avalance control. This is a ramp off the freeway...driving through this made me feel like a gutter ball at the bowling alley.

I had to stop and take a picture to send to Ri so she could guess where Tommy was.

There in the background is a sign for the local hotel and yes, that is a street lamp to the left of it. There is a TON of snow up there!!

The blowing snow continued to get worse soon after i got back on the freeway.

Finally, around Cle Elem, it stopped, and i saw the most wonderful thing i couldn't get a picture of at 70 mph: there is a beautiful old steel bridge on I-90 that crosses a river near Roslyn (the little town of Northern Exposure fame.) There i saw a pack of Roosevelt Elk (but they could have been moose too, they were that big) that was crossing the river near the bridge.

This is a shot of the mountains near Ellensburg, WA

Soon, the scenery changes over to desert near Vantage, WA
Below is near where I-90 crosses over the Columbia River.

Winds started gusting around 20 or 30 miles per hour after this point, so i didn't take many more pictures from the freeway as it was just a challenge to keep the car on the road. :o(

When i got to Ritzville, it was sunny, yet very windy. But i decided i would stop and hang around town for a while--rest my weary arms from correcting the car for 100 miles.

Ritzville is a place i could live. It's one of my favourite stops.

You'll see why when i post more pics later....