Living Positive: From Hops to Smoke

Friday, August 18, 2023

It was nice and cool this morning which was a wonderful change from yesterday’s heat. Before hitching up we decided to check out a place called Johnson’s Orchard which is supposed to be the place to buy fruit. It is in the town of Yakima so this gave us a reason to see what the town is like too.

Yakima proper is a nice town and is much greener than the outskirts. The store was smaller than I thought but had great looking produce so we stocked up on some fruit and threw in some chocolate chip cookies for good measure.

On the way out of town, our GPS took us through more orchards and past some crops that I had to google what they were. There were fields and fields of it. Turns out it was Hops. I shared a photo with our friend Taylor and he confirmed that this area grows most of the US Hops. I believe it!

As we got closer to our Spokane, Washington destination, we saw smoke plumes in front of us. According to the Internet it was a wildfire that was started by a semi-truck that caught fire. The fire was not near us and not where we were going but the smoke sure was. It followed us all the way to Spokane and the KOA where we set up was pretty much socked in. It was also super hot so once we were all set up, we cranked the air conditioner (so glad it is working!!) and sat inside like all of the other campers in the park.

Later that evening, it cooled off enough to sit outside awhile but it was still pretty hazy. There was a nearby bike trail but between the heat and the smoke we were not motivated to ride it.

P.S. This KOA has a few little sculptures that Bear was confused by. In fact he barked at Big Foot. He’s a funny little dog..