Living Positive: Gravity is Our Friend

Thursday, August 17, 2023

It was a travel day today. We said goodbye to the Olympic Peninsula and headed toward our destination, Yakima, Washington. There aren’t many freeways where we are - mostly two lane curvy highways. We did go through Tacoma which is very close to Seattle but not close enough for heavy traffic.

When we got Enumclaw, we thought about getting gas but the tank was more than half full so we continued on….Well, Enumclaw is a ski town so the road out of town is your typical two way mountain road. Don’s gut was saying, “we should probably turn around and get some gas” but he ignored it so up and down we went on this remote highway. It was beautiful with gorgeous views of Mt, Rainer, Mt. Rainer National Park and Snoqualmie National Forest. However, we became distracted from the view by the gas gage that was rapidly moving south. As we ascended what we hoped was the last pass, we counted on gravity to take the wheel…and it did! Luckily the last 25 miles or so was downhill which saved us as we coasted into the awaiting remote gas station with 2 gallons to spare! This gas station counts on paying its mortgage from people like us. It was the best $6.09/gal of gas we ever bought! The moral of this story is trust your gut - it usually is right.

After all that green, Yakima seemed a little brown but there were also green orchards everywhere. It really reminded us of Palisade without the grand mesas. In fact, Yakima is known as the Palm Springs of Washington. Our campsite is next to a golf course but unfortunately we did not bring the golf clubs. Instead we discovered a winery right up the hill from us so after we set up we headed for the hills.

The Wilridge Winery is on top of a hill filled with orchards - apple, pear, apricot and grape vines. In fact this winery grows an impressive number of different grapes. We tasted their Estate Bordeaux Reds (my favorite was their best seller Malange Noir) and their Dessert Wines (we loved the Estate Muscat Blanc). It was such a peaceful place even though it was busy with a women’s group and yoga going on. Bear did not think it was peaceful because he got his first glimpse of chickens and was pretty sure they were going to kill him!

I’m so glad we randomly picked Yakima as our overnight stop. Pay attention to where your fruit comes from - it’s probably from here!