Day 1

The whole scoop on the trip so far. It's already an adventure.

4:00 pm PDT: Ronna met me at the office and we immediately had to take the top off the Jeep. How could we resist? We actually made really great time and were just chatting away. So much so that we blew right by our first intended stop - a coffee break in N. Bend. No worries. Made it all the way to Ellensburg instead. What a tiny pass through city that turned out to be.

In the first half hour, at 75 MPH, we found ourselves at the start of a big pile up because 3 cars chose to pull over. One on the right shoulder of the hwy, o

ne on the left and some dumbass woman IN the fast lane. Yes sir, you read that right. She was parked IN the fast lane. She looked shocked that people were slamming on their breaks and driving crazy to get around her. She even jumped in her car to move it. Duh. Good job, dip shit. I have very little tolerance for stupid. This one receives no break whatsoever.

A few miles up the road, a dude in a big red dualie decided that he wanted to share the space that I was using at that moment. Realizing that this guy had no clue of the Laws of Physics and couldn't comprehend that we could not possibly share the same space, I found the real use for the defensive driving class that Dominic and I went through. How could he miss a gigantic blue Wrangler on his right side? Was he even looking? Maybe he thought my big blue monster would look better with some red accents. Whatever his thought process, and I'm betting he didn't have one at the time, we didn't connect.

Outside of Vantage, WA, we stopped at the scenic point to snap photos of the Columbia River (thanks John) and the Wild Horse Monument. We ran into some very nice people and played tourist with them. They snapped our photos, we snapped theirs. They invited us to hike up to the monument with them. We thanked them for the invite, hopped back in the car and hit the road.

Along the way, somewhere around Moses Lake, a semi was honking to get our attention. I thought something was wrong. Ronna just laughed at me. He was just trying to get our attention. There is something about the Jeep that people really connect with. Even more so than the VW bug. Funny.

11:00 pm PDT: We ended the day in Couer D'Alene, ID. Grabbed a hotel room and some Taco Bell. Who needs fancy?

Today's time in the car: 7 hours.

Today's drive time: 5 hours.

A good balance of work and play.

(We'll upload photos soon. Technical difficulties.)

Tomorrow: Headed through Montana toward Yellowstone Park.