ALASKA 2012 - DAY 4

WARNING:  HEAVY PHOTO POST AHEAD.  SORRY.  YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

We left Fairchild AFB in Spokane at 6:42 am, and drove directly across the road and down the street one block to the base Starbucks. 

I was completely blown away by the scenery of the first half of our trip today.  As we headed west and then south, to Yakima, I was totally surprised by the desert appearance of the area.  I had always pictured the whole state of Washington as one big evergreen forest.  After all, isn't the motto the evergreen state? 

As we neared Yakima, we found orchards.  Apples.  Peaches.  Grapes. 

The whole area would be brown desert, and then on a little hillside would be a lovely green oasis.  An orchard of apples or grapes. 

I also found another place I could probably afford to buy, but it would be too far from my great granddaughter!

Way off in the distance, about 100 miles, is the mountain.  Mt. Rainier.  We never got a better shot of the mountain, I'm sorry to say.  I was looking forward to seeing her from another angle, but it was not to be.

As we got closer to Yakima, we began to see these fields of strange climbing plants.  It finally dawned on me.  Hops!  So with the many thousands of acres of hops gardens, hops orchards, hops fields, or what ever you want to call them, and the equally thousands of acres of grape orchards, or vineyards, I think our supply of beer and wine is secure. 

 

And now for a little family history.  This is the grave of Ernie's uncle, Milo Fore.  He is buried in a Yakima cemetery called Terrace Heights.

In this shot, his grave is close to the tiny pink dot of flowers in the center of the photo.

Also in this cemetery is an aunt, Agnus, called Peggy.

This is Anniebelle, Ernie's grandmother, and mother to the others mentioned in this post. 

There is a canal that runs through the cemetery, and Agnus is buried on one side, the grave right in the middle of the upper half, and her mother, Anniebelle, is buried in the grave on the other side of the canal,  right next to Ernie's leg on this photo.

Then over to the east side of the cemetery is the military section. 

In the first row, right below this flag, is the grave of James, another uncle.

We were really impressed with this cemetery.  It is very well kept, very organized, and absolutely beautiful.

We then drove across the city to this cemetery.

The area around it wasn't the best, but once we entered, it was also very beautiful.

And in the veterans section we found the grave of Roy Fore, another uncle.

His grave is the third one to the right from the corner of the memorial.

The staff at both of these places were very helpful.  With all the records on computer, it was a simple task for them to look things up and mark them on maps for us, and we had no problems finding the graves.

We left Yakima about noon, and after we had found our highway and climbed a little hill, we had lunch at a rest stop that had signs warning about the rattlesnakes.  I was nervous, as anyone who knows me well will understand.  I hate snakes.

A bit further on was another viewpoint, and we stopped for photos.  Notice that the air is still a bit hazy.

More apple orchards.  This is a fairly newly planted field.  They weren't picking apples yet, but things were being readied.  We saw thousands of boxes piled near the orchards, ready for the fruit to be packed in them and shipped to the far corners of the world.

Now we began to see the scenery that I associate with Washington. 

The mountains are completely covered with evergreen trees.

This is what I came to see!

And I got a chuckle out of this milk truck that we passed.  The sign reads:  drinkamugamilkameal.

And this is what I have been waiting for.  The highway sign that says North!  We finally turned north, and will continue going north until junction 37 at the end of the Cassier Highway where we join the Alaska Highway just west of Watson Lake.  We then turn west again to head to Tok Alaska.

It was another long day.  We drove 433 miles, and got 51.5 mpg.  We filled up with gas last night, and haven't bought any since.  All we spent for the day, until we arrived at our motel in Bellingham (I know....we changed the itinerary a bit) was $5.25 for 3 cups of coffee.  Two were mine.  Yes they were.