Tuesday September 7, Centralia, WA

140 Miles

Today has been quite a low key day…..and amazingly have only taken one photo! It was raining when we left to head up through White Pass, the traffic was much lighter thank goodness. The rain cleared but the cloud was very low so missed much of the scenic views, although it was a really pretty drive. We wondered why there was such a swift flow on the river last night, found the reason, a dam with a power plant further up!

It was a really good climb over the pass, and the weather on the western side really deteriorated.  The vegetation changed dramatically and realised we had definitely left the desert like conditions behind as we descended into green pasture land with stock grazing. Interesting to see acres of different species of Xmas trees growing, all pruned up and at different stages. Guess someone has to do it!

Stopped for a much needed coffee at the small town of Morton, which surprisingly had a really good little gallery and coffee shop.

Before long we had hit the I5, and headed north throbbing with trucks and cars, all in a hurry. 

Pulled off in Chehalis for lunch. A rather nice little town and it was farmers market day. Lots of good organic produce and meats. Browsed around and a bit of retail therapy for me with a new pair of jeans, and had to buy a ball of wool to add to the blanket collection from one of the best yarn stores I had come across.

We are planning to head around the Olympic Peninsula from here, so stocked up with brochures from the Info Centre, a bit of reading for tonight.  Decided to park at Walmart…again….and start a leisurely trip up around the coast tomorrow, and take some time out to do some preparations for storing the van.

We have been traveling south for quite some time now and hard to get used to the early nights, it is dark well before eight. Winter is on its way, and we think back to those days when we were out and about at midnight in the daylight.