So yeah…. we got back and I was all excited to get all my photos downloaded until i realized i had almost 1000 pictures to sort and edit and upload and blog about… :/ crap. This is going to take forever!!!! and it did. which is why I’m just now getting around to the next day of the trip! 🙂 Sorry for the delay, all 4 people who read my blog…
We woke up to a gorgeous desert sunrise over Ellensburg. I find that I still wake up at the same time that I get up for work while out camping. (4:45… sigh) Only I’m excited to be awake and end up crawling out of the tent ready to take some sunrise photos. The wind was howling all night long. Next time I’ll bring some ear plugs. Don’t care if I get eaten by a bear as long as I’m well rested and can’t hear it.
I think Manastash ridge is the token redneck mud-truck and motorcycle play area because the closer we got to Ellensburg down the mountain the more ruts we ran into and shot up cars and random garbage. Good job, guys. :/ Either way, there came a point where we realized that if we got to the bottom of this trail and there was a gate, we were going to have a helluva time getting back up the hill. Not going to say we’d reached the limits of the offroad capabilities of our fine Silverado, but probably the limits of not beating the shit out of it in order to get un-stuck. She’s not exactly a small, nimble little jeep. Either way, we got pretty damn lucky and there was a gate and it was OPEN! So we snuck through some farmer’s service road and headed into town on beautiful black pavement. Looking back I noticed that there was a “Road Closed” sign on the trail that we’d just come from. Excellent. Maybe try putting one on the other side!
My trusty iPhone indicated that there was an old skool diner in Ellensburg that opened early and served breakfast. SOLD! Probably the most amazing breakfast burrito of my life thus far. Bacon, sausage, different sausage, potatoes, eggs, cheese… yum.
They have amazing food and an extensive collection of vintage auto memorabilia. Also have a few car shows throughout the year. I’d like to go back once my ’37 is on the road. That’d be a fun little road trip with friends!
I was ready to see some things besides just tooling around offroad. (Sorry Jason!) So, since we were in the area, we headed into the cute little German town of Leavenworth. Which is super duper ridiculously cute. We come here fairly often, so I didn’t feel like taking any photos of the buildings, but we did get pretty fantastic ice cream. (huckleberry with chocolate waffle cone!)
Leavenworth is cute, but like I said, we come here fairly often. Jason has an aversion to pavement so we headed back up into the mountains.
Rolled through Lake Chelan and it was quickly made apparent that if we wanted to get away from crowds that the lake over 4th of July weekend was NOT the place to do it. All the campgrounds were full, roaming herds of RV’s clogged the streets, hotels cost twice as much as usual… we didn’t even stop. We’ll come back when it’s raining. We were, however, ready to stop for the day. I really wanted to stop and explore the old western town of Winthrop because we drove through a while ago, but didn’t get to see it. We chose the town of Twisp a few miles away though so save some money. 😉 Turns out we stumbled upon a truly fantastic bed and breakfast.
Can’t say enough about this precious old hotel or the wonderful couple that run it! The food is fantastic and made with whatever is fresh and laying around that morning. The rooms were comfortable. The garden outside was overflowing with raspberries. The entire Methow Valley is a serene river oasis in the middle of the mountains. This was my favorite part of the entire trip, I think. Just so relaxing to find a place like this after days of camping out of a truck with no showers or AC.
Pictures from the garden at the Inn
Jason updated a phone booth!
…and at this point we passed out on the soft bed basking in the glorious AC and didn’t move until the next morning!