Through The Smoke To Cheney

We hated to leave the beautiful Nisqually Lodge after only a short stay but, as we noted before, we wanted to get going early. The morning dawned with a subdued brightness due to the prevalence of smoke from the fires in the area.

On the other hand, the trees that are burning are some of the most fragrant found anywhere and since the fires are quite distant, it seemed as though we were being welcomed with incense. After a quick continental breakfast we headed out with the intention of heading up Highway 706 to Paradise and then taking the shortcut over Backbone Ridge. We made it to Paradise (no 70 virgins in sight!!) but found that the short-cut was closed for repairs!! That meant back-tracking about twenty miles! Soooooo.... we detoured through Paradise and backtracked back the way we came. We did manage to get some great pics to share though.




Then, on toward Yakima.

Along the way we passed a huge windmill farm on the route toward Cheney. This is a big farming area with miles of fields along beautiful country roads. But... Don't be misled, it is also quite a cosmopolitan town, often even hosting the Seattle Seahawks summer camp. It is named after Benjamin Cheney, one of the founding fathers of the American Express Company. After arriving in Cheney we had a long awaited reunion with that wonderful, wild Travis bunch!!

We also spent some time getting to know other family members - including four dogs, two cats and four horses!!!!

It was just awesome!!! We got checked into our hotel and rested up before heading out for dinner at "Lenny's" an exceptionally good American-Italian restaurant with a killer menu. As we have before, everyone got something different and we all shared samples. I've gotta tell ya ... it was truly fantastic. Everything was great but one thing was especially noteworthy for me. I consider myself to be a "Minestrone Aficianado" and their's was about the best I've ever had.

After dinner we packed it in early even though Justin was still on the road home from work since SOME OF US had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to get Rick to the airport. Rick and I made it to Spokane International on time and he got all checked in for his re-entry into the "real world." We sure hated to part company - he's a great 'SCTraveler". Next morning we got to have a great visit with Courtney and Justin and talked a hundred miles an hour to get in all the 'catching up' we had to do.

Courtney and Justin are fantastic hosts and our big regret was that we were going to miss their 'barn party' featuring Justin's famous home-brewed beer!!! All too soon it was time to hit the road to resume our adventure so we saddled up and set the compass for Idaho. We'll check back in from "The 'Tater" state later on. Hang in there - there's still tons to see. See ya.
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