Late posting

I thought that most of the world had been covered by the phenomenon known as "the internet" ...Boy was I wrong ...We were in the middle of paradise (a place defined in my book as a place I can't be reached by phone, email or fax) We surprised a friend we worked with in Germany by stopping in her little (I mean little) town of Condon. This was probably the best experience we had on this entire trip (at least its mine!) We stayed on the farm with our friend and her parents.

Shortly after calling and setting a meeting spot (of course at one of the bars in town) we embarked on a "pub crawl" ...We thought of it as a mission to have a beer in each of the towns pubs ...about 30 minutes later, we were done (there were only two).

On the way back to the farm, we were lucky enough to watch the sun slip below the horizon. Our view included 4 major volcanoes in the chain (Adams, Hood, Helens and Rainier) This was beautiful (to say the least). After watching the sunset, we finally made it back to the farm. Quick introductions to the family and we made our way outside. This was probably one of my all time favorite sights of all time (probably 2nd or 3rd on my list!) The sky was very clear and the sky was completely filled with nothing but stars. The ambient light from the stars was enough that the landscape was almost fully visible. We were lucky enough that the moon was not out last night ...We spent about an hour there and also toured the barn and surrounding buildings.

After a great sleep, I went out and started taking pictures ...oh yeah, about the bed ...the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on ...the closest way I could describe it would be imagine you are the cold butter on top of the hot pancakes at IHOP ...you sink in and just "melt"! Ok, back to the story ...While I was out taking photos, our friend's dad took me out to see the property and fields ...I got to have a very unique experience and got to see a glimpse into the day and in the life of a farmer! It had to be one of the neatest things I've ever done! (if you are reading this, thank you again!)

After a quick good-bye, we headed out to our final destination, Leavenworth, WA ...We kind of decided this would be the best place to spend our last night in hotels (and on the road, though, Seattle is still next) Leavenworth decided as a town to become a "Bavarian" town ...many of the shops and buildings look like streets in Garmisch ...this is kind of a "familiar" place for both of us!

I will write about Leavenworth tomorrow ...also, I have one more posting afterwards including Seattle ...we are working on 3000 miles!!! Its been quite a trip!


Mike!