Washington

By the time I got to Washington, I was beginning to crack. I'd been on the road for 6 days, and driven more than a thousand miles. And I was lonely. I kept thinking about how much better it would have been to have someone with me to talk about what I was seeing. Portland kind of made me want some company. Anyway, from Portland I went north into Washington and decided more camping was in order. So I stopped off at a few National Parks camping grounds only to find that - THEY WERE FULL UP! It was the weekend now and apparently a lot of people go camping in Washington. I started getting nervous, but I eventually came upon a park called Lewis and Clark National Park that had some really cool campsites back in the real woods. I did some hiking on some nice trails and did a lot of reading (Making Money by Terry Pratchett) and enjoying the summer country air. It pretty much rocked, even if it was a bit solitary.

Saturday I drove into Seattle. It was more than an hour from the campsite, and I really don't think I gave Seattle a chance. I went around and saw the Space Needle and the Farmer's Market area... but my heart wasn't in it. I was really needing more nature rather than a complex city - oddly reminiscent of San Francisco with its hills and downtown area. So I headed out of Seattle after a few hours of not-really-sightseeing and found another place to camp for the night. The southbound journey would begin the next day. I had the coast of Oregon to see, and another stop in San Francisco to hang with Gus for his birthday getaway. It was a learning experience. I'm writing separately about it - to remind me how I felt at different times in the trip.