The Parting of the Waters

Tuesday (Day 2) – we hitched up under cloudy skies and that was pretty much the last time we were dry. Torrential rains hit us as soon as we left the Casino and did not stop until we got past the Snoqualmie pass…. Probably because it was so cold there were still 10 foot snow drifts on the ground. Nui was convinced we were going to need snow chains, as the road signs indicated. However, even the snow was replaced – this time by unbelievably strong winds in the Vantage area, which greatly improved our mileage as they were coming right behind us. We almost got to see a petrified forest, but had to be content with a couple of stumps and a stone dinosaur. The views of the high plains were outstanding. In fact, we still have a tumbleweed stuck under the Beast. A few miles later and we were in Moses Lake, at a very nice park (Pier 4). And like Moses, the waters finally parted and we had a beautiful sunset. The people have been very friendly so far – perhaps because they sense our desperation since we are flying blind as we STILL can’t get reliable Wifi access. The water problems were not quite over, however. The shower taps both went at the same time, which caused non-stop dripping for 2 days. We had a bit of a linguistic hurdle but soon learned that taps are, in fact, called faucets here in Northeastern Washington. This was reminiscent of the Jug/Pitcher incident that Prince endured in Fort Lauderdale. This minor setback resulted in a 4 hour delay in Moses Lake, while the faucets got replaced. And then we were off to Spokane.