Driving on the famous I-80 highway through the windy Wyoming and cold Utah…
…through Idaho and its capital Boise…
…through passes and Oregon fogs…
…putting 37 visited states on the rear windshield and adding 42,300 kilometers to the odometer, Foshik once again arrived at the base in Walla Walla, WA, with it finishing the third part of our US expedition.
Season of wildfires in north-western states: the forests of Montana, Idaho and Washington are on fire.
The smog has descended heavily upon Spokane with some ashes and strong smell of burning.
All day the sun rays are struggling through the greyish-red shroud.
In the evening, after finally reaching fresh air at the entrance to Walla Walla, we watched the smoke-screen approaching from the northeast.
The first part of our trip is over. We are resting and regrouping in a small town in southeast Washington. One month on the road has taught us some basics, specifically concerning unnecessary things. We serviced our car, did laundry, washed up well, got plenty of sleep and, of course, feasted to our heart’s content. Ain’t that what moms are for.
While mom is making piroshki, dad is relaxing to the accordionist’s clumsy passages.
There is a lot of beauty surrounding Walla Walla, as well as many different back roads that allow us to come close to this beauty.
You can watch the labor in the fields.
Enjoy some baby peas.
Drive up to secret places on some hard roads.
Stand still for a moment, giving way to memories from youth that rush through the mind.
And at sunset walk through the fields, running your hands over the tassels of wheat, like Gladiator.
Resting.
Our Ford is again in safe hands of the master-mechanic, Volodya Kostenko.
The most simple, typical lunch at Ruslan’s mom’s house on a Wednesday afternoon.
Lyubov Ivanovna is browsing through Rusichkа-dearest-son’s blog.
Alla is assessing the rafter’s skills on the Lochsa River rapids, Hwy 12, Idaho.
Beautiful vintage post office boxes in the town of Kamiah, Idaho.
The beginning of summer in the fields of southeastern side of Washington state.
Perhaps someday this will become our routine, but now it’s still a novelty: we wake up, and the first thing we see is this:
Slowly we are starting to get into the routine, or the ‘behind the scenes’ of road-tripping. For example, every evening we have to find a place where we’ll park and spend the night. It’s one thing to do so at a specially designated spot in a park, but completely another to sleep within the town boundaries. We have to park in such a place where during the evening, morning, and even (if we need to – and we always need to) at night, we have bathroom close by. So far, the best place is a parking lot by some supermarket, especially because we can run over there to buy little things that are still needed for our glamping gear.
Pretty late in the evening some local parking lot gangsters appeared, but they weren’t too loud. Unlike the dude with the leaf blower (in case someone doesn’t know what a leaf blower is, it’s a motor in a backpack used for blowing leaves and trash – basically a motorized broom). Apparently, to be out of early customers’ way, he started cleaning his territory around 5am, including neatly blowing around our car. The feeling is as if someone, while you are peacefully enjoying your morning dreams, brought a moped into your bedroom and decided to make sure it’s working properly at the highest revs.
And then, around 8am, spry customers started to come over and clank the carts. In the photo, I’m racking my brain, wondering why anyone would need to come to Walmart so early.
The answer in fact is simple and straightforward, we only need to come inside for our morning procedures to find out (who would’ve thought – going to the store with only one purpose: to use the restroom and brush your teeth!): the customers at this time are exclusively retirees. For them it’s almost mid-day, as they woke up so early that it’s scary to even think about when it was. I’d bet they probably came a little before the opening time and restlessly waited at the doors.
On the other hand, this is much better than camping next to a family with 10 kids.
On may 15th, after welcoming 37th spring into my life, Alla and I set off on our big journey across the United States of America. From now and untill December of this year we are planning to visit 48 states and see some parts of Canada.
The trip began right by the doors of Downtown Seattle’s REI, where we shopped for a few missing road-camp items. In spite of horrible traffic, we drove through the heart of the city, where some time ago I lived for two amazing years.
Because our departure was delayed from the originally intended date, we will somewhat fast forward through Washington and Oregon, making the first notable stop at Redwood National Forest on the California border. That is where we will begin posting our complete daily and weekly trip updates (between the two of us we call this trip with the big word “expedition”, because besides pleasure and entertainment, we set some work goals).
Alrighty then (in Ace Ventura’s pronunciation), stock up on popcorn!
Tour US 