Thursday, August 6, 2009

Not sure what today brings. We call our friend and stockbroker, Terry. He tells us about Leavenworth, Wa. It seems he has a customer in Leavenworth and they had told him what a beautiful area it is. We think what the ???? and so we look at the map and head east towards Leavenworth. It is a good day for a ride - typical weather what we think of for Washington, cool, overcast and looks like it could rain.

We leave Bothell and find US 2 eastbound. We travel through some small towns before having basically an open (twisting, up & down with hairpin turns and switchbacks) road before us. We are traveling alongside a good sized creek. At times it is flowing very fast, it has rapids and lots of rocks in the riverbed. The country is absolutely beautiful. The forests, the rock cliffs and the rivers, are we ever lucky that we get to view some of the most fantastic scenery there is in the world.

We find Leavenworth and what a city. It is little Bavaria. Frankenmuth, Mi. should take lessons on how to make the city look great. The sidewalks remind me of Bavaria, only they are a little smoother, pavers instead of cobblestone. The flowers abound everywhere. The tourists are everywhere, too. We finally find a restaurant with parking so that is where we eat. Yes, the town does seem to have a parking problem. After lunch Waldo lets Carmen off in the city to shop and Waldo and Charley find a spot to park off the main drag. Waldo calls to tell Carmen that he found a little coffeehouse and he will be there, with a cup of joe. Go ahead and shop till your heart's content. Carmen proceeds to find all these little neat shops, filled with items from Bavaria and a few items from America. Carmen makes her purchases and then we head back to Bothell on another route.

After arriving back in Bothell we remember we need to return something to Costco. So we leave Charley in the rv and head to Costco. While there we talk to someone in electronics. Tell them about this funky screen we keep receiving on our gps. Yup, we have a defective gps. Costco makes things right, they return the gps for us, credit our account and then we can purchase a new one. We shop a little more before heading out.

We finally find a Red Robin for a late dinner. Then it's back to the campsite, oh wait the new gps does not have our location marked in it. We finally remember the address and punch it in and off we go. What a great day.