Day 22 - Wenatchee

Back to the States again

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Today I left Lauren’s and returned to the States. I have arrived in Wenatchee where it is 36 degrees at 7.30 which is a bit hotter than up in Vancouver, although the weather there was fabulous. Apparently Wenatchee is the apple capital of the world, although I have yet to see much apart from a load of motels and fast food stores.

The border crossing only took a mere 1 1/2 hours to get through although the immigration guy when I got there just waved me through and said ‘have a good trip’. I seem to be having quite a lot of good luck with US immigration officers this time. The Canadian ones were far more interrogatory. I got so bored waiting to get through the border that I counted that a goods train that passed by had 104 carriages. How sad.

The drive to Wenatchee took me through some quite spectacular scenery but I didn’t stop to take many photos today unfortunately. I drove through some of the North Cascade Mountains which were really beautiful and part of the way was through a National Forest, which was very tree-like. There were lots of rivers in canyon-like valleys and the road twisted through the mountains for about 100 miles. Just over the other side of the mountains was a town called Leavenworth which has been completed decked out like a Bavarian village. It was really weird! Even the banks, motels and Macdonalds were made out of log cabin things with lots of twee decorations on them. Only in America eh?…

Leavenworth - odd.

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I then descended into the valley where Wenatchee lies and the scenery changed completely. It is really arid here, almost desert-like, which I would never have expected in Washington state. There were lots of fruit trees around (not surprising really) but that’s about it.

Tomorrow I head further east across the state to Spokane (they have good names here).

Distance travelled today – 232 miles.

Bearwatch – 0.