Not a whole lot to upda
te for the past two days as I spent most of the time driving. I woke up yesterday and waited patiently outside of a Krispy Kreme Donuts for that red light to come on indicating a fresh, hot new batch of donuts. It’s more cost effective, per donut, to buy six rather than just one or two so the woman behind the counter filled a box with three glazed, two custard filled and one sour crème. The first two, ok three donuts were fantastic. Nothing beats a hot Krispy Kreme. I should’ve saved some for the road but I knew they were best hot. The last two I kind of had to force down, both from being full and because the sixth one, of anything, is never as good as the first. It’s the age old law of diminishing returns. I knew it going in but I wanted to try to prove it wrong, just this once. I was now caffeinated and over-sucrose-enated so I decided to just walked around Spokane for a few hours. It was crowded with both people and cars which is to be expected with a population over 200k, it’s just been a while since I've been in a town larger than 1/10th this size.
I left Spokane a little after 3pm 
and headed north on US-395. I made it as far as Coleville before I had enough driving. I don’t think it was more than 75 miles but it was about as much as I wanted to do for the day. I spent about two hours in Arby's reading some magazines and the local newspaper. I'm sure by now you all know where I spent the night, it rhymes with hallfart.
Today I got a decent start to the day. I stayed on US-20 going west just about the entire way to Bellingham. 
Most of the day was cloudy, with some intermittent snow and rain, with temps in the mid 40s. During the first hour I think I saw more logging trucks than cars. There were a lot of little towns and apple orchards along the way. Once I reached the Cascade Mountain Range it was a lot of up and down driving. After a while the pressure changes were starting to bother my ears. There is something about the Pacific Northwest. I don’t quite know how to describe it but every time it catches me off guard. I think it’s the combination of the high, rugged mountain peaks
, the almost perfectly straight and tall varieties of firs, spruce and pine trees, waterfalls and flowing rivers and the abundance of lush green color. The route I chose along the northern cascades was beautiful but gas stations are few and far between. I filled up with the most expensive gas of the trip in a town named Winthrop. Regular gas was $3.40 per gallon and it took me a while to figure out how to use the circa 1940 gas pump.
I continued on US-20 until it connected with I-5 which I took north to Bellingham. It was raining and I was catching the beginning of the rush hour commute. I found a Barnes and Noble to kill some time outside of my car and write something. It’s almost 6:30 so I guess its time to find a place to get a bite to eat and to stretch my legs a bit.
Mileage update: 8,390
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