Day 5: Bozeman, MT to Federal Way, WA

The farther west you go in Montana the more trees you see. And then you hit Idaho and it’s all green (see pic to the left). Robb told me that Arbor Day was founded in Boise, Idaho, which makes sense now. I just never pictured so many trees in the state where the Idaho potato is from. And then as soon as you leave Idaho (we only drove across the tip, like 1 hour), you hit Spokane. Washington, I was home!

But the five hour drive from Spokane to Federal Way was a little unnerving. Eastern Washington is NOT pretty. In fact, it looks just like Kansas. Flat plains and nothing going on (picture on the left). Not at all how I pictured my new home. The most interesting thing going on was a 14 mile stretch along the interstate that had crops growing and signs by the highway to let you know what the crops were. We saw alfalfa, peppermint, peas, wheat, hay, seed (what the heck is seed – aren’t they all ‘seed’) and corn (picture on the right of sweet corn). It was a test of my “taking pictures while in a moving vehicle skills” to catch a picture of the crops and a sign.

And then all of a sudden we hit mountains and trees. And as we were going over (what I believe to be the Cascades) I was struck by the Washington scenery that I have so long envisioned. We were driving through winding mountain roads that were flanked by giant pines. So green, so immense. I believe it was the most beautiful scenery of the entire 3,200 mile drive. It looked just like the mountain roads in Germany and Austria. And then I realized that I felt like I was home. Everything felt familiar and I felt like this is where I belonged. How strangely comforting, to come home to a place you’ve never been before!

Once we hit the mountains is was only about another 1.5 hours before we found our apartment. Robb was there, boxes piled high from the movers earlier in the day. It was nice to be near him again and he toured us around the apartment and then around Federal Way. We are only a couple of miles from Puget Sound. First impressions: a lot more hilly than Florida, a lot colder than Florida (no air conditioner in our apartment and it is NOT missed), and a lot more trees. Perfect.