Pandemic Diaries - Year 3, Month 3 - The Trek North, An Overview

30 May 2022

 

We're currently ensconced in our cozy house in Ferndale, Washington, where we'll spend the next four months.   We planned on two weeks to drive up from Tucson, which gave us plenty of time to travel slowly and even spend two days in a few locations that we liked.

Here's the schedule as well as our daily mileage, and a short description of each location.  I'll write another blog in a day or two - we had guests arrive the day after we made it to Ferndale, so it was a busy first two weeks here!

 

On each map, you can see the route and distance driven each day - I like the color wheel sequence for the colors.  (If you want to view a larger map, click on it and it will enlarge for you.)

 

May 1 – Tucson to Camp Verde, AZ – 212 miles

We left Tucson and drove north to Camp Verde, where we spent two nights at the Cliff Castle Hotel and Casino.  We both like this hotel, which is a bit more posh that our usual.  But it's fun to play a bit in the casino, and they have a great breakfast buffet that's included in the price.  Plus I like to visit the cliff dwellings, though I didn't this time since I'd been there the previous September.  We both wanted to catch our breath after the mad rush to finish packing and get everything into the car, as well as three days of my cleaning storm.  So it was a relaxing day and a half.

 

May 3 – Camp Verde to Hoover Dam Lodge, Boulder City, NV – 255 miles

We ended up at another casino hotel, though much smaller.  The star attraction turned out to be the park in Boulder City, where the bighorn sheep come to graze every day.  They were amazing - a huge herd of bighorns, from the old rams with giant horns to the little babies who came prancing through, skipping and jumping!  They deserve an entire blog to themselves, mostly because there are that many photos and they were so incredible!

 

May 4 – HDL, Boulder City to Caliente, NV – 180 miles

Caliente was a pretty little town, an old railroad center full of old buildings and quirky eateries.  The Side Track turned out to be our favorite spot for a meal - definitely get their house-made pizza, it was wonderful!  There are also hot springs, which is why the town is named Caliente.  Trust me, it isn't a hot nor happening place.  But it's a green and shady oasis along a hot drive through the high(ish) desert, so it was a welcome place for our night.

 

May 5 – Caliente to Ely, NV – 132 miles

We spent two nights in Ely, at another casino hotel.  Hey, it gives us something to do, and there are always eating places in the hotel.  Perfect for tired travellers.  The route we took along Highway 93 went through a whole lot of scenic nowhere, so we stopped at the major towns along that route.   Really, the towns and hotels were few and far between.

 

May 7 – Ely to Jackpot, NV – 204 miles

We agreed we had to stay at a place named Jackpot!  Really, how could we not?  We had planned to stay only one night, but we arrived in a light snow and rain mix.  By morning, it was a seriously heavy snowstorm, complete with very slow traffic and accidents along the road making things even slower.  I have photos of the hanging baskets of flowers, collecting snow.  So we were smart and spent a second night, enjoying the Four Jacks Hotel and Casino, and the very tasty café right there.

 

May 9 – Jackpot, NV to Ontario, OR – 230 miles

We made it through Idaho, and stayed in Ontario.  This part of eastern Oregon is high desert, so it's dry, but also a bit chilly in early May.

 

May 10 – Ontario to La Grande, OR – 116 miles

We liked La Grande, so we stayed two nights.  La Grande is green and hilly, and home to Eastern Oregon University as well as a community college.  So there are affordable hotels, less expensive eating places, and it was just a nice vibe in the town.  

 

May 12 – La Grande to Yakima, WA – 192 miles

We drove along the Hood River, then crossed the Columbia and headed up to Yakima.  Spent a bit of time with my middle brother and his family, always fun.  We also picked up half a year's worth of mail, and went through some boxes in our storage unit.  I had some specific items of clothing I wanted to pick up for our September through November adventure - so I shopped in our stored boxes.  

 

May 14 – Yakima to Bellingham, WA – 227 miles

This is our usual route.  Nothing different, though I did notice the two animal crossing bridges that I'd read about - always nice to see these, because they really do help the animals, who don't understand roads and cars.  It also reduces the number of car accidents where someone tries to NOT hit an animal and somehow collides with another vehicle.  So I was happy to see the crossing bridges.  We also found a new favorite eating spot in Cle Elum - the Cottage Café!  Richard enjoyed their pie very much!  I had "The Trailer," which was one (or two?) eggs, two slices of bacon, and one GIANT pancake that was hanging off the edges of the platter.  Really!  I couldn't finish it, it was so huge!  Definitely our kind of place!

 

May 15 – Bellingham to Ferndale, WA – 9.2 miles

We spent one night in Bellingham, because we'd booked our house from May 15 to September 15.  Since we didn't know what time we'd arrive, we thought it would be easier to meet our landlord if we could just drive the last 10 miles mid-day.  Turned out our landlord, who lives on the opposite end of the state, had to work.  But we found the house, used the keyless entry system, and started to settle in.  (More on our house in a separate blog post.)

 

Total miles Tucson to Bellingham – 1,752.2 miles

 

Here's the overview map of our entire route:

 

As I said, there will be posts following, with more photos and some of the highlights of our trek.