The Home Stretch! Adding another blog and media links as well...

Joe and I are both sitting here late at night, as usual, plunking away on our laptops.  Tonight's a good night. The wifi is functional and the pictures are loading up pretty quickly.

Howard and Leslie Fisher, from Whittier, now in Port Angeles, Washington, joined us for the Everett Aquasox game in Washington State. 

We're in Sunnyside, Washington, in a teeny tiny RV park that's really just a narrow parking lot sandwiched between two industrial park businesses in a small neighborhood on the outskirts of a small town.  We've been parked here for four days, saving the difficulty of driving Arby over two major mountain passes each way on our trip to Everett, Washington, just north of Seattle where Joe sang last night.

Tomorrow we set out for Salem, Oregon and are already scheming about handling the ascent to Satus Pass.   We've discovered while navigating the Rocky Mountains and neighboring ranges that Arby doesn't enjoy long upward grades.  We just tuned him up and he still labors intensely.  Our plan tomorrow is that if He's working way too hard (as evidenced by repeated overheating of the motor) we'll separate the vehicles and I'll drive Toad, the tow car, until we're beyond the mountainous part of the drive.

Joe sang in Yakima tonight and in Pasco Washington three nights ago, which is the basic reason that we parked in western Washington.  We're in the home stretch, feeling pretty good about having kept the schedule, but also about finally reaching the western states with lower temperatures and MUCH less humidity.  But the drives on this side of the country really stretch out.  As my older son Jared said about driving across Oregon, "It doesn't LOOK all that big on the map, but it takes forever to cross it."  I'm sure that's true, so am preparing for tomorrow and the next day.  We practiced by crossing Nebraska in one day- which was no picnic.

I've neglected writing this blog partly because I've started another blog that's specifically designed to support travel interest by providing a sequential map of where we've been.  My friend Liz Lower-Basch in Washington DC chose this for her blogging on her recent trip to China and Japan with her family, and I found it easy to follow.  It has a table of contents at the bottom of the display, which helps the reader follow more easily how the travel flowed.

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/bonnie.price/1/tpod.html

Also, Joe's received enormous amounts of media attention, and I've posted the link to his blog in a side bar here which links to the articles, but I'll also embed it here:

http://anthemtourblog.blogspot.com/p/media-links.html

Asa Eames, Fort Wayne, IN, age 4. Fascinated by Joe, he kept asking me, "Where did your guy go?"

Every visitor coming through Dell, Montana should have a breakfast or lunch at this  cafe in a former one room schoolhouse.  Freshly cooked home comfort food.  Fresh yeast CINNAMON ROLLS. Don't miss it.