Friday the 6th: DAY 9

This morning I woke up around 7am to go running. I actually ran around this small town to see the sights. The weather was perfect for running… very little humidity! When I got back Jamie was finishing up some blogging and then we headed for the hot tub.

We stayed in for about 20 minutes and then ate a small breakfast at our hotel. We got cleaned up and headed out get some pictures around town and then onto Tacoma.

(Jamie) Pictured here are some of our favorites Jamie's Depot was established in 1983, sadly one year off of The Amazing Jamie's establishment. Ash-lee got attacked by a bear, and (as usual) all I could do is scream.

We also chanced upon the Stewart Lodge. . . we have not chosen to mention how much Ash-lee has missed her boyfriend, but since in real time (nov.2) Ash-Lee and Bryan are already engaged, I think it is safe to say TONS! She missed him tons. And the only thing that could have possibly made our adventures any better, was if he had chanced to meet us at every stop. . .

(Jamie)I think this is an appropriate time for a wound up date. Ash-lee's finger is still disgusting but her spirits are still high. I have turned a new leaf and been able to help her dress the wound for cleaning and such several times. Okay, maybe "turned" is to strong a word. Perhaps the correct sentiment, is that I love Ashley having fingers more than I hate glancing at finger guts. I am still slathering neosporin on both our injuries (stupid Peter Pan monument). Any-hoo back to the goods. . .

We drove through mountains and Seattle as well. It was so neat to finally see the wonderful place Jamie has always talked about. She explained various sites in Seattle and even more when we got to Tacoma. We made it safely to her parents’ house where we were greeted by lots of smiles and hugs. WE MADE IT!! WE DID IT!! Three thousand three hundred and sixty five miles later we had made it to Tacoma, Washington. Jamie was home!

We can’t stop there though. (Although I did stop taking pictures for the evening. . .Ash-lee hadn’t told me we where continuing. But in retrospect it makes sense. She’s doing most of the talking, why shouldn’t this cover her whole trip). I only had until 6am Sunday morning to play with Jamie and her family so we have to tell you all the fun things we did. After visiting for a bit we showed them all our treasures we collected along the way. We then helped Jamie’s mom and sister get ready for Jennie (Jamie’s sister) and James’ (Jennie’s new baby boy) party on Saturday. It was a welcome party for new baby, James. Jenny was making a super cute cake while we were trying to help clean and run errands. After sub-sandwiches for dinner, we unloaded the trailer into Jamie’s new place. Her brother, Nathan, and some of his friends helped us along with Jamie’s dad. We did it really fast with all that help. Then her dad took us all out to Dairy Queen for ice cream. So nice! After we returned home we stayed up to see the finished product of the cake and then headed to bed.

Thursday the 5th: DAY 8

After sleeping in the most comfortable bed we had ever slept in, we were able to sit on the deck with Cynthia and enjoy the beautiful morning. It was an absolutely perfect temperature. This is just the beginning of my love for the Washington weather. Jamie of course has loved it always. While we enjoyed the morning air and the beautiful view, Joey made us crepes for breakfast filled with a cream cheese and whipped cream filling along with strawberries. I had never had crepes before and these were divine!

After breakfast we headed out with Cynthia and Joey. They showed us where Cynthia plays the piano for this Country Store and we were able to see lots of the farms nearby. We came back to the house where Cynthia told us her story of how Joey and she met. They were truly meant to be.

We had lunch and then headed on our way. This was to be the last leg of the trip. We would be in Tacoma Washington by 10pm that evening or so we thought…

After driving for a few hours we stopped at a large fruit stand/antique mall to look around. Jamie got two huge bags of cherries for her family and we headed out again. We also stopped at the gorge near George. (There is actually a town in WA named George. . .) Jamie was so excited to see water she made sure we stopped to survey this new WA terrain.

Evidently WA has either seven of nine, or five of seven different climate zones. They are only missing arctic, and tropical. . . . I think.

We soon came to a traffic sign which warned us about construction on the mountain pass which would add at least an hour to our trip. It was fairly late in the evening so Jamie called her mom to ask about this construction and what she thought we should do. Her mom said we may not get into town until 1am because we also needed to grab some dinner. Her mom suggested we just stay in a hotel for the night so that is what we decided to do. We pulled into the small town of Cle Elm and booked a room at the Timber Lodge Inn. (We chose the Timber Lodge not for it's stereoscopically rustic WA feel, but for the fact that it had Big-Rig parking in the back, from which I would not have to turn around!)

We walked to dinner at the Sunset Café where we both enjoyed our meals. When we arrived back at the hotel we tried to get into the hot tub they offered but it was already closed for the evening. So we did some blogging and headed to bed.

(Please take a moment to notice the ever growing magnet nation. I (Jamie) was collecting these as a souvenir of all the different states Ash-lee and I had traveled. I was so excited and wanted to check how many I had gotten, to make sure I kept an eye out for the ones I was still missing, so I placed them on the mini fridge in the Timber Lodge. I discovered a devastating thing then: they do NOT fit together to make a nation. Since then I have discovered another rather more devastating fact: I left them on the mini fridge when we packed the next morning, and have never heard from them since.)