I really wanted to head over to Eastern Washington after being "trapped" by the snow in the mountains for so long. After dealing with freezing temperatures, I was treated to the beautiful Yakima River Valley, followed by the flatlands of Eastern Washington that I've come to enjoy. I also had a nice time enjoying the small-town downtown of Moses Lake itself.
Past albums from the area:
More after the break…
Outbound
I started this ride at about 07:30 by getting gas near home since I knew I was going to be on the freeway for a long time, then used SR-520 and I-405 to get to I-90. It was reasonably warm in the lowlands, but as I climbed up towards Snoqualmie Pass, I really wish that I hadn't forgotten to wash the long underwear I wore on my previous ride.. It was so cold that my legs couldn't help but bounce to keep warm and my teeth were chattering! Keeping that in mind, I decided to avoid stopping at Snoqualmie Pass despite wanting a break soon. A little before Easton, my GPS started screaming at me because it thought I was going the wrong way on the freeway, but it turns out WSDOT had recently moved the eastbound lanes onto new pavement directly next to the westbound lanes.
I finally got off I-90 in Cle Elum, then rode through town in search of hot food and coffee. Seeing the Sunset Cafe, I decided to pull in there for food. But before heading in, I walked around a little for some quick photos, noting several trucks hauling snowmobiles.
After asking the hostess who sat me for extra napkins for my runny nose. I got my usual bacon, eggs, and (blueberry) pancakes with plenty of coffee.
I then headed east out of town along the old highway, which sent me down the beautiful Yakima River Valley. I had to stop a couple times for photos, and when I did, I noted that it was finally starting to warm up.
As I headed into Ellensburg, I noticed the Palouse to Cascades Trail Bridge, obviously an old railroad bridge. I didn't stop in Ellensburg itself, however, since I had distance to make. Though, I was surprised at how slow the highway was through the city.
Due to major work being done on the Cascade Irrigation Canal bridge on the East Vantage Highway, I had to stop and wait a while for oncoming traffic on the little gravel path they put for cars. Despite being gravel, it was super smooth and I didn't have to be particularly careful.
My next stop was at the Trees of Stone Interpretive Trailhead for the restroom, followed by a little exploration of the trail. It passed through a little building below a private residence containing a small exhibit, then went to the top of the hill. When I got to the actual petrified wood exhibits, they weren't particularly interesting. They were just pieces of petrified wood behind steel grates.
When I got back down, I investigated the weird solar panel rig in the parking lot. Turns out it was an Envision Solar electric car charger, and had some "emergency" 120V outlets.
I then rolled into the Chevron in Vantage since my fuel light had come on shortly before I got to the trailhead from earlier. While I filled my tank, a couple of Harley riders pulled out of the adjacent parking lot with the usual booming exhausts.
From Vantage, I headed straight out along I-90 to Moses Lake. It wasn't the most fun I've had, as the high speeds brought with them a lot of wind noise that my bike wasn't really set up for. When I did finally get off the freeway, I stopped at the Harvest Market to pick up water and antacids. The long line for checkout worried me since it looked like it was all headed to a single register, but by the time I'd picked up what I needed, multiple registers were open.
I was't expecting much of a downtown in Moses Lake, so I'd originally targeted Neppel Landing when planning the ride, but when I saw a sign for downtown, I hung the right and ran into the closed-to-cars East 3rd Avenue. From what I could tell, the city closes the street so pedestrians can enjoy the downtown on the weekend. Looking forward to the quiet, I parked in a spot that just opened up in front of the local post office.
On the other hand, one block over was a very wide stroad.
Once I was done walking, I headed towards what I thought was Neppel Landing, only to cross a bridge and have to turn around. Unfortunately, the left I had to make took forever because of the lack of a signal. Thankfully, it didn't take long once I turned around to get to my destination. Once I did, I walked around a bit looking for photos to take, but it honestly wasn't that interesting: just trees, water, a paved path, and abandoned railroad tracks. There weren't even very many people there despite how relatively busy downtown was.
To leave the park, I had to go a couple of parking spaces' length the wrong way in the lot, since the alternative was a likely endless wait for traffic on the busy highway. After crossing back over the same bridge from earlier, I saw an Arby's and just had to stop for my usual Market Fresh sandwich and mozzarella sticks. Luckily for me, the dining room was even open!
After I was done eating lunch, I drank my energy drink and called the Kawasaki dealer where the repairs from the earlier crash were going to be taken care of, and they said all of the parts were in! I told them that I'd have to bring the bike in during the week since I was out of town.
Outbound
My route back to I-90 was along SR-17: a 50 MPH road with traffic lights. And then I hunkered down for the long highway pull on I-90 back to Seattle, since I didn't want to waste too much time getting back. As usual, I saw the same cars over and over again the whole way back.
I did have to make a stop for gas again in Ellensburg, as I hit the fuel light again. Right after I pulled in, a huge Land Rover pulled up at the pump behind me and was still filling up long after I'd moved to a parking space to rest for a while with a snack from the food mart.
After dealing with the Snoqualmie Pass cold again, I stopped for gas in North Bend so I wouldn't have to deal with the mess of roads that larger cities to the west would require me to navigate to a gas station.
I-90 slowed down a little as usual as it approached I-405, but the real nightmare turned out being SR-520. It was stop-and-go for an hour as it approached I-5! There was a closure at the Montlake exit, but I don't think that's why, since there wasn't any congestion heading north on I-5 from SR-520. I gave up being in the right lane after a while and hung in the left lane until the exit. Thankfully, a Subaru was nice enough to let me in.
After dealing with all that mess, I really didn't want to deal with the same on 50th getting home, so I hung a right off it and took a familiar route along the south side of Green Lake to 65th to get home.
The entire following week was colored by a stomach bug. To this day, I'm still not sure if it was the Sunset Cafe or the Arby's, but I'm leaning towards the latter.
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