For my Alaska cruise I decided to drive to Seattle (cruise was from Seattle through the Inner Passage to Skagway and back) rather than fly. I didn't waste any time driving through Nevada, blew the dust out and made it to Fallon, Nevada where I took the previous picture. Farmers is an insurance company that prides itself on quality service. 45 years ago, when I was under 25 years of age and in the service they wouldn't give me the time of day, never mind automobile insurance. Now I don't need them, but I thought the old car in front of their office looked nice. The picture was taken in Fallon, Nevada. Once I made it past Reno into Northern California I took my time and stopped occasionally to take pictures. I saw a big cloud of white dust blowing off the Southern end of Goose Lake which straddles California and Oregon. As soon as I stopped to take a picture of the dust cloud I saw some sort of fruit tree in bloom, and then, when I looked over my shoulder I saw what I thought was a decoy, until it moved. It was a nesting Sandhill Crane, right by the roadside. Once I got to Washington I met Tara (auntietk). We had some really good seafood and on Saturday we drove across the Cascades to Eastern Washington. It was a nice drive and we stopped often and took pictures. Most of the time we took similar pictures, but I also had a chance to watch her in action, taken pictures of stuff I would never dream of taking. It was educational. On the return trip across the Cascades we stopped several times and I marveled at all the snow. Tara explained to me that there had been avalanches, debris of trees and rocks could still be seen. Where the road looped up the mountain the avalanches crossed several loops of road at a time. About 15 minutes before we made it to the summit of Washington Pass an avalanche had come down and blocked the highway. Nobody got hurt, but it was estimated that it would take 8 hours to clear the highway. I had never seen an avalanche come down and block a highway, especially in May. When I left Arizona we had a string of 13 days of 100F plus and it was 107F the day I left. Since I wanted to make it back because my boat sailed the next day at noon we made a detour to the south and crossed Stevens Pass. In the process we went through Leavenworth. The name of that town should be changed to something German, because this town looke about as German as it could. Tara told me that she had originally planned to go to that place. Either way, it ws a really nice drive, the weather was perfect (why couldn't it have been like this when I was stationed there in the 60s? Maybe it is Global Warming)? Tara posted some wonderful pictures from this trip and I will post some of other places I saw on my way up to Washingtom. This picture was taken on 19 May 2009. Thanks for viewing and commenting and any favs, and thanks for the welcome back, Sig...