I dont know if many of you have been to Coulee City, but I feel safe assuming you haven’t. It isn’t a particularly stunning place. We couldn’t find a grocery store here and were depending on it to get some food so we picked up eggs and beer from the one gas station in town. Lesson learned.

We left from White Rock early in the afternoon and stopped at the beach to put our feet in the Pacific. In 10 days we would be doing the same in the Atlantic – which we are very excited about. It was hard to keep our eyes open heading down the I-5, but things improved once we reached highway 2 and began our trip EAST! The river running along the hwy has turned to rapids – a far cry from the peaceful stream it was in December when we last drove past it. I have never driven highway 2 past Leavenworth in the summer before. I’ve only known it to be mountains and ski hills and snow. What’s on the other side you ask? Praries. Mile after mile of beautiful rolling empty fields with the occasional house every 10 minutes or so. It was unexpectedly beautiful. Coulee city, while being uneventful overall, does have some crazy rock formations. Pictures don’t do it justice. We picked this place based on location, and for no other reason.  We just looked at the map and tried to figure how far we could get after work, enough to break up the long drive to Yellowstone – our first destination.  When we arrived at camp in Coulee City, we were just enthused to quickly eat and go to bed (at an unusually early 9:00 PM for us) and get a good night’s sleep before the 10 hour drive ahead the following morning.  We were unaware that we would be facing a wind storm though.  There were a few moments mid-night where the tent had blow so far to one side that it tried to suffocate Ray in his sleep.  On the positive side, our $99 Costco special was more sturdy that expected!

One thing to note, in order to preserve marital bliss I had to resort to biting my tongue and withholding the never ending requests to pull over and take pictures, though I did ask a few times. There is beauty everywhere, especially if you are open to it (and when passengering a long road trip – you need to be open to it!) I feel so blessed to be out on the road experiencing it. I’m quite certain 90% will have to remain in my memory, as opposed to on my memory card, which is as it should be.  Photography is a joy for me, but it’s important not to let the desire to preserve memories prevent you from experiencing them.