I have made it past Wenatchee, which means down out of the Cascades to the Columbia River. At Wenatchee I went across the river and east into parts of Washington where the towns are small and far apart. The last town I passed is Waterville, WA, about ten miles back. Twenty miles ahead is Coulee City (not quite the site of Coulee Dam), which I have been to, but beyond that, I do not think that I have ever travelled this route.
I believe it was our first full year in Washington, 1996, when we visited Wenatchee for the first time. We planned a three-day driving loop that took us east on Highway 20, the farthest-north major Washington road across the Cascades, then south to Wenatchee to catch Highway 2 west and back home. It turns out that loop is one that websites will recommend as a great driving tour, but we did not know that at the time. We just wanted to see the state.
It has been a long time. Lucas was less than one year old at the time; now he's 26. I think we stayed in Winthrop, a town with an Old West motif on Highway 20, then in Wenatchee. I remember finding a steakhouse in Wenatchee based on a recommendation. I also remember that the snow on the pass on Highway 20 was at least ten feet high on Memorial Day weekend, a real you're-not-in-California-anymore moment. The highway had just been opened after being closed all winter. It was a really nice weekend trip. I'm sure of that much.
A few details on the full route:
I am walking Highway 2 almost all the way across Washington, from Everett on the Puget Sound to Spokane near the Idaho border. From there, I walk on or near I-90 across the narrow part of Idaho, almost all the way west to east across Montana, through a little corner of Wyoming on to Rapid City South Dakota, then to Omaha, Kansas City, Memphis, Montgomery, Tallahassee, and Miami.
I was going to change my goal a bit, to walk to Key Largo, because Miami is not quite at the southern tip of Florida. However, Google Maps says you can't walk to the keys, so Miami is still it.
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