We left behind all the Seattle traffic and headed further north to Sedro-Woolley, a town of about 10,000. It was a sweet, small town with beautiful flowering baskets hanging on every street corner of Main Street and farmers markets selling cherries, raspberries and blueberries. We stayed at a city park campground with electric and water hookups and the nicest camp host we have ever encountered. We liked it so much there we ended up staying six days instead of the scheduled four. While there we drove down to the city of Mukilteo to meet Bill’s friend Todd and his lovely wife Jayne. Bill and Todd went to college together in Florida forty years ago. It was so nice visiting them in their beautiful home with a breathtaking view of Puget Sound. Todd works for Boeing and Bill enjoyed talking with him about our visit to the Boeing factory. While in Sedro-Woolley we got our tow car serviced with an oil change and tire rotation and also had time to do some sightseeing. One day we drove to Fidalgo island and visited the city of Anacortes and their lovely city park called Washinton Park. The park has a scenic drive where we took pictures and found geocaches. Next we went to Desperation Pass State Park on Whidbey island with beautiful views of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island. It connects Skagit Bay, which is part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca. While on Whidbey Island we also visited Fort Ebey State Park. Besides being a beautiful park with a campground and beach, it was the site of a coastal defense fort built during World War II where we walked through the earth covered concrete structure. Once again the location afforded us fantastic views of Puget Sound and people were out on the grassy area reading and flying kites.
Another day we took a day trip up the Mount Baker Highway to Artist Point to catch a close
up glimpse of Mount Baker. Also a volcano, it is the second highest mountain in Washington
and according to a park ranger, it is one of the snowiest places on earth. We climbed up to an elevation of 4,700 feet along a steep twisting road with amazing views and quite a bit of snow, which felt so strange since it was 77 degrees! People were having a grand time climbing up the snow banks and playing in the snow in their shorts and sandals. Even though the snow was still deep and hard packed in places, it felt soft and mushy to the touch. The road to Artist Point had only been open since July due to late spring snows. From the parking lot we were able to see Mount Baker,
completely covered in snow as well as Mount Shuksan.
While in Sedro-Woolley we came to the realization that a heat wave had gripped the east side of Washington State. While the Sedro-Woolley area was warm but comfortable, once we left the North Cascades and traveled over the mountain, temperatures of 100 to 108 degrees awaited us. This forced us to cancel some reservations and make new plans. We had originally planned to do some dry camping in the Cascades but decided the high temperatures would make it unpleasant in the RV and damage our stuff. We canceled some reservations and replanned some routes to take us away from the hot weather or at least at campgrounds where we would have electricity for the AC. It can get really hot inside an RV when the temperatures begin to climb and the RV has to work extra hard to keep us cool.
Luckily our plans were flexible and allowed for an unexpected change. With this lifestyle you have to be flexible and willing to go with the unexpected. Sometimes that makes it even more fun and exciting!
Update: Since I began writing this post our plans have once again been disrupted and changed due to wildfires in eastern Washington. Stay tuned for more updates!