Washington

Monday 29th April
4am. Dave was up  (to early for me) to collect empty trailer from Calgary yard and change over for a loaded one (full of cat litter) at Lethbridge, we weighed off it was now 10am, our delivery was in Sumner, near Tacoma for wednesday am.
The weather was warm and sunny, we were going back over the Rockies on Highway 3 through Crowsnest Pass.  As we approached Pincher Creek the weather turned dramatically, dark clouds filled the sky and we had a hail storm.  In the distance we could see blue sky over the mountains.  Either side of us on the hills were wind turbines.  As we went through Crowsnest Pass the hail turned to light snow.  Down through Fernie and Cranbrook. About 4pm we crossed the US border, we had to stop and take our documents into the office while the trailer was inspected as the cat litter was radioactive, the customs officer used a gieger counter, it all seemed very bizzarre.
Into Idaho on Highway 95.  Landscape was mostly farmland, paddocks of horses with the odd llama.  Alot of the houses were made of logs, we really liked the look of them.  Into Bonnie Ferry which looked busy and interesting.  All towns we`ve found however small have fantastic golf courses, Bonnie Ferry was no exception.  Then Sandpoint, it was on a massive river (priest river)
it had its own beaches, they had built a new bypass around and over the river since dave had been here last, so we missed out on the town.  We were heading for Coeur d`Alene to stay the night.
Tuesday 30th April
We set off leaving Idaho and into Washington with brilliant sunshine and blue skies. Local radio on.
The traffic was heavy through Spokane on I90. The landscape was flat lands across the columbia basin. We stopped at a rest area near Moses Lake for lunch.  USA have really good rest areas, Canada sucks!  We caught the edge of Saddle Mountains with the columbia river running through.  The road was very steep, hills had heather like bushes instead of fir trees.  Into the valley, Kittitas and the surrounding Ellensburg was mostly farms, ahead we could see the Wenatchee Mountains.
They were impressive, a smaller version of the Rockies.  At stampede Pass there was alot of low cloud, by the time we got to Snoqualmie Pass it was snowing, it was so pretty, not for dave though, he got worried when we saw a snow plough, but not for long, came out the other side into the sun.
We were only 40 miles from Seattle. We turned off at J25 and infront of us was a huge mountain.
Signpost was Tiger summet, we had to crawl around it at 25mile an hour (trucks have to put their hazards on when going slower than 30) The elevation was 1377ft.  It was a gradient of 6% the same at the Rockies.  We were now heading for Sunmer to park up early for a change, it was only 3.30pm, the load was`not due to be delivered until 5.30am tomorrow.