Today ended up being a much longer day than expected.  After not going to bed until after midnight last night, we were woken by the sound of a whining dog about 5am this morning.  After ignoring him as long as humanly possible we finally caved and got up.  That meant we were on the road around 7:30am, which is much earlier than we planned on.

Our first stop was Ritzville, Washington.  I’ve always wanted to stop in Ritzville – as you fly past on Interstate 90 it just has the look of your typical small American town, complete with tree-lined streets and whatnot.  We didn’t see much of the town itself because traveling with the fifth-wheel means narrow tree-lined streets are not where you want to be.  Instead we ate at the Perkins right off the highway, which violates one of our unwritten vacation rules – never eat at any place that we have in Canada.  One of the best parts about being State-side is eating at places we don’t have at home.

We didn’t do much Geocaching on our way to Fall City.  We did pick up a couple of finds at the rest stops along I-90, but the service at Perkins was so slow it put us further behind schedule than we expected. 

Another I-90 Rest Stop in Washington

After getting settled at the RV park, I was really happy to see they offered free wireless.  Last night in Post Falls we were able to connect to someone’s open access point, but the signal was weak and thus the speed was less than stellar.  Tonight I’m enjoying full bars of service and much better speeds. 

Our main meal tonight was at XXX Root Beer Drive-In.  This place is a legend around Issaquah, WA and after visiting it last year we knew we had to come back for a second round.  We came out of there just stuffed to the gills from root beer floats, burgers and onion rings.  The sign on the door says “Nothing you can eat here is good for you.” and WOW, it’s true!  We loved it, but I’m sure hoping to get some hiking in this weekend to work it all off now.

XXX Root BeerRoot Beer Float

After XXX we had time to grab two or three more quick drive-up caches before heading to the pre-GeoWoodstock event called “Just Around the Corner from GeoWoodstock” in Carnation, WA.  Along the way we met a couple up from California who are also in town for the Geocaching events this weekend.  Really nice people.

The evening was held in a 100-year old pub called Pete’s Club Grill.  Looked really interesting and the food smelled good but, of course, we were too full from the monster meal we ate earlier to partake in any of the grub.  We only stayed for about an hour before deciding it was time to head back “home” to the trailer for the evening.  We’re hoping to get some more sleep tonight, watch the Netherlands/Brazil FIFA match tomorrow morning and then head out for some hiking and/or shopping.  It’s a fairly open day until the next Geocaching event tomorrow evening.

Been a lot of driving the last couple of days.  We’re here in Falls City, WA for the next five nights, so it will feel good to put down some roots for awhile.