After a week of very little driving, hanging out in nostalgic spots of the Pacific Northwest, I'm back on the road again. I landed in a motel in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, this evening. Normally when I'm on one of these typical clockwise semi-continental tours, I do the leg from Portland to Spokane via the Columbia River valley, but I decided to go up I-5 through metro Seattle this time, even though it adds about an hour of driving time, just to vary the routine. I don't think I've driven through western Washington state since 1996, when Michelle, Jeffrey and I went to my sister's wedding in Olympia from Minneapolis.
It was cool driving up over the Snoqualmie pass east of Seattle. Snow appeared and thickened on the ground and trees, and from there all the way across Washington, there were varying amounts of snow and ice all around. I have arrived in winter. It's beautiful. I love winter.
I've decided to make a detour to visit with a friend near Winnipeg, which is not really "on the way" to Minneapolis, but I just decided to go for it, as I may not be that close to that part of the world again for a long time. So that's my next destination. I'm going to try to make that side trip and be in Minneapolis by around Wednesday or Thursday.