As mentioned, on Friday we decided to forgo the 3 1/2 hour trip from Pasco to Seattle for a much longer route (which turned out to be about 12 hours). As you can see in the pictures, the weather was optimal!

We left at 9am. Our first stop was the remote farming town of Bickleton (it doesn’t even have a gas station). However, the town wasn’t always remote. For years travelers past through it as part of their trek from Portland, Oregon, to the Yellowstone Trail and Yakima.  After the creation of Highway 97 over Satus Pass, the town’s traffic dwindled (sounds like a Cars movie).

We arrived in Bickleton to find the entire main street blocked off for a car show. We toured the cars, hoping to see a jeep. After looking, we spotted one hidden next to a building. I don’t think it was part of the show though, but we photographed it anyway.

The side of this truck faintly indicated it came from Texas.

And now for the car show . . .

Between you and me, I knew the car show was here. Ann was surprised though :-)

This Red Flyer cracked me up.

Last of the Studebakers

I believe that behind these cars is the oldest saloon in the state. We got distracted and forgot to check it out.

After the car show, we stopped in at the local museum. We enjoyed a great, personal tour with one of the docents. She had lived in the town for 50 years, so knew lots of history.

The Alder Creek Pioneer Association Carousel Museum. The carousel is a Herschel from North Tonawanda and is one of the oldest working wood-track carousels in existence. It stays in storage most of they year, but they take it out for a festival in the summer.

This is a great old map showing how Bickleton was connected to the International Highway (I think it was the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway that went from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon.

Wheat is still an important crop in Bickleton. Income from leasing land for windmills is also an important economic revenue generator. We should have gotten a picture of that.

Bickleton has the oldest rodeo in the state and the oldest saloon. Coincidence? I think not. Another claim to fame is that the city considers itself the blue bird capital of the world. The birds all seem to arrive on February 17th every year and leave in the Fall, though we didn’t learn if they leave on a particular day. The fences that line the city streets all have bird houses and there were bird house for miles.

These bird houses were all along the roads.

After leaving Bickleton we tried to go to St. Johns Bakery through some BIA roads, but it turned out the road was gated only a few miles from the pass (probably at the Yakima Indian Reservation).

So, we had to turn around and go all the way down to Goldendale, before heading north to St. Johns.

St. Johns the Forerunner is a Monastery operated by Greek Orthodox nuns. They also run a small deli/restaurant/gift store with wonderful food. Everything was wonderfully flavorful (and we tried a lot of different things). The Baklava and the Kourambiedes were amazing. It’s a great little place.

From St. John, we headed back down to Goldendale, then turn west and wound along country roads for a couple hours until we reached Trout Lake (which I previously called Troutdale).

Our first glimpses of Mt. Adams far in the distance. We’d be skirting around the south side, before rounding it and heading north.

Ann was testing out her new Droid phone. This is the panorama feature.

This was taken in the tiny town of Glenwood. It was a much longer drive from Goldendale to Glenwood then I’d thought we’d be, but much prettier, too.

From Trout Lake, Forest Road 23 travels for 58 miles. Most of it is paved, but 12 miles isn’t. Strangely, that 12 miles of unpaved, washboard road in the middle of nowhere was busy. The remainder of the time we were traveling alone with a few cars passing us every once in a while. While we never had views of Mt. St. Helens to the West, the views of Mt. Adams, were wonderful!

Here we are stopped at a great view point. That is Mt. Adams east of us. To the west, but unseen, is Mt. St. Helens.

We stopped at this beautiful stream and did a little hiking. There were some mountain huckleberries for treats along the river, but fortunately no bears).

A nice respite on an unusually warm day.

At 5:30pm we finally reached Randle. Just outside Randle we saw a Jeep Wagon, so stopped to get a photo.

After Randle, we hit traffic, which followed us all the way north to Renton. We finally arrived at 9pm, twelve hours after we started. Despite the long travel time we’d do that trip again. Great fun!

The intrepid photographer standing on top of a post to get ‘the shot’.