I've been down on myself lately.

So my stereo gave me another surprise this morning. The guy shoveling snow outisde my car was jamming to some cool beats. So when I got to my car it barely had a charge. So I TRY to keep it plugged on so MAYBE it will play something on my journey. It rewards me with a dead battery. So I had to give her a jump.

I've had my ups and downs lately especially, and my car does not add to my joy. In the meantime while I was getting a jump the snow fell on my warm windshield and created a nice screen.

The entire day I had low visibility not only because of the weather, but because of the cake of salt and dirty snow on my car.

The scenery was hidden by the snowy atmosphere.

Mountains came in and out of focus.

The icy blue sky came over the mountains and eventually the mountains let up on the landscape.

The trees stopped and the flatness began.

I had no idea that eastern Washington was almost barren. Irrigation made possible the farming that was prevalent most of this portion of my trip.

On side were the fading snow covered mountains, and on the other a barren mountain side.

Desert like brush covered the ground.

the landscape reminded me of Kansas other than the farming.

The hills were covered with small brush.

A reservoir was in the midst of this area and provided energy and water for irrigation.

Above the damn was a vantage point that allowed view of the landscape.

Alfalfa and potatoes were the main crop that I saw. I guess since Idaho was famous for potatoes it was no wonder that potatoes were here.

Any body of water that was slow enough or small enough was frozen over and looked amazing.

The sun was setting underneath the cloudy air.

The rolling hills were almost all farmed. The difference between the flatness of the plains and this was that Washington was all crops. The natural beauty of the land was hidden.

At least it was sunny in the plains. And my car windows were dirty as hell most of the time no matter how often they were cleaned.

This is the only landscape that bored me. I felt like taking a nap, and I had a good nights sleep last night too.

Rocks began to break the surface. It was sort of a moonscape.

A train that was pulling....nothing but empty carts. It was nice to break up the monotony.

Nearing Spokane, Washington trees started up again. Woodland pines were everywhere until the city started. Spokane looks not important.

Welcome to Idaho! There were a lot of people along the highway here. I was just expecting a Republican potato farmer every once in a while.

The mountains rose up as soon as I crossed the border. The trees were full of sticky snow.

Great images were hard to come to fruition with low light, speed, and dirty windows.


The entire day was caste in this blue.

Lakes, trees, roads were all blue.

I love this image. To get clearer pictures I had to auto correct for my speed. I turned the camera towards scenery to not get just a blur. Look at that tail light!

As time goes on I think more and more about what this trip of mine means to me and everyone else. I have extended my journey because I am afraid of what my original intentions meant to me. With more and more days I can see both the good and the bad. What I learn everyday I have to comprehend and balance it with what I am seeing.

Black guys can't give the thumbs up in Washington.

Waking up in Forks, Washington was a snowy delight. No vampires or werewolves presented themselves the entire time I was there though.

This snow was super sticky. Apparently the drivers aren't used to driving in the snow and were very timid. I waved my license plate in their faces.

The gray sky and covered pines dealt an unsaturated beauty to the landscape.

Oh the beauty of the weather.

The eerie layering of the snow was so calm.

Look at this frosty, sticky, white mess.

Clouds rose above the trees and wrapped around the mountains.

The dusting of snow enveloped every nook and cranny.

The clear cutting seen a day ago was still very active.

It just looked awesome. I am so glad that I was held up overnight and finally got to see precipitation in the northwest.

It all looked beautifully fake.

The mountains faded so well into the sky.

The snowflakes were as large as quarters and melted on contact with the road and my car.

As I traveled the sky began to open and let the light through. Crescent Lake was the place where I had stayed long enough to see the light show through.

This water was the most amazing magician. The colors changed so drastically wherever I looked.

If I caught the position just right, the blue was so intense.

Black rock beaches were stirred by the constant small waves.

The sky opened up and let all the light shine through.

Watching the cliffs come into focus was inspiring.

Olympic National Park covers the entire interior of the peninsula and is not open for the winter. Exploring the roads off of the highway led to discoveries. The Elwah River was brilliantly colored in a seafoam greenish blue.

The black stones were slick to cross but the smaller stream over to the river was worth it.

The color was brilliant.

The sky was letting loose again. A dark cover came over the area around 2 and kept on coming.

The frost in places that had not gotten any snow were still cold as ice.

The sun came off and on, showing the mountains in the background.

The inlets to Puget Sound were calm and pretty. There was little elevation change around the inlets and the water was always near the level of the roads.

Ice covered the waters surface and was broken up by the movement of the waves.

The light caught the trees and areas of bare soil on the mountains.

The snow started coming again and the Freeway was covered.

Dressed as a ninja the whole day, I had a blast driving on the snow covered freeway going 70mph. I zoomed passed everyone with ease. Passing 4x4's and Hummers was fun to watch. The Sunfire handled pretty well and only let up when changing lanes, the traction control didn't like that at all.

I had intended to check out Mt. Rainier either today or tomorrow, but the overcast conditions made it impossible to see. I was heading to the middle of nowhere and just looked for anyplace that had people. A ski lodge looked promising, but they were all uppity and didn't have amenities. I took a turn to try and get back to the highway to move on to a more acceptable locale.

Sunfire meet snowbank. Damn it. My brakes locked up in a small turn and I lodged my front end on a snow bank, unable to move. So for an hour I dug my front end out with a snowscraper. If some ski dues with the coolest accents didn't give me a push I would shit out of luck.

The highway out of the ski lodge and snowbank area was slow. When I was zooming out of Seattle going 70mph in the snow the there were enough cars to keep the lanes noticeable, but out here the lanes were nowhere and everywhere. By the way, you're not allowed to hitchhike in Washington, signs with black hands with their thumb sticking out and crossed in red made Washington feel like they didn't like people showing that everything would be alright.