The other day I did some camper van cooking, making one of
the house favorites, Shake & Bake chicken. I served it with mash potatoes,
with green peas. Another specialty of the house. Before plating I went to my
spice cabinet and much to my surprise my salt and pepper grinders were gone. Another
victim of the break-in. it was amusing though that just the salt and pepper
were missing. Not the garlic powder, not the red pepper, not even the paprika. I
guess my thief’s are not skilled in the culinary arts.
We are heading south for a bit today before heading east, and a run over Stevens Pass. Stevens pass was not my first choice for this run but highway 20 through the North Cascades National park is still closed due to winter, and the park service web site says the road might not be open until late June.
We took one last look at the near by tulip fields, but
nothing had bloomed overnight.
We had a short run-on highway Cinco to Everett and picked up
highway 2 . just a bit of traffic through the cities of Snohomish, and Monroe. One
of my favorite ice creams is made here. Snoqualmie
and when we looked at their website last night we learned that just like
highway 20 the ice cream shop was closed until memorial day
Moseying along at 55 mph the on-board computer was indicating 15
mpg. Not bad for a F 350
Climbing up the western slope of the Cascades I pulled into
the delightful town of Skykomish.
Skykomish used to be a major stop on the Great Northern Railroad
for crews and passengers. Most of the building are from that era, and with the
warm sunshine it was quite delightful to stretch our legs walking on the old boardwalk.
Down on the corner is a coffee shop. Sky River Coffee. I was thinking a coffee about now might be really good, so we walked right in.
We were greeted by the most delightful woman. Little did I know that she was also a highly skilled barista. My pal ordered a brewed coffee, and I figured why not be disappointed by another bitter espresso, but I ordered a double espresso anyway.
She pulled a couple of shots, and I asked for a little half
and half. She very slowly pored the dairy into my drink and said she didn’t
want to ruin the crema. I thought Humm this espresso might be not too bad.
We sat down with a muffin to share. I took a sip and tasted the most delicious espresso I have ever had in the lower 48. It was as smooth, and tasty as Kaladi. I should have ordered a quad shot!
Back on the road we resumed our climb to the 4062’ summit of
Stevens Pass. Out the window I noticed that there was more and more snow along
the side of the road. Soon the snow was higher than the van, and I remembered
that the purpose of the trip was because I was tired of looking at snow.
At the summit there is a huge ski resort, that was busy. We
watched as we drove by people sliding down the steep slopes. Obviously not
everyone is tired of looking at snow.
Fortunately we
started descending down the eastern side of the Cascades, and at every turn the
snow level was diminishing.
It wasn’t long before we were out of the snow completely and
were pulling into the Bavarian Themed town of Leavenworth.
None of the parking in this tourist town is free, and it took
some splaning from a parking police on how to pay for just a couple of hours instead
of the entire day.
It was a little cooler here than back in Skykomish but was still a pleasant walk through town. No oom- pa band was playing in the bandstand but piped in oom-pa music was playing almost everywhere. We ate delicious bratwurst and drove just down the road to a KOA for the night.
Unfortunately the
camps pool and hot tub were closed for the season.
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