Well, we hit the road this morning.  We are calling this trip the Drying Out the M Tour because the M Roadster got a bit damp last winter when one of the windows was left open (Seattle is not known for its dry winter weather), to the extent that it developed a fine interior carpet of mold.  There’s nothing like opening your car door to find that you have new grey fuzzy seat covers. Wait a minute, we don’t have seat covers! We had it treated with ozone to kill the mold, but still thought a couple of weeks of hot dry Southwest weather might help as well.

We seemed to beat the holiday traffic out of town and enjoyed smooth sailing over Snoqualmie Pass and on to Pullman and beyond.  It was a gorgeous day, the kind of day we usually just dream about in the Northwest – blue sky and temps climbing through the 70’s into the 80’s as the day progressed.  Coming into the Palouse (area of Eastern Washington around Pullman) the hills were covered in shimmering green and gold wheat that was blowing in grand waves in the wind.

We stopped in the small town of Colfax for lunch at a local drive-in.  As we waited for our order we puzzled over the line on the receipt that showed a 10%, $1 discount marked SNRD.  We had no idea what a snerd might be.  Then suddenly we realized that the VERY young man at the cash register had just given us a SENIOR DISCOUNT without even asking our age (I won’t mention which one of us had placed the order).  I guess there is no hiding it any more.

A bit past Pullman and into Idaho we pushed on to the summer cabin of our friend Peggy who teaches at Washington State University in Pullman. She and her friend Don are mushers who have both completed multiple races in Alaska, Washington, and Montana. Peggy has a kennel of 18 Siberian Huskies and Don has a kennel of 18 Samoyeds. Their dogs are all highly trained athletes and also wonderful, sweet doggies. It was fun to see the Siberian’s colorful beach umbrellas to keep them cool in the sun.

I wish we didn’t have to leave.  Her place is a Sunset Magazine picture – a small rustic, timber frame cabin on 20 acres with a fish filled pond out front.  There’s a path that goes completely around the lake with huckleberry bushes in large sections along the way. I can’t even describe how wonderful this place is and only hope the pictures we took begin to convey some sense of it.