The Heart of the Cascades

A new day with ACTUAL blue sky as we rolled out of Auburn - Goodness asked me if I wanted to go see Snoqualmie Falls but I decided that it would be wise to skip it (despite my affection for Twin Peaks) and not tack anymore time on what looked to be a long long day of driving already. As we got to the top of Snoqualmie Pass, we exited to see the point where the Pacific Crest Trail(PCT) passes through. As we pulled into the Chevron parking lot, billows of steam began rising from our hood! Popping it revealed much coolant had escaped and we began to both adapt to that first wave of adrenaline. We went in to purchase more coolant and it was a first for me to see a post office & post office boxes inside a gas station convienince store! There was a sign on the door that I will read again in a few months which read: "PCT Hikers Pick Up Your Packages Here." That made me smile deeply and forget about the car for a minute. It was cold up there at the pass and this is a photo of the amount of snow next to me. Yes, that pile really is up to the Chevron price sign!

After funneling in the coolant, we continued with quite the sense of alarm. We hadn't gone more than a few miles when the car began to overheat - we pulled over and poured our two bottles of drinking water into the radiator.

Continuing on just a bit further we came to Keechelus Lake at the side of the road and Goodness jumped down over the edge of the highway and filled the bottles in the lake twice to fill the radiator to the top. I watched the gauge like a hawk on the way down the mountain but it held steadily at a normal level, about 20 minutes later we arrived in Cle Elum, WA. We checked to see if the car would take anymore water and it did, which meant it was indeed leaking..

Yuck. Being a Saturday, our chances of finding an open repair shop were slim yet just on the way limping through the town I spotted a wide open garage door! Sam's Shop! Goodness pulled a U-turn and we met two great and honest men, Sam and Mike. They had us pull the car in to check things out and told us of a way to hike up just behind the shop to catch a view of the surroundings. Turns out this place's nickname is The Heart of the Cascades. It was surreal to be out of the car and hiking up up up as I had prepared my mind to be seated in the car for umpteen hours. This place is absolutely gorgeous though and I'd gotten over that by the time we'd reached the top and pulled out a picnic. Goodness decided to digest by climbing into a tree..

When we returned to Sam's Shop, he and Mike showed us the gigantic crack in the radiator. Sam told us that a new one would ship overnight except that wouldn't be able to happen until Monday which leaves us in Cle Elum until at least Tuesday afternoon. We took this news in stride and Sam even offered us a place to sleep in a trailer he had on the property. He also pointed out this motel across the street and we decided to walk on over to check it out.

In walked a kind Italian man also named Mike. We told him of our state and he spoke with us for a good hour and a half before setting us up with a discounted room. He is one of those people that you like straight away if you are one who picks up on persons with open hearts. We rested and went out to a restaurant to celebrate how in our own way, we had made it. Less than 24 hours prior we had closed our home in Oregon and now here we are - resting, charging up for the next leg, and being thankful that we are safe.