Wow. You’d think we were going to Montana or something, this road trip advencha is taking so long to finish!

On the road again…♪♫♪♪♪

Ack! I forgot to include this video as we were driving next to Rimrock Lake! I’ll put it here so you don’t have to go back, then I’ll move it back after you’ve seen it. Sheesh.

K’den. Now we’re back on the right road.

Remember the information about the Goat Rocks in my last post? Where there was the wildfire area? I just found out that there’s been a bad fire in that area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It was started by lighting and has burned over 4000 acres so far. I always feel so thankful for the brave firefighters who are risking their lives to stop these fires.

We were anxious to get to Packwood and eat. I was hungry, and though Nolemana’s blood sugar was okay, he really needed to eat something. We now have a system in place where low blood sugar in the car won’t be cause for concern, but then, it was. By this time, it was 2:00.

We stopped here, in Packwood, at the Blue Spruce Saloon. Usually places like this have great burgers, and that’s what we wanted. There was a pizza place across the road, but we decided to try this place. We weren’t planning to stay, but to get our burgers and get back on the road. Which is just what we did.

We went inside and ordered our food. There was a family or two there, but it wasn’t very crowded, so we didn’t have to wait long for our burgers and fries. Nolemana got potato salad as his choice.

The mayor of Packwood stood proudly outside.

We didn’t take too many photos right about now because Nolemana was busy whacking his burger.

He managed to get the next two photos of the pretty countryside.

My friend, Tracy, who’d suggested this highway for our return trip from Leavenworth, told me that she loved the combination of meadows and forest along the road, and I could see why. I loved it, too.

Driving along this area, with meadows and forests on each side, was wonderful. As always, I loved seeing new places and new vistas.

Then, oh my gosh, another fabulous lookout that we had no idea was coming up.

I hope you can read this; it’s fascinating… and kinda sad at the same time.

Talk about beautiful!!! I was so glad that Tracy suggested we come this way, otherwise I never would’ve known about this place.

I was also happy that it was such a pretty day, and warm enough to get out of the car to take photos.

I took a bunch of photos from the historical marker. Flooding towns seems very sad to me.

I would’ve enjoyed bringing my spinning wheel here, setting it down, and spinning with this view in front of me!

Here’s how far we’ve come in the last few hours:

This is how big Riffe Lake is; you can see the view area, too, on da map.

We drove on, kinda reluctantly. I would’ve loved to just sit there for awhile.

Nolemana’s photo ID clipboard got in the way, but see that lake ‘way ova dea? At the right corner of the clipboard?

That’s Lake Mayfield. And next time I’ll have story about that lake for you folks.