Volcano Day

Day 14
Kilometers traveled;

We woke up Wednesday morning feeling very relaxed and refreshed. We had all had a fantastic sleep and we were ready for another adventure on the road! We began our now very routine pack up. Will said to me, "Mommy, do you know what today is?" I replied, "Yes honey it's Wednesday." He gave me one of his famous withering looks (which came directly from my Mom) and said, "I know that, It's Volcano Day!" Our little Vulcanologist was ready to go. This day was one that he had been really looking forward to. We piled back into the car and sadly said good bye to Seattle. Nate was actually a little teary. We had had a fantastic mini getaway from our road trip extravaganza and Nate was not ready to leave it behind.

With our Starbuck's breakfast and coffee firmly in hand we headed toward the volcano. The trip to Mount St. Helen's was significantly farther then we had anticipated. It was about 12:30 when we completed our wind up the mountain and arrived at Johnson's Ridge Memorial Center. On the way we observed a lot of the damage that explosion had caused. There were fields of sun bleached stumps as far as the eye could see and there were sings in front of new growth plantations indicating when they had been re-planted. There is a long path from the parking lot of the center up to the summit of the ridge. As you crest the top of the path the mouth of the volcano lays directly before you. It is an impressive and intimidating sight. The destructive force of that volcano is palpable. I was more than a little anxious standing so close to that vortex of power. We headed into the center and read first hand accounts and looked at artifacts that had been collected, including the stump of a massive tree that had been blown completely horizontal. Then it was time to head into the theater to watch a video of exactly what had happened on that May Day in 1980. The theater had one full wall of red curtains which we expected to open up and reveal the screen. As the room darkened and the rumbling sound effects grew more intense they did not open, the screen rolled down in front of them. The film was moving and scary! Nate was snuggled in my lap about five minutes in. The story of Mount St. Helen's is one that we would all do well to know and remember. Humans do not rule this planet the way we think we do. The one quotation from the movie that has stayed with me is, "Mother Nature Always wins." The final seen of the movie was a fast paced race down the side of the mountain with the words, "Will Mount St. Helen's erupt again, yes, it's only a matter of time." With that the screen rolls up, the red curtains open to revel a huge wall of glass and just beyond the glass is the view directly into the crater and lava dome of the Volcano. At that point, I was ready to sprint all the way back to the car and get out of there! I some how managed to keep my cool as we went back out side and Ken and Will took many pictures. Will's reaction was very interesting. This was something he was so excited about but I could tell he was also feeling anxious about being there. After a few more minutes out side Will was also ready to get down the mountain as quickly as possible. We headed back to the car and I tink we all felt a sense of relief as we began our decent! We decided to picnic in the car as we were quite a drive from our final destination of the day, Spokane Washington.

We drove through a lot of interesting terrain. Washington State seems to have a bit of everything. We drove through a number of mountain passes on our way back to the interstate. As we entered these passes, the sky turned gray and gloomy, massive, deep green almost black fir trees soared to the sky. I half expected to look out the window and see golden eyes and stony white faces looking back with massive wolves racing by in the back ground (that is a Twilight reference for all of you who have never read the books and are wondering what the heck I'm talking about!) After a couple of hours we returned to some semblance of civilization. We stopped for dinner at what turned out to be a seedy little diner, we picked at what was edible and got back on the road as quickly as possible. As we drove out of the town limits the land scape changed again, we were suddenly in an arid, rugged dessert that went on for miles. It reminded us all of the Alberta bad lands but on a much larger and drier scale. After about an hour or so of driving through this desolate nothingness came a sign for a look out point. Ken asked,
"What exactly are we going to be looking out at?" We came around a curve and a lush river valley spread out before us. The soft greens and running water were a welcome relief from the moon scape we had been driving through. Unfortunately, the river valley did not last long and we were thrust back into the desert. We drove and drove and drove until finally, we arrived at our destination, Spokane. Who knew that Spokane was such a hot spot. For the fist time on our trip we decided not to make a reservation because the hotels had always had lots of room. Our plan back fired. There was no room at the Holiday Inn Express and we ended up at a dodgy Travelodge. Luckily, it was just to sleep and we did just that. We all fell into bed to rest up for what was sure to be aonther very long day of driving. Our deadline of Saturday afternoon wasquickly approaching and we had many miles to go.