Now it's my turn to be the outsider commenting on the locals.

Seattle, the Not-So-Emerald City

Believe it or not, we didn't get out of the smoke until we got into Washington. It's supposed to rain all the time in Seattle, but we arrived during a mid 90s heat wave. The nicest day of our trip was Monday in Seattle with (fairly) clear blue skies and a high in the 80s.

A couple of locals gave us a day-long tour of the city, and I have to say it was not at all what I expected. Besides not having any rain, it didn't seem to have much "green." I did see a lot of rust, weeds and brown lawns. As I said, we were there on a sunny day. I wonder if the rain just hides the deterioration most of the time.

Our guides tried to show us the city from locals' eyes, but we wanted to visit the famous Pike Place Market. The fish throwers didn't have any fresh-fish customers while we were there, so we just got to see them throw a few cans around. At a candy store, we picked out seven tiny chocolates (half the size of See's chocolates) and were surprised when the clerk (owner?) rang up $14—about $4 a bite. That's when I started noticing many of the vendors didn't post prices. Not my kind of place.

Along the way

I've been wondering about something for a long time (I really want to know!): Why do farmers build structures, not maintain them, let them fall down, and build new ones? Maybe that's not what they do, but that's what it looks like. I've passed countless barns or sheds with roofs falling in on modern farms. Here's one just south of Merrill, Oregon.

Comfort food in small towns

Don't try to make a quick trip to a Dairy Queen in Klamath Falls or Cottage Grove, Oregon, in the late afternoon or early evening. You'll have to wait for a line of people with lists. Have you ever noticed how long it takes to make just one banana split?

Roads

I live in Reno because I like it, and one thing I like about it is it has less traffic than other areas, such as I-5 between Portland and Seattle. It wasn't reassuring to keep seeing signs saying, "Fender bender? Pull vehicles off to the shoulder." Ugh! I couldn't wait to get back to the sticks.

We noticed pieces of tires lying all over the roads and shoulders. What's the deal with that? Aren't truckers supposed to pick that stuff up?

Speaking of truckers, a little time on I-5 will make you realize how much we depend on trucking. If fuel prices reach a point where the trucks can't stay on the road, we're in big trouble.

Traveling with a dog

Did Gassy Girl enjoy the trip? Let's just say she is now demanding we add a second story with a balcony to our house. Here she is enjoying the view from our hotel room in Washington.



I don't know what makes her think we would spoil her like that. It's not as if Mr. Ann has already built her a ramp to make it easier for her to get her fat, aging butt into our pickup.

Gassy Girl is a very good traveler (even though her blog name is well earned), but I have a complaint about the places where we stayed. I told each one we had a dog when I made the reservations, and each one put us in a room as far from an exit as possible. That resulted in some desperate early morning dashes to get outside to an acceptable place for her to pee. I know that if I were not traveling with a dog I would not want dog pee to be the first thing I noticed when I walked outside in the morning.