From Anacortes to Tumwater Wa on the Road MOST Traveled

Hi there ZigZags, Our pictures today start with dinner last night in MiCasita's . We sat at the same table but Ashley was off helping a friend move to Canada so we had to " settle " for another lovely young lady whom we had also met the first evening we ate there. Tonight I had chicken stewed in a tomato based sauce with onions and peppers and seasonings. Of course it comes with refried beans and rice, both of which are delicious, neither of which are pointless--actually the rice is quite high but the beans would be okay if they weren't also drowned in loads of cheese. I just had a few forksful of each and left the rest. Did have a Dos Equis to wash it down, however. Barb had some kind of spicy beef dish and margarita. We decided since our trip today was around 150 miles that we would take our time getting ready to leave the Island. So we took the 11:05 ferry which was to arrive in Anacortes at 12:10. Met a nice couple from San Diego and chatted with them about life in California and how expensive everything is. Not sure where the wife was from but her husband grew up in Denver. We also could overhear two brothers, one of whom lives locally, rehashing their lives from day one, I think. Both they and their wives were such loudmouths I wanted to drop one of them overboard. The four of us rolled our eyes quite often over the "conversation" we could not avoid overhearing. I hate people like that. The captain this time gave a big speech on safety and emergency procedures--never heard that before. Soon, we were slowing down and he announced that we had to stop at Lopez Island to pick up a school bus load of kids. One of the loudmouths announced that there was no school system on Lopez, yet the bus said Lopez school system. Have no idea why a busload of kids was going into Anacortes at that hour of the day--no evidence of a sporting event. A mystery for sure. Mr California and I headed to the bow to see the operation of the loading dock and the loading of the bus. A young mother was going through each step of the backing up of boat, lowering of dock to meet deck, driving on of bus, raising of dock to leave deck and pulling away. It was really cute and the little three or four year old boy was just very excited about the whole thing. He wanted to get on the bus but she said no, those kids on the bus would be getting off. So, we pulled away from Lopez and the captain announced that we were going to have a practice rescue operation of a " man overboard " situation. Mr California and I offered to volunteer Mr Loudmouth but Barb and Mrs Ca just laughed and shushed us. So he and I went forward once more to see what we could see. A little red boat with two crew members tooling about and a squeaky pulley apparently lowering or maybe raising a lifeboat--could only see and hear the pulley. At last we were on our way once more. Now, another passenger came over to Loudmouth Bros saying you sound like locals so maybe you can tell us about the ferry between Coupeville and Port Townsend. They said only one ferry and you need reservations --very busy. I went over and said the new Fall schedule said two ferries until Oct 8 running every half hour. Ah, said one Loudmouth--can't believe that--one of the ferries is right there in drydock in Anacortes--prop got tangled with a crab trap and it ran slow all summer. Now that season is over they've taken it off. We were then joined by another passenger who said she'd just called the Ferry terminal and the next Ferry that had room ran at 6 pm.. Not good--it is a half hour crossing and only 33 miles away from Anacortes. We'd be driving in the dark and I couldn't cancel our reservation in Tumwater without losing 91 bucks. So, one of the Mrs Loudmouths said my desired route of 101 on the Olympic Peninsula was desolated and would take me way West of my destination. Plus, Tumwater tonight was going to have us driving our asses off. She said Rt 3 through the lower islands a much nicer drive but can't get there without the ferry. There was a smugness and satisfaction in her tone and I could have slapped her. But, I thanked her and told Barb that I-5 was our only option. BTW, it takes us as far East as 101 does West--maybe even more so. In the meantime, we were supposed to get into Anacortes at 12:10 and with all the playing around with buses and overboards, we got in at almost 2 !!! Also, I'd been watching the sky in the South and it did not look good--lots of precip very evident. But, off we went, backtracking to Mt. Vernon ( if I'd known all of this was going to happen, I'd have had us stay there again!) and on down to Everett, Seattle and its Space Needle, Spokane. Tacoma,SeaTac, Lacey, Olympia and finally Tumwater. We stopped at a rest area around Arlington and checked the mileage from Everett to Olympia and it showed almost 300 miles. It was pouring, traffic was bumper to bumper the whole way, in both directions. We decided if that was right we were going to bite the bullet and stop sooner. Called OnStar and with the rain they couldn't get a fix on us to give us the distance. Finally got them once we got out from under the rain clouds,for a little while, and lo and behold, I'd been right and the exits do go by mileage--so we were only 74 miles from Tumwater when at SeaTac. Thank God. Got in 5:20 and did 148.5 miles. Probably just as well with the weather that we didn't go that desolate way, but it sure wasn't the drive she described. Just as long as I thought and not timewise any longer than expected. We DID drive for a long time in the restricted lane for buses and 2 person car pools--but oh, well, we've been car pooling for three weeks now, haven't we? Just one last thing, before I run off to watch Jeopardy. Remember Leavenworth and Stevens Pass through which we traveled to Mt Vernon before the Islands? Well, snowed there all day today! Winter is coming to these mountains. Also severe flooding in N Arizona so don't know what that will mean for Antelope Canyon but that is far in the future. For now, Troutdale and Tad's tomorrow night. Til, then TV and sardines for dinner. Talk to you all tomorrow. BarbZig and KatZag