Signs

We live about 70 miles north of Spokane. Spokane is the city we drive to for shopping at stores like The Home Depot, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Fred Meyer, HomeGoods, TJMaxx, Target, Lowes and Hobby Lobby.

Here in Colville we have a Super Walmart, Super One grocery store, Safeway, Grocery Outlet, Builders Supply, Do It Center, Sears Hometown, North 40 and then several independent one of a kinds.

Spokane is on the eastern edge of Washington State close to the middle of the state. We are in the Northeast corner of the state. Washington State borders Idaho to the East, Oregon to the South, British Columbia Canada to our North and the Pacific Ocean to the West. Many Canadian visitors come down Highway 395 and our road from Canada. On any given day you will see a lot of B.C. license plates on cars in the Walmart parking lot.

We’re due a trip to Spokane for our monthly Costco run but we’ll have to wait out the snow storms that we are experiencing. A two lane highway in the snow with a 60 mph is not the safest way to travel. It would be okay except for other travelers who don’t seem to sense the danger enough to slow down.

Speaking of travelers…

We have a highway in our back acres for Quail.

There is talk for more snow in our neighborhood. Before that happens we are preparing to venture out soon to the grocery store. The sun is shining on the snow and it makes for beautiful vistas. We’ll be bundling up for sure. So thankful for the right clothing to wear when the temps are in the teens.

Happy Wednesday to y’all.

I’ll give it a try to link up to Tom’s Signs2 for this post.

Signs on Highway 2

A day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes. These were some signs that stood out to me while zipping along on Highway 2 in Washington State from Eastern Washington to Western Washington on December 6th, 2019. These collages will give me an idea of where along Highway 2 the Dr. Pierce barns were. Billy Burgers was in Wilbur.

We drove through several little towns like Wilbur that were established in the late 1800’s.

Between the little towns the landscape was for the most part pretty desolate.

It was just outside of Waterville going west that we saw the Dr. Pierce Barns.

Bottom right photo is between Orondo and Sunnyslope. We are on the east side of the Columbia river here. This area along Highway 2 is filled with apple and other orchards. We cross the Columbia river at Sunnyslope and start our ascent up and over the Cascade Mountain range through the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth and on into Western Washington.

I’m linking up to Sign2 with Tom The Backroads Traveller. Oops I couldn’t link up successfully.

Speaking of a day late and dollar short I’m way behind in visiting blogs. But I’ll remedy that soon!

Twice in December

Twice in December we drove north to the town of La Conner to enjoy a meal and a stroll.

We enjoy the farm scenes that we pass along the way.

At the end of December we celebrated Katie’s birthday at Anelia’s which features some good Polish fare and other light dishes.

At the beginning of December we ate at the Oyster and Thistle for our anniversary.

I’m linking up to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

I’m also linking up for The Barn Collective with Tom The Backroads Traveler.

We had a cold quiet weekend mostly with small projects accomplished and started. I lasted just a very short while outside starting the Apple Tree Pruning. It didn’t take long for my hands to complain from the cold. I’ll be doing that project in short shifts. The Pear tree needs pruning also. January is full of events for us at this Old House.

Today at the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog I posted a French Onion Soup for two recipe. I was inspired by the soup I had at the Oyster and Thistle in La Conner in the mosaic above. Happy Monday!

Prayers for Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge

To remind me to pray for the people of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge I’m re-posting about one of the days from Katie and my road trip from Seattle to Jacksonville, North Carolina in May of 2014. We were driving her and a lot of her stuff back to Camp Le Jeune in anticipation of Andrew’s return from Afghanistan.

Praying for this area of our country that is burning. Praying for rain and containment. Also praying for the people who have lost everything. Not forgetting to pray, too, for the Firefighters and First Responders.

From May of 2014…

We left Hendersonville, Tennessee after a stop at Starbucks and filling up our gas tank at a Kroeger Grocery store Station. Kroeger in Washington is either our Fred Meyer stores or our QFC stores.

Right about here on the road our clocks turned forward an hour and we were now in the Eastern Time Zone!

We really weren’t prepared for our drive through Sevierville and Pigeon Forge and the strange sights we would see.

This was promising but then we drove into the bizarre world of Pigeon Forge.

What!?

The Hatfields and the McCoys!

The Titanic?

We weren’t able to make it to Rushmore and this did not make up for it!

A Bavarian Denny’s? This town had an amazing amount of dinner theaters of different genres to experience. There were some great looking miniature golf properties but so many other ~~tacky~~ unusual properties.

We did not divert our path further to go to Dollywood.

Now this was more like it. This was the scenery we were expecting on our Smoky Mountain Detour.

This was in the town of Gatlinburg. This town had a lot of candy shops, donut shops, fudge shops, taffy shops and Whiskey shops.

Ripley’s Aquarium was also located here. I’m scared to think of what kind of creatures you would see in there.

We bought a sandwich here and headed out to our destination on this day which was Asheville, North Carolina.

We laughed real hard when we crossed this river 8 times during our detour!

We made it to Asheville at 5:30, checked into our hotel and then got ready for our dinner reservation at the Omni Grove Hotel on their Sunset Terrace. That experience will be a future post!

We are so happy to be here in Asheville for a two day stretch. We spent most of the day at the Biltmore Estate properties today and walked our feet off. We are chilling in our hotel room tonight having a picnic in our room instead of heading out to eat. The weather was beautiful today. Tomorrow we drive our final miles on this road trip across the U.S.A.

Thanks to all of you bloggy friends for following along with us on this journey across the U.S.A.

Now back to 2016 I’ll be linking this post to signs, signs with Lesley.

The Buckeye State

Ohio country roads. We didn’t make it to the larger cities in Ohio like Cleveland or Columbus. On this drive we were headed to the airport in Detroit to fly back to Washington State.

It was always a treat to see a horse and buggy although it was scary to see scenes like this next one.

A tanker passing the buggy on the road.

Millersburg

We stopped at this General Store near Sunnyslope before we drove through Nashville, Ohio.

Word of Truth Bible Church in Nashville, Ohio.

First Presbyterian Church in Loudonville was having a Ham and Bean Supper. Loudonville is in the heart of Mohican Country.

Just after Hayesville we connected to Highway 30 to head west and connected to 75 north onward to Michigan. We stopped in Toledo, Ohio for lunch. Toledo was the largest city we navigated on this trip.

Holy Toledo! Many of us have heard the expression, but where did it come from?

The origin of the exclamation “Holy Toledo!” is the subject of much speculation. One suggestion is the name came about because of the heavy concentration of churches located on Collingwood Boulevard, according to the Greater Toledo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Also, the City of Toledo, Spain, after which the American city is named, is often called “the Holy City of Toledo.”

Other suggestions of origin are not religious, but may be more likely. Holy Week has always been the worst week at the box office for show business; old-time Vaudeville actors contended that any week in Toledo was Holy Week. Toledoans Joe E. Brown and Danny Thomas popularized the term as they became nationally known performers.

This Ghost Sign says Lucas County Board of Elections.

After driving around this area looking for a spot that was open to have lunch we settled on the Ye Olde Durty Bird. It was open and there was parking across the street. Sometimes those are the best reasons to choose a spot in a downtown area. Thankfully it was good.

Time will tell if I link up to any memes this weekend. Got some laziness going on. How’s your Saturday going?

I will link up to InSPIREd Sunday and to the Barn Collective and to Monday Mural and signs, signs.

Thank you to Beth, Sally, Tom, Oakland Daily Photo and Lesley.

Roads Less Traveled

All these roads, signs, and fences are from our trip to Amish Country at the end of September. These roads are in Holmes County, Ohio.

^{Matthew 7: 13-14 –}“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Linking up today for ABC Wednesday with Mrs. Nesbitt, Roger and the team. R is for Road Less Traveled.

Also linking up later in the week to signs, signs with Lesley and Good Fences with TexWisGirl.

More Signs from Indiana

All of these signs were seen on a Sunday along the Heritage Trail in Indiana mostly contained within Elkhart County. The Pillsbury’s flour sign was in Wakarusa.

These last two signs are in Topeka, Indiana just south of Shipshewana next to Yoder Popcorn. There were a few places that would have been fun to explore but were closed on Sunday.

Linking up to signs, signs with Lesley.

Such a wet and drippy day here in the Pacific Northwest. Daughter and I had a fun several hours shopping at the Navy Exchange and Costco with a little lunch in between.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Signs