Today was a day of a lot a driving. When I woke up today, I pulled out the laptop to see where I was and how much further I had to go. To my surprise it looked as if I could be back in Seattle by 8pm tonight and I just drove straight on through for the next 10 hours. This would mean skipping Mount Rainer, but I would be able to make it there until 8pm anyways and that was too late to take and final pictures I had in mind. And there wasn't really anything interesting on the way through either Idaho or Oregon, so I just decided to get home a day earlier than planned. I still had to get the car serviced before I did too much more driving as this final drive would be about 650 miles.

After stopping at Twin Falls and getting something to eat and the car taken care of, I just hit the highway. With a few exceptions, the drive was as boring as hell. Even 85 mph seemed too slow. I bet that even the birds are bored in this state.

The few exceptions were the miniature golf place that had a re-creation of Delicate Arch, the crown jewel from Arches National Park although from what I remember the real one did not have colored lights and bubbling water fountains at it's base. And the other thing I saw was this election poster that said, and I kid you not "Crapo for U.S. Senate."

After that I just jammed through the rest of Idaho, eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington. By the time I was nearing Yakima I was feeling sort of depressed. I was happy on one hand to get back to Seattle but sad on the other that the trip was essentially over. However I was ahead of schedule and from what I could tell and if I really flew I could make it to Mount Rainer by sunset after all. I wasn't sure if there would be any good light to take any pictures or not as most everyplace you can drive to faces east, but I decided to try.

I was really flying and it looked as if I was going to make it, that is until the ranger showed up. I was zipping up the road to sunset point when I was taking a corner a little aggressively when this ranger was coming the opposite direction. I saw him swerve into the pullout and do a 180. I just decided to pull over at the next turn out and wait at that point. The speed limit here was 35 and at the time I was only doing about 30. I had the radar detector on so I knew that he hadn't zapped me so he didn't know for sure how fast I was going.

So I played it as cool as I could when he walked up and I asked if there was a problem. He told me that I took that corner too fast and asked me if I knew what the speed limit was. I told him "yes, it was 35 and at the time you saw me I was only doing 30 and I know this because I was looking down at the speedometer." With that he asked for my paperwork, etc... and went back to his car. I figured a ticket was a done deal for sure at this point as he didn't look too happy but when he came back he gave me a warning and commended me on knowing both the speed limit and how fast I was going and made me promise to be more careful. In the end I figured he was more startled than anything else at me coming around the corner like that. While I wasn't breaking the speed limit, I was pushing the car to it's limits in order to get to the viewpoint by sunset. Of course by now that wasn't a chance.

So I took my time and made my way to the top. It was just after sunset but there was a full moon rising and it was a really beautifully clear sky. I stayed and watched for about 15 minutes and then I headed home. I'm really glad that I got in one more National Park and wasn't too disappointed that I missed getting any pictures. This one's close and I can always come back tomorrow...