Day 211 - Back Home to Shelton (Photo's Added)

Not too much sightseeing today as we both mostly just wanted to get home. I took some nice pictures of snow on the road and on the Olympic Mountains. It is very unusual to have so much snow so late in the year down here (we are at sea level basically).

Most of the day we drove south on Hwy 101 along Hood Canal, which is basically a fiord. This is a shot of where it bends at the southern end and heads west for a bit.

I also stopped by the bridge over the Hama Hama River. I am reminded again of what a beautiful part of the country this is

Also along the southern end of Hood Canal is the Dalby Water Wheel. Although I'd heard of it in the past, I'd never bothered to track it down until we bumped into it today. It's small because it was built by one man, Edwin Dalby, just to power his shop tools. They hadn't brought electricity to this area in 1923 when he lived here.

We saw skunk cabbage again several places along the road. Just for fun, I broke one off and smelled it. While relatively faint compared to the real thing, it definitely smells like skunk. It's pretty though and likes wet, marshy type area's - so does quite well in western Washington.

We cut over to Hwy 3 to find a restaurant to celebrate at (it was closed unfortunately, this really was the longer way home). Later however we passed through the very small town of Allen, about 19 miles north of where I live. They have a large, retail outlet for Chainsaw Art Carving (and a school if you want to learn how to use chainsaws to cut artistic shapes.)

And nineteen miles further and I am again really enjoying the view from my house across Oakland Bay and Shelton.

The trip has been so much fun, part of me wouldn't mind just emptying some of the stuff out of the RV and just head out again, . But I also like it here and now I've got to get some chores done and start paying for the last trip (ho, ho).

I hope to get the blog finished over the next week or so (all pic's uploaded and 'placeholder' entries changed to final). Got some final thoughts to add later also (why don't the states put turnouts where they have roadside signs?)

It's been such a wonderful experience, I hope those of you who've been reading the blog have also enjoyed it some through our camera's eyes!