After getting back to the Lodge at around 2 am, we slept until about 9. We woke up a decided that we wanted to head out towards Mt. Rainer. This was going to be a long day, with quite a bit of driving, so we grabbed everything we needed, including the tickets to the show, and said herro to the road......

It was a beautiful morning at Snoqualmie Pass, but was a fairly uneventful drive toward Preston, just outside of Seattle, where we turned South toward Enumclaw. The Camry wanted to show off for us, but we got it stuck behind a semi which slowed our pace quite a bit. But before we knew it, we were stuffing McGrittles into our faces in Enumclaw, getting excited about the day ahead.

We headed West on 410 towards Mt. Rainer National Park through the Federation Forest. We figured this was a haven for Star Wars dorks in their quest for "real" Ewoks. This forest was actually one of the prettiest I have seen anywhere...so thick, lush, and green. We tried to get some decent pictures of the surreal scenes, but our cameras couldn't handle the extreme differences in the light throughout the forest. For the most part, it was very dark, almost night, under the canopy above, with rays of sunlight exposing fern covered logs laying on the forest floor. With simple cameras....it wasn't working for us, so we moved on.

Once we got in the National Park, we were greeted by amazing views of some very rugged country. I feel weird not knowing the names of surrounding mountains.....I am so used to knowing what and where everything is in Northern Colorado, that I feel uneasy in a new Range.....like I don't belong because I havn't introduced myself properly to the local high country. After I got over it...Trey got a picture of a very angry tree dervish. It was growling and thrashing through the forest. Some say to fear the Sasquatch, but the tree dervish, especially and angry one, is far more dangerous.

After we got above the forest floor and onto some steeper slopes, we were rewarded with great views of Rainer. It was an overcast day, but we managed to get some halfway decent shots of the mountain. Rainer look absolutely huge. It is 14,411 ft high, which is lower then a few mountains in Colorado, but it seems much, much bigger. The surrounding mountains only rise to around 7,000 ft at the most, and the lowlands around the mountain are around 2000 ft, so this mountain is VERY prominent in the area, and can be seen from a great distance. Easily the largest mountain I have ever seen. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of it from the air, but I never sat by the window and didn't feel like leaning over my neibors to snap a few shots. But it was pretty impressive.

We headed on to the East toward Yakima, where I had my first, and last, Red Lobster experience. This was more driving through some beautiful, heavily forested, mountains. The fact that pioneers and explorers bushwhacked through that dense, lush forest, blows my mind. I can't imagine finding your way in the darkness under the blanket of branches, and needles rising high above the forest floor.

Once we got to Yakima, the landscape opened up to reveal more of a desert than anything. We drove through what is known as the Black Rock Valley in the Rattlesnake Hills. This area was a vast expanse of rolling, dry hills, scattered with the green of irrigated farms. These farms became more and more common as we turned north towards Washington's apple country and the Saddle Mountains along the Columbia River.

There were a lot of apples on the trees, but we didn't stop to take any pictures...we didn't want to get shot for suspected apple thieving. We figured this would be the same as steeling cattle in Texas, and you know how us Texans get about our cows...yee haw! We drove slow and took in this new landscape as best we could.

Before we knew it, we were back on I90 only a few miles from the Gorge Ampitheater We are always excited to go to DMB shows, so we really aren't complaining...but, we only had lawn seats for the nights show. This means you get to put up with overly drunk and/or stoned (or as one special person screamed "I'm on pot!!!") people all night. It is more of a social hour on the lawn more than anything, and I wonder why a lot of those people go to the show at all. I would rather sit in the peacefulness of my own home if I was going to drink myself into a stouper....and you'd save $50! But, like I said, it's always a good feeling to be at a Dave show no matter where you sit, so after a not so small battle with Red Lobster, we were ready to relax to some great music at the greatest venue in the country.

As always, the show was unreal. The sunset was just as good, and the weather was near perfect. This was an incredible way to end a great trip. We made it back to Snoqualmie Pass at around midnight, two hours earlier than the night before (one great thing about sitting lawn), and went right to bed. The next morning we drove back to SeaTac, and were both gone by noon.

It was another great Dave trip with Trey.....now we just have to wait until next years tour dates are released!

Until then......