Weekend to Remember Day 1

the first day home is always hardest. unpack, clean, put away and clean some more. all I want to do is curl up and write about the weekend and look at all the pretty pictures. So a compromise.... laundry is going and the trailer is UNpacked. (which means my hallway is obstructed by gear) and it seems like a good time to post. So, between spurts of cleaning and putting away, I decided I will break up the days into individual posts. Here is the first one...

We left on a Thursday at 2:30pm. Later than we had hoped or planned but the Burke motto is 'always late but worth the wait!'

Contact with my brother as we traveled down Highway 9 to Sedro Wooley and the I-5 hookup, suggested we take an alternate route. We had planned to take Hwy 2 over Steven's Pass and then rondervoo w/ Brian in Dry Falls to tour it before we headed into the campsite. But Brian had learned that 2 was closed at Gold Bar due to a serious accident and it was likely this would bring our travel to a halt for an undetermined amount of time. It seemed prudent to bag meeting in Dry Falls on the way in and for us to take Hwy 20, North Cascades Hwy instead. So we turned left instead of right and this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because....

not more than 5 or 6 miles down the road... this happened!

 Fortunately we had this side road to pull off onto and have a safe place to change the tire.

I shudder to even think what could have happened if this had occurred while driving the freeway!!

Thank you Lord for keeping Your hand of safety on our trip!!





We had a spare... and we were able to replace the tire in Grand Coulee the next day.


The rest of the drive there was uneventful. We made good time, traffic was light and we stopped in Twisp for groceries and gas, in Bridgeport for dinner and a photo op.

This AmaZing moon graced our evening each night as we camped. 

here it glows over the mighty Columbia River.

and while the rest of the drive was uneventful, the views were outstanding. Even in the dusk, we could see the grandeur of the central and east sides of the mountain.

We are truly blessed to live in such a spectacular place of beauty.



We arrived at the Barker Canyon Rd turn off which leads into the north side of Banks Lake at 11pm. Brian, Becky and kids and Bruce's brother Keith were about 2 hours behind us. They had to pick up Becky's daughter Brianna from the airport in Seattle before they could head east. So it was close to 2am before we were settled --sort of-- in our campsite for the night.

We were amazed at 2 things upon arrival. The absolute stillness of this place, even as the wind was blowing strong, and how warm it was even as the wind was blowing strong.

And that moon. It would continue to captivate us all weekend.