Early out, early in.....

7:26 am - Wednesday - August 12th - Cashmire, WA - 62° F, 43% humidity, wind - 13 mph out of the west by northwest......heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 79° F.  The view this morning.......↴

We have passed through the Wenatchee Valley via US-2 a few times over the years, but have never taken time to visit Leavenworth, which we hear is the thing to do when in this area, so for our next stop we chose Cashmere, WA and the Chelan County Expo Center.  The town of Wenatchee sits at the confluence of the Wenatchee River and Lake Chelan, and Cashmere is just another 7 miles west....almost right in the middle begtween Wenatchee and Leavenworth.  

Although we only had an 87 mile drive ahead of us to Cashmere, and hadn't intended to leave too early Tuesday morning, we ended up rolling our wheels out of Coulee City Community Park around 8:30 am.  US-2 crosses Banks Lake via the two earthen dams, and then immediately climbs 1,000' in elevation up to a plateau where farmland irrigated by the waters of Banks Lake stretches to the horizon.  After about 10 miles the farmland gives way to more volcanic landscape.....

.....and eventually we transition to lake country, and Lake Chelan, the longest lake in Washington at 50 miles.....of the 87 miles we traveled Tuesday 45 of it was along the shores of this lake.......

 Down the hill to the shores of Lake Chelan......

....it just goes on and on

......before 1927 it was the largest natural lake in Washington by any measure, but in 1927 the outflow of the lake was dammed to raise the level of the lake by 21'.  It has an average depth of 494', and a maximum depth at nearly 1,500'.  The lake surface sits at 1,100' above sea level.

Not surprisingly we arrive at Chelan County Exp Center around 10:30 am....by and far the earliest we have ever arrived at any destination, but we wanted to get in early to beat the heat of the day.....87° F....yeah, I know what heat?  Temperatures along our travel route since we left Wittmann back on May 3rd have typically been in the 70's and low 80's....we have had some hot days thrown into the mix, but generally when it gets above 85° F it qualifies as HOT for us.....

......you can reserve a site online, however, I noted they had a 20 year old limitation on RV's, and ours is 38 years of age.  I saw that they had 30 sites available, and decided not to make the reservation, but just arrive and let the host see our rig in person....better to apologize than ask permission sometimes, right?  He checked out the rig, and gave us approval on the spot....hasn't failed yet!  The RV site setup is typical of most fairgrounds we have visited over the years....rows of electrical pedestals stretching across a field which could be dirt, gravel, or sometimes grass.....this time the field is grass.  We were assigned a site in the 'X' row on the end due to our length.......

.....the cost for 50 amps and full hookups.....$27/night.....suweet.....

....the last time we were in this area (2015) we visited a local micro brewery called Wenatchee Valley Brewing Company.  We loved their food and brews, so around 12:30 pm we drove back into Wenatchee to see if they were still up to snuff.....

....and the answer was a resounding 'YES!'......great alfresco ambiance, good brews......

 Nitro Stout for moi, and a Cream Ale for TLE....we'll take two of each, please

.....and fresh, rustic food......a perfect place to while away a couple of hours......

 Island View Taco plate for moi

 Bratwurst and chips for TLE

....I forgot to mention in yesterday's missive that on Monday I had my first virtual check up with my cardiologist (Dr. Mulvilhill).  It's been 8 months since my last 'visit' with him, and I needed to renew my blood pressure medication prescription.  The 'visit' lasted about 15 minutes during which time I provided him with my blood pressure readings from that morning (127 over 80). as well a my heart rate (67) and current weight (none of your business....lol!).  He asked me if I had had any chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, etc. to which I replied in the negative.  He advised that he would renew my prescription through December, but wanted to see me in person then.  There happens to be a COSTCO in Wenatchee, which was another reason for our sojourn in the area.  From the brewery we headed directly to COSTCO where I picked up my prescription ($9.99 for 90 days) while TLE restocked our adult beverage supply.  We were home just before 4 pm, and spent the rest of the day reading, and napping.  Around 7:30 pm we took a long, slow walk around the Expo Center RV section.....

 .....and then settled into watch a recorded Hallmark movie.  We will be here for 3 days, and then on Friday we'll continue our westward trek to the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks for stopping by!

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