On Tour Out West!
Tomorrow we begin our third week out West. Our first stop was in Denver, spending a wonderful 4-day Labor Day Weekend with our dear fiends Darlene and Kathy. We had wonderful mountain hikes with them---including a drive up a remote mountain road to the Pomeroy RR tunnel. I did my doctoral dissertation on Marcus M. Pomeroy, a 19th century newspaper publisher and general gad-about who was also the brains behind a railway tunnel through the Continental Divide---a tunnel that was later labeled "Pomeroy's Folly" because the tunnels coming in from the East and West didn't meet. Here's what is left of the opening.
I walked in a ways, but we'd forgetton to bring flashlights so cut our excursion short after 90 feet---as John paced it. Kathy treated us to wonderful meals, thanks to her recent cooking lessons, and we joined them for worship on Sunday at Columbine United Church. What a preacher is Steve Poos-Benson; we'd drive every Sunday from Grand Rapids if we weren't so concerned about our carbon footprint! In Salt Lake we spent a night and much talk-----and a fantastic meal with Chris and Bob Nelson. What fun to be back together again.
Then on to Oregon where we hiked all the falls beginning with Multnomah and then a drive down to Silver Falls State park, all combined to make 13 miles of hiking that day, staying in a wonderful inn in Silverton. From there to Camano Island, NW of Seattle for a wonderful evening meal with Rimmer and Ruth DeVries and then a couple of miles away to see family, David/Sharon/Barry/Margaret. My brother David has a wonderful 5-acre woodlot. What a wonderful spot to live. They took us to Mount Baker. Here they are hiking.
From there we went to the little western town of Winthrop, WA. We stayed in this wonderful Inn right down town.
Our next stop was Glacier National Park. Here I am at Virginia Falls.
