Day 12 - Leavenworth to Walla Walla, Washington

Probably our best scoring day. We started out with a 9 second penalty on the first Regularity (an awful score), but things improved dramatically.

On a Speed Contest we were just two seconds off the fastest time, resulting in a two second penalty. On the last three scoring points on Regularities we went: ZERO ZERO ZERO, for no penalty points.

We remain 3rd in class and 8th overall, but our Day 12 performance was the 6-7th best in the fleet.

We’re in Walla Walla today for our rest day. Temperature is in the high 80’s and many people outside enjoying their last days of summer. In fact, across from our hotel is a car show and street market.

The drive into Walla Walla was interesting. The morning was filled with orchards and vineyards; the afternoon was high desert dry with brown everywhere. Add to all that, gravel roads and we are full of dust. The car (both inside and outside) is covered with a film of dust. Our luggage and personnel items are dirty and dusty.

Today we washed our baby, but don’t expect she will stay clean for very long. The organizers promised us an off-road rally and they are delivering just that.

I continue to be amazed at the number of fast food restaurants that populate the big cities, the towns and the villages of America. No wonder obesity is a problem and no wonder childhood obesity is a problem. A bit sad. I thought this was a habit of eating on the run and was mainly limited to big cities, but it would appear that all over America (and Canada for that matter) no one is cooking at home anymore. The other thing one sees a lot of up here in the Northwest is drive-through coffee shops. Just like the drive-through windows at McDonalds, here you drive-through to get your favorite latte, chai tea or Coffee Americano. You don’t see many of these in LA, but they are everywhere up here. Very efficient.

High Desert outside Walla Walla, Washington

The Columbia River Gorge