We ended our 15 days of moochdocking in Alana’s driveway Monday morning. Alana didn’t have to work until 8:30am, so we had a chance to spend half an hour together before she left. It’s hard to say goodbye when we know it’ll be a year before we have the chance to spend time together again.

We had everything secured before 10 am. I fired up the coach and pulled it into the street to load the Spyder. Gabi hopped on the back of the Spyder for a short ride as I backed it in. We had the Spyder strapped down and hit the road at 10am. I headed south past the Arlington airport and made a loop on I-5 to hit the dump station at the mile post 207 rest area. Washington provides free RV dump stations at many of the rest areas.

Then we drove up WA530 through Darrington and Rockport to the North Cascades Highway – WA20. This is the northernmost route across the Cascade Mountains in Washington. The road closes in mid-November and usually doesn’t open again until mid-April. They get so much snow in the north Cascades, it’s impossible to keep the road clear.

We’ve crossed the North Cascades Highway twice before in our motorhome, but always from east to west. It’s much different going west to east. The road climbs and zig-zags through sharp 30-35 mph curves. These sharp curves take momentum away and it’s a constant struggle to accelerate up to 45-50 mph before you hit another sharp curve. The traffic was light but I still made use of a few turnouts to let cars get by me. There was also a bicycle tour group riding over the mountains – the bike lane is narrow in places making it a little scary. I always strive for a minimum of three feet of clearance between the coach and any cyclist.

In Arlington, our elevation was under 500 feet above sea level. After we drove east of Ross Lake, we crossed Rainy Pass at an elevation of 4,875 feet. After a short descent we were climbing again and topped out at Washington Pass at 5,477 feet above sea level. Highway 20 has long, steep grades on the east side of the mountains. I controlled our downhill speed with the two-stage Jake brake utilizing engine compression and only had to stab the regular service brakes a few times for curves in the road.

We reached our destination at Winthrop, Washington and pulled into the Pine Near RV Park (map) just before 2pm. We were checked-in quickly and led to site 14 – our favorite. This site is on the west end of the park and has a large, open grassy area. I think it’s the most spacious site we’ve ever had. Outside our door, we have more than 50 feet of lawn with a few trees. On the driver’s side of the coach we have a lane of grass about 25 wide before site 15 begins.

Roomy site 14

I was surprised to find heavy cloud cover in Winthrop. Usually the wet weather stays on the west side as the Cascade Mountains block the clouds. A few raindrops fell after we were set up. Donna whipped up a pot of steak and black bean chili – it was good comfort food on a cloudy evening. We watched TV and kicked back after our day of travel.

We have clear skies this morning and the forecast calls for afternoon temperatures to reach the mid-70s. The fly in the ointment is the possibility of a thunder shower later in the day. I think we’ll take the Spyder out and ride to Twisp – about 10 miles from here. I also want to check out the rodeo grounds to see if anything is going on this weekend.