June 05, Monday

At 0245 Pacific time, we split from the Seattle rail cars and are on our way to Pasco. Wide awake, we went ahead and got ready. Neither of us could really sleep.

Arriving in Pasco, we deboarded and Dennis found us 3 adjacent aisle seats on the very crowded bus so we could at least  be together.

Long, uncomfortable ride, but my seat mate was a lovey older lady who was native to the area and played tour guide to us.

My biggest thrill was seeing Mount Hood, something that plays an important role in one of my fave books, The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Leguin.

Second thrill was seeing Mt. St. Helen's in the distance.

Arrived at the station on time, we all grouped together and waited for Ryan from Stamp-Connection to get us. He showed up in a 12 passenger van. There was 13 total including him. Lol we jerry-rigged a seat and were on our way.

Warm welcome for us at Stamp-Connection. We toured the store and watched them make 2 stamps that were given to us. The place we were going to have lunch was busy filming The Librarian (!) so we went next door to a veteran's club of some sort where they made us lunch. Goody bags were at every table and had lots of fun stuff.

Afterward, we posed for pics and people started to leave. Jen, Dennis and I went with Brenda and her fiance Jon to a frozen yogurt around the corner while we waited for Carl to come back from the airport and give us a ride to the hotel.

The hotel was old with a relatively new face lift, and it was clean. Dennis sat with us a while until he got tired and went back to his room to sleep. Jen and I stayed up for hours, repacking and chatting, and having deep philosophic discussions. Lol