Last Stop: Roslyn

Still one more town to see in the high Cascades. Roslyn is an old coal mining town with a wide main street called Pennsylvania Avenue. The downtown is just a few blocks long and full of small shops and cafes. All the structures are old with false fronts and made of wood or brick. We stop in the Roslyn Cafe which I'm told was a regular location in the series Northern Exposure. It's the happening place.

When in Roslyn, you have to visit the graveyard. Signs from town lead you right to it. It's huge and portioned out by ethnicity. In the coal mining heyday, some 28 different ethnic groups came to this town to work. We visit the Slovaks. Then there's the grave for infants Vera and Donald Clarkson. They died three years apart. Vera died at 2 months and 20 days. Three years later Donald died at 2 months and 8 days. Their foot stones bare their initials. The parents lost two children at very young ages.

We leave Roslyn and cross the Cascades to the west side and home. On this trip we couldn't get enough of things to see, the little towns, and the great hotels. Nobody complained though we dealt with very cold temperatures. It was a trip I didn't want to take. Much on the mind. Then we hit the snow storm and had to contemplate returning, staying put, or going forward. I had to reassess. Things were off kilter and I knew it. Part of it was me. All three choices were right and wrong at the same time. We wouldn't do neither, that was the right choice. Aaron and I went to get better chains and found the driving fine. We looked out over the interstate and it looked drivable. The old man at the visitors center also helped. The rest of the trip was a blast, in a way one of our best.