Day 5: Puyallup, WA

0 miles!

Thank you, Lord, list:
Great worship
Travel protection
Ferns under Douglas firs
The miracle of baby bison
Family who is still family even when you don't see them very often

We worshipped at my sister-in-law's church, Bethany Baptist, Puyallup. Great music. Sermon was on the Good Samaritan with an interview with a couple who met as urban search and rescue workers on the Sumatra tsunami. They just returned from a week in Nepal digging victims out from the earthquake. Talk about good Samaritans.

Pat's husband, Bob (my brother-in-law-in-law?) took the car to be serviced before we head into the wilds. They found a leaky fuel pump and a tire with a major bubble with the tread coming off that could easily have caused a blow out.

"Probably a pot hole," the mechanic said.

We hit a bump on a bridge yesterday. This was not the usual tummy-tickling bump; this was a hit-a-two-inch-wall kind of bump. We checked the alignment after, and Steve looked at the tires, but this bubble was on the inside out of sight. Those spectacular views coming down the mountain would have been a lot scarier to contemplate while hurtling over the edge or spinning out of control in traffic. Thank you, Jesus! May your hand continue to be upon us as we head north.

This afternoon was spent at Northwest Trek, a sort of zoo in a forest of tall Douglas fir, the second tallest tree in Washington. Northwest Trek features indigenous animals like foxes, lynx, beaver, bear, etc., in natural habitats. This raccoon was a cutie.

These moose in the free-roam area were right up at the fence.

A tram carries visitors on an hour tour of a free-roaming area. The wheel chair we rented for Mom gave us seats in the front car with a great view of moose, caribou, mountain goats, big horned sheep, elk and black tail deer.

The mom and baby bison were right in the road.

Brother-in-law Bob cooks on the weekend, so we returned to all the young adult kids home for one of his fabulous dinners that had been brewing in the crock pot while we were out. Tomorrow we head north. Bryan is recently into hiking and it was great to see his pictures of a recent climb in the Snoqualmie are that we came through on the way here. Makes me very jealous.

Afghan update: The Internet did NOT make a mistake. (Imagine that!) I just wasn't bright enough to realize that knit 2 tog 3x at the beginning of the pattern and knit 2 tog 3x at the end of the pattern means knit 2 tog 6x except at the beginning and end of the row where you only do a half pattern. I still needed to rip out because I was doing it wrong, but at least now I know what I am doing. I think.