On Our Way Home
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2007
1
30
Trip End
Mar 02, 2007
Leavenworth,
Washington,
United States
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Neither one of us could sleep after that. So we finally gave up around 5:00 and got up. I repacked my bags, moving all the liquids into the check in luggage and redistributing things so I could make everything fit. Then we sat around watching the weather channel until it was time to catch the water ferry back to Belize City.
We stopped in Belize City for breakfast and then took a taxi to the airport. Everything was going smoothly until I went through security. At that point the security lady asks me, "Do you have a bottle of hot sauce in you backpack?" I start to panic! "I'm thinking about everything I moved and it suddenly dawns on me that I missed one bottle of hot sauce when I did all the transferring. Dang! She says, "If you don't want to loose it, you can check in your backpack." So, I stop Dave from going through security so I can transfer the stuff I need from my backpack into his backpack. Then I go back and check in my backpack. The rest of the air flights went smoothly. We stopped at Houston, had lunch/dinner, and then flew on to Seattle. Going through customs was the easiest I've ever experienced. They didn't ask us a single question. We weren't even sure we had gone through it at first because it was so fast and easy. We think it was because the plane was really late and a lot of people were going to miss connecting flights. So, they were rushing people through as fast as they could. Dave no longer looks like a hippie now that he has his hair cut, just a harmless old fart now. We got in at around 8:30 PM.
Once off the plane, we had to get a shuttle van to take us back to the Kirkland house so we could get our car. By the time we got into Kirkland it was snowing and there was about 2 inches of snow on the road. Some of you that haven't experienced driving in snow in the Seattle area may not realize how bad that can be. It's not so much the snow as it is the drivers. People in Seattle get stupid when it snows there. There were abandoned cars all over the place. Luckily, it didn't scare the shuttle driver too bad because we made it to the house without too much delay. We finally got to the house at around 10:15 PM.
We transferred to the car and then started heading for home using highway 2. What we didn't know was that I-90 was shut down so as we get around Index, we start finding a lot of semi trucks pulled over to the side trying to put on chains. Many more than is usual for highway 2. Right about at Index, so see this thing in the road up ahead and I alert Dave, "I think I see something in the road that looks really odd. I could swear it looks bird like?" Sure enough, it was a Great Blue Heron standing in the middle of the road, staring at the road, patiently waiting to catch something. Apparently, it got a little disoriented. It finally flew away. I thought that was going to be the strangest thing I would see that night. By this time, the snow had turned into more of a blizzard. We could hardly see where we were going, so I figured my chances of seeing anything more weird were not too high. Well, I was wrong because it wasn't much further on than we come upon this jack-knifed semi truck sprawled out on the road, almost blocking our way past it, but we managed to get around it to continue on. Only to find about six or more semi trucks also sprawled across the roads, some of them right in the middle and others somewhat jack-knifed, but not as bad as the first one we passed. They were all stopped and pretty much had the road solidly blocked. We didn't know what to think. So, we stopped and turned on the emergency lights and discussed our options. We really didn't want to turn back now unless we had no choice. We saw someone walking down the road so Dave got out and went to talk to him. That's when a truck started moving. He went around one of the other tucks and then another truck followed him. That opened up the road for us so we went on ahead. The snow was really coming down hard and it was wet snow. So we had to keep stopping to deice the wipers. The windshield kept icing up so we couldn't see through it. We must have pulled over to do this at least a dozen times until we finally made it up to the pass. At that point, the snow let up and by the time we made it into Leavenworth, it had completely stopped. We finally got home at around 4:00 AM. Boy were we tired! I don't think I have ever taken so many transport vehicles in one day before. Water taxi, taxi cab, air plane, shuttle bus and car.
Thinking back through our trip the highlights that come to mind are seeing the cuddle fish, going through the waterfall caves, seeing the manatees, snorkeling Sergeant Caye, swimming with sharks, experiencing Belizian Rastafarians. Honestly, I have never met a more genuinely friendly people as Belizian Rastafarians. You have to experience it to understand what I'm talking about. They genuinely wished for good feelings and experiences for everyone they met. My biggest surprise was to find a country that actually liked Americans. Apparently the United States has done some good things for Belize because so far, this is the first country I've come to where they actually liked Americans. It was a pleasant surprise.
Things I didn't like about my trip to Belize. Eating out all the time gets old, especially when there isn't a lot of variety. Don't get me wrong we had some great food in Belize and you can find some variety in the touristy areas, but I've been spoiled by living in Seattle where you can get just about anything you feel like eating without going way out of your way. Breakfast was especially boring. It was mostly eggs, pan cakes and french toast. I was so happy to come home and eat granola for breakfast. The pillows were awful! I coulnd't wait to sleep on my own pillow again.
Comments
Wow!!!
Thanks for a great travelogue. I enjoyed it very much. And I am very glad I was there.