SirArlo and St. Helens

In my backward journey of "posts that would have been" I came across this one that I was certain I'd posted, if for no other reason, it was most definitely a highlight of the last couple months.

One of the trips we did when we were in St. Helens, OR was to go back into WA and see Mount St Helens.  I remember my Dad talking about when he visited my cousin in WA state many many years ago and how impressed he was at seeing Mount St. Helens.  Well King Richard and I shared that awe.  Perhaps Sir Arlo did as well, but in the photo above I think he was much more concerned about being still and "posing" on a two and a half foot stone wall!

There were so so many photo opportunities that day - I think I took close to 200 photos and narrowed it down to probably 125, then continued to narrow it down to a dozen or so to post on the blog ~ an all too typical scenario.  Problem with this one is that there's been several weeks between this trip and the posting - yup my bad....

From the time we got off the interstate to the observation area (absolutely outstanding area by the way) was about 50 - 55 miles.  Quite a bit of the road was windy, climbing road and the closer we got to the observation area the "dicier" it got - sharp turns and steep drop offs - the King didn't see a lot of the drop offs - a difficult task when your eyes are closed!

One of the "things" about not doing a blog post within a day or two of the event is that you forget what the heck you were thinking while you were experiencing the event!  With that said, all the photos above and the one directly below were taken from points along the way to the observation area.

The remaining photos were taken from the observation area where I felt I could just reach out and touch the mountain.  One of the ways my Dad described Mount St. Helens was "the side of the mountain just blew out" ... well that is true - the side blew out and the top blew off!  

I truly deserve a dope slap for not doing this post much sooner, I've forgotten so much of the descriptions I would have given these photos!  This area was such a treasure, such an interesting experience and I just am not doing it justice.

With all this said, we are leaving Idaho in the morning and headed to Rick's preference of repair facilities in these parts - he has three I guess ~ one in SC for anything chassis, our best, most reliable and honest for repairs and modifications which is in Louisiana and the one we are going to tomorrow (where we were about two years ago, which sort of set the 'tude I have about Utah).  Since Rick set up the appointment there a week ago we've had a supply line to the water heater go - ummmm let's just say I do NOT take cold showers - perhaps I'd take a cool one if needed but cold - well no way, no how ~ that's why there are motels I think .... we shall see, with that said I won't burden anyone with too much information!