Continuing on in our fashion of going at our own pace, Dawn and I slept in a bit, had a good breakfast before breaking camp, saying out good-byes to Silverline before heading on to the last stop, Leavenworth.
The evening before, both Paul and Rick had come bearing gifts of Apple-cooler beverages from Canada and really good cider from the Methow Valley Ciderhouse.
After inquiring after its location, Dawn and I headed a short distance down the road from Silverline to the Methow Valley Cider house.
Dawn was quite happy with her cider findings 
, sadly, they only had our favorite, Honey Bear, left on tap, so we ended up picking up a bottle of Howling Wolf and Pinnacle Goat for the road.
Up in the hills, where’s our Mountain Goats? There were fences all along the side of the highway to prevent them from jumping out into traffic, but we didn’t see a one. This time of year is when they’re winter coats are growing in and the goats are somewhat interesting looking.
Paralleling US-97 now… This side’s still prettier, less like an interstate, more like a meandering highway, which is more my style .
High school graduating classes? Sadly our picture didn’t come out too good due to sun glare on the windshield.
Last year, I followed the Rally route to the letter and ended up caravaning with the rally for the last pull to Leavenworth. Because of my attempt to keep up with the rally last year, I ended up broken down in Toppenish, WA.
So, this year, given that we already were a fair ways behind everyone else, we decided to take a detour and travel the US-97A along the opposite side of the river and try a different view. We passed through Chelan along the way and big Lake Chelan tucked up in the hills, hidden from view from the main US-97 route.
We’d also heard tell of Mountain Goats being prevalent along that route as well, but sadly, we didn’t see a one.
Frankly, out of the two, US-97A is a far more scenic route, though not as flat or as fast. If I was to take the same trip again, I’d go US-97A every time.
When we pulled into Alpine View RV Park, we barely made it. Within a few short minutes after we’d gotten the camper plugged in and leveled off the bus to take us into town for the group dinner at King Ludwigs arrived.
Sadly, we missed out on Torklift Rob’s product demos this year due to our late arrival, but at least we didn’t miss the bus.
Talk about cutting it close!
This years dinner at Ludwig had alot more attendees than last year… Enough so that they had to move us down into the big lower area in the backroom to fit us all comfortably.
There was beer…
And random pictures taken of several of the “boys” coping a feel on the St. Pauli Girl cut-out, which I sadly have no picture of.
Frank, our favorite accordionist was back, and of course, the customary Chicken Dancing was performed .
After dinner, we returned to camp and huddled around two campfires built of the remaining wood brought from Silverline. Sadly, George, Alaskashooter wasn’t able to join us in Leavenworth.
As we huddled around the fires, the rains finally caught up with us again, having been left behind back on Friday when we first started over the mountains from Arlington.
Not wanting to leave my comfy spot by the fire, I brought out my trusty umbrella and hunched up under it as the rain came down and I puffed on one of my last cigars.
Eventually, we all retired for the night, Dawn having gone to bed far earlier with Moby, too full of food and spirits to stay awake for too long.
The next morning, I floated around camp in my shorts and a t-shirt, doing my best to get pictures of our gathering at little Alpine View RV park. We never did see the park owners, simply left our payment in the box at the door as we headed out.
Even as early as I had gotten up that morning, a number of folks had already pulled out and hit the road.
Eventually, we said our good byes to everyone, leaving behind only a couple of rigs before we too, pulled up and headed out onto Highway 2.
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