Day 4 We drive across the state

A 300 mile drive through (mostly) barren countryside with three young children could be painfull. It turned out to be fun and fine. We started out with a brunch at Vaishali's newlywed cousin's house. I had never met the cousin, whom Vaishali hadn't seen in about a dozen years and it was the first meeting for all of us of her husband Sid. They are a delightful young couple and the South Indian cooking really hit the spot. Distance-wise though, we had not covered much ground. They live only about 4-5 miles from Mary & Rob's home. The next stop was in the area of Ellensburg to gas-up the Buick Rendezvoux. The girls mostly slept through the one part of the trip which has nice scenery. We stopped just a few miles further just after crossing the mighty Columbia river and looked at the horses. The piece is called something like: "The old man lets loose the ponies" and is a recreation in life-sized steel horses of the native's myth of where horses came from all of a sudden 3 or 4 hundred years ago. It was blazing hot there, dry and dusty too. The hill was steep and crumbly and the children flushed and recalcitrant. But really, it was a lot of fun and the view was great--plus, a real appreciation for the wonder that is air conditioning once we got back on the road. The rest of the trip should have been quite dull--140 miles of flat treeless plain. It went really fast though, the speed limit is 70 or 75 (can't remember now) so I went just under 80 the whole way. When there isn't much traffic there is less stress and you can listen to the itunes on the car radio. Day 5 pictures as soon as I find the time to post...