The factory tour was so fascinating, and it was such a treat to watch the blankets being woven so quickly (Did you know the machines can weave an entire twin-sized blanket in just 20 minutes? Amazing!).
We enjoyed watching the machines cards tons of wool and spin it into yarn. The blankets were all so beautiful and surprisingly soft (no scratchy wool blankets here- this stuff is super soft!)
We checked out the factory outlet store where blankets are steeply discounted, but the $200 price tag was still far out of my budget, so we just admired the variety of patterns.
As we wove through the remote areas of Eastern Washington, towns were few and far between. We needed to refuel and had 30 miles of driving left before we would be on empty. I planned on refueling in the next town, but we kept driving and didn't see any signs indicating when the next town would be. I began to get a bit nervous when we had only 15 miles left of drive time, but we finally came across a beensy town. Surely a town so isolated would have a gas station, right? Nope. We even pulled over and asked a local man where their gas station was, and he laughed before explaining the nearest station was in another town off our course, accessible by a little road that disappeared into the mountains behind the town. He wasn't sure the exact distance to this town, but estimated 14 miles. We could just barely make it. Unfortunately my GPS device couldn't connect to a satellite here, so I couldn't look up a map to verify his claims. He seemed honest enough, so we headed down this road. The miles went by as we became increasingly isolated from farms or houses, so my back-up plan of buying gas from a resident became less and less realistic. We would drive for miles without seeing any houses at all, so I was beginning to get nervous. The road became smaller and smaller as we continued, and I began to worry that we had been sent on a wild goose chase. We hadn't seen any other vehicles on this road, so I was thinking we'd be stranded for a while if we ran out of gas. I knew I could call our car insurance company for a free towing to a gas station, but we were in a winding valley with steep mountains hugging the road and blocking cell phone reception. I planned on hiking to the top of a neighboring mountain to get cell phone service, but I was worried about leaving the kids unattended in a vehicle on the side of an empty country road. I was praying in my heart that we'd either make it to a gas station in time or that we'd be able to safely access assistance if we were stranded. (And really, I was okay with either outcome- what a funny adventure story it would be after the fact!)
We were down to only 2 miles of drive time before we'd run out of gas, when suddenly we broke out of the mountains and we could see the town below us! We puttered into a station just in time and were SO relieved to refuel. We were saying prayers of gratitude for sure! Fun thing- this beensy isolated town had one of our church houses! It made my day to see the gospel established in such a tiny place. Oh- and this church was a really really old rough stone one, constructed in a unique way so it looked like a mix between an Old World castle and a centuries-old chalet. So pretty and so unexpected.
We drove 8 hours today, weaving through tiny scenic routes along the base of Mount Rainier. The views were so awe-inspiring and touched my spirit with the beauty of God's grand creations. I felt so humbled and grateful to the Lord for these beautiful scenes that enriched our day and filled us with joy. I feel so tiny and insignificant next to great mountains, but I am filled with delightful wonder when I ponder how God created this beautiful earth to give us a place of beauty to live in.....He created these so we could feel joy and gratitude. What a blessing it is to pass through this area and soak it all in!
See Mount Rainier behind them? It almost blends into the sky with the glacial fields reflecting the light. It was so gorgeous!
We also collected a couple of rocks to add to our souvenir stash. On this trip we are collecting samples of rock and soil/sand, then at home this collection will be stored in tiny apothecary jars with the date and location written on a paper tag attached to the bottle. In my head it looks so neat- you'll just have to trust me on this.
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