POST #2 -- Leavin' Tacoma

"WHO IS THIS GUY?"
And why is he leaving Tacoma?

He's called "New Beginnings." But he's not leaving Tacoma. He's just arriving at Tacoma's Union Station, the grand western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Completed in 1887, the Northern Pacific was the first rail line to reach Puget Sound by crossing over the Cascade Mountains. Its impact was enormous.
Tens of thousands of late 19th Century adventurers and fortune-hunters from the East disembarked at Union Station to seek their "new beginnings" in the Great Northwest. These travelers -- and the railroad that transported them -- transformed Tacoma into a frenzied, fantastic Western boom-town. The local population exploded, growing from 1,098 persons in 1880 to more 83,000 by 1910. There was wonder and wealth and wickedness aplenty.









O.K. "SO WHO IS THIS GUY?"
Well, it's me.

And yes, I AM leaving Tacoma.

I'm ready to seek my own "new beginnings" after having spent nearly 2 weeks in Tacoma attending to personal business and getting ready for D-parture Day (tomorrow.)
My decades-old BMW is now perfectly tuned and safety-certified after a thorough going-over. The trunk has been shoe-horned full of tenting/camping/adventure/travel gear... yes, including even the infamous 'clown bike'... which is actually inside the trunk in this photo.

As I leave T-town, I'll drive right past Union Station.

I'll cross the Cascade Mountains at Snoqualmie Pass, just north of the still snow-shrouded 14,400 foot Mount Rainier and not far from the famous 2-mile long Northern Pacific Railway tunnel at Stampede Pass, an engineering marvel in its day.







My subsequent posts may occur daily... or every few days, depending on wi-fi access and whether or not there's an interesting story to tell. Thanks for following along.