This blog post has been a long time coming, its a few weeks late, man it's getting harder and harder to find the time!! But here goes!
So, one weekend two of my au pair friends and I decided to go and try our luck with the mountains. We left on Saturday night, after I drove for almost 2 hours to get back to Seattle from the place my host family and I had been camping that weekend. The girls, Gabriela and Rie, were so amazing - they prepared all the food for us in the time that I was driving down. It worked so well, I picked them up and they loaded in all our supplies and away we went! It was a 4 hour drive to Mt St Helens, our first stop. The car ride felt very quick and we even made a couple of stops along the way to Subway and to get a banana milkshake (its not an obsession! I can quit at any time! *shifty eyes*).
When we entered the Mt St Helens park it was so misty and foggy I could only make my way because the GPS showed me the curves and intersections of the road. We parked up in a lonely carpark at a picnic area at the base of the mountain. We set up the bed and bunked down for the night, even watching a bit of a movie on Rie's laptop. Talk about luxury! With three of us in the back of my car it was a little cramped, but at least none of us were cold - in fact we were so hot we had to throw off my lovely big cosy duvet cover.
During that night I can't say I got much sleep, I was concerned that park rangers would be out at any moment to make us move on. In fact, when I saw lights flashing I was almost sure that they were outside taking photos of my license plate in order to fine me, but it turned out to be lightening! A storm was raging a while away, we listened to the thunder and watched the lightening. I thought it was terrific, here I was, lying in the back of my comfy car, looking out the windows at the lightening at the base of Mt St Helens. Living the dream! One of the girls then said that actually she was quite scared of the lightening, so I offered to pray for us and our protection, and for the storm to end. So I prayed and next thing I knew the sky was cloudless and full of stars. I was able to lie back and see the stars through the windows! That was the first miracle of the weekend, and believe me there were more to come!
The next morning I woke up nice and early. Outside it was misty and grey, looking across the carpark to the Stallion, it almost looks like a horror movie scene!
spooky!
Breakfast on the mountainside: yoghurt, banana and orange juice
Just before we left the carpark some park rangers pulled up to change the trash bags. I asked them what the weather was like on the mountain and they told me that it was a perfect blue day on top of the mountain, we were just in a valley. How happy was I to hear that!!!? So we kept driving up and up, our ears popping at every new elevation. When we got near the top a surprise awaited us, Mt St Helens was popping out of a perfect misty white cloud!
Looks like it's floating!
We continued driving right to the top where the visitors centre was located. We got there and found out that it was going to cost $7 to get in. So, we turned around and left. Just kidding!!! We went in and learned a lot about the eruption, we watched a couple of informative movies about it and read a lot of information boards. It was so interesting, the entire top the mountain just slid off the top in the largest mud and land slide in the world, if I remember rightly.
You can see the scars on the land remaining from the massive eruption.
We left Mt St Helens and made out way to Mt Rainier. It was about a 2 hour drive to get there. As we approached the mountain, it was very cloudy and overcast. I was so worried that I would get to Mt Rainier for the second time and still not be able to see it! So I prayed that the clouds would dissipate and that we would be able to see the mountain. We kept driving, and as we got closer and closer, we began to notice the clouds breaking and the sun popping out! By the time we got to the entrance of the park it was a perfect blue day with literally not a cloud in the sky!! Thank you, Lord Jesus!!!
We drove through the park up to the amazing lookout of Paradise. As we slowly wound up the mountain I noticed the temperature of my car rising and rising. I knew we needed to stop soon, but there was nowhere to stop, I needed to find a carpark, and fast!!! I found one, and as I reversed back into the park the temperature was getting too hot and before I had even finished parking I heard a noise and then my bonnet started smoking!! I immediately shut the engine off (still hanging in the middle of the road! luckily enough into the carpark that I was not obstructing anyone's way.) I had just opened my door and popped the hood, had not even stepped out of the car, when suddenly, walking towards me out of nowhere, was a man carrying a large container of water and tools. He talked briefly with me then examined my engine - I was still wondering where he even came from!! I hadn't even had time to get out of the car myself before he showed up carrying all the equipment! He found out that my radiator hose had disconnected, so I had lost all my coolant and my car had overheated, but thankfully the head gasket was not cracked, which was my main concern.
My angel of a helper used his tools to reconnect the hose, and he filled it with water, and told me some steps of what to do in order to be able to drive home. I mean, we were stuck halfway up Mt Rainier, it was a looong way from home!!! He said to let the car cool down, go and enjoy ourselves, take a little hike, take our photos, then come back, fill the car with more water and make our way home, stopping to put in more water when we needed to. I thanked him very much, he said he had just got back from a hike and he just happened to be around when we needed him. I was so thankful that he was around! He really was an angel.
So we did just that: headed to Paradise and took lots of pictures, went for a short hike and just enjoyed the magnificent surroundings and the sunshine!
Perfect day!
Wow! Waterfall and Mt Rainier with all it's glaciers.
The girlies :)
After a fabulous time there we went back to the car and followed the man's instructions.
haha! Stuck hanging in the middle of the road!
We filled up the water and checked that everything looked ok. I knew that once we got on the freeway it would be ok because the air flow would be sufficient to cool the car down, the problem would just be getting to the freeway, since the speed limit in the national park was 15 and just too slow to get any cooling relief from the air. So I cranked up the heating inside to help it a bit and we headed down the mountain, me driving as fast as the cars in front of me would allow. We had to stop several times and fill up the water because the slow speed was just killing my radiator. Every time the temperature rose to a dangerous level I would pray and the temperature would go down. It was an incredible miracle of provision from the Lord. I was so thankful. I was even more thankful when we safely got to the freeway! There I could really relax because the air flow put my car back to a normal temperature. I was able to drop my friends off at their houses safely, and get myself home too.
The next day I took the car to the mechanic, who found a slow leak in my radiator. I had to replace the radiator so now my Stallion is back in fine form! Ready for the next adventure! Thank you Jesus! :)
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