13th Day (Spokane - Leavenworth)

Our hotel gave us vouchers for a burger joint around the corner for breakfast, so we head there at 9 am and eat what the Americans call a breakfast burger. In this case, without a patty, but with avocados, egg, and tomato. It's called New Mexican and tastes simply excellent. The Ruby can be highly recommended, the price-performance ratio is phenomenal for a downtown hotel in this great city. After fortifying ourselves, we take Highway 2, which we prefer over the interstate, which may be faster to reach the destination but also more boring to drive.

We drive for about 2 hours through one of the breadbaskets of the USA, interspersed with pastureland and sometimes desert-like areas. Huge wheat fields alternate with grass and farmland, and here too, the horizon appears particularly wide and incomparable to a European road. When refueling, you come across small shops that sell iced lattes with 20 flavors and homemade cakes with ice cream. Almost always, people ask where you come from, and everyone is delighted that you have taken the long journey from Germany to travel this country in this way. There are no major cities here, the number of inhabitants in one of the few settlements is probably less than 500, and numerous farms with huge fields around them show how sparsely populated this land is.

But that's exactly what makes it unique, and as we reach Highway 97 in Orondo and follow the Columbia River, the circle closes for me, which I started 10 days ago when I followed the river further north on my way to Kelowna. I can't believe what I have seen in the meantime, and it seems almost unreal that this was my route in the other direction such a short time ago.

We continue on Highway 2, which, together with Highway 97, represents this section, until we catch sight of our motel just before Leavenworth, which is located directly on the highway. Of course, we get a room facing the street, but there is a relatively large pool where you can refresh yourself. For dinner, we want to go to Leavenworth, which is 8 km away and tries to attract visitors with an original Bavarian alpine village. However, our worst fears are exceeded. Firstly, it is difficult to find a parking space, then it is really crowded everywhere, and on top of that, every cliché implied by a Bavarian-German life in the American imagination is fulfilled. The carriage driver dressed in a dirndl wears leggings under her costume despite the high summer temperature, the steakhouse is called 'Mozart' (freely based on the famous German composer), and 'Tannen-baum shoppe' is probably the name for a typical Bavarian Christmas shop. The bratwurst is served in a hot dog bun, and the line in front of the counter shows how much this specialty is enjoyed. We flee. It's as twisted as Winnetou in Bad Segeberg.

Just a few meters from our motel, there is a diner that offers solid American food without any frills, no sauerkraut burger, no Mozart steak, no schnitzel with seafood. Beef sandwich au jus. With onion rings. Welcome to the US of A!