Head East on Badger Road

The title of this post is a a paraphrase of one of the directions Google Maps gave me today. I was trying to find a place called Sumas International Motorsport Academy in, surprisingly enough, Sumas, Washington.

This line stuck with me because going west is often colloquially used to denote going on some sort of adventure, or more generally, the spirit to travel into the unknown. Hundreds of thousands of not-quite-yet Americans did it to make this country what it is today. Before that, even larger numbers crammed their families onto boats or struck out on their own to find what they could find across that vast alien world we call the ocean.

On this occasion, however, I was heading east to some place I had never been; east across a state, like many others, whose very existence is owed to the idea of "going west." What I found going east genuinely surprised me and made me excited to discover what else my adoptive home has to offer in all directions of travel.

While heading east, I was shocked all over again at the sheer amount of green that covers Washington. A sort of green that wills itself into your field of vision. For someone raised in the browns and tans of Las Vegas, Washington's landscape says one thing:

"The Pacific Northwest is verdant, dammit, get used to it."

I found that the area's natural green is only one of its many shades. There is also a green that people have created and now tend: the green of agriculture. Perhaps it was just the road over which I traveled, but eastern Whatcom County seems to be filled with corn fields. Such fields even skirted my eventual destination, which brings me to my next observation from today.

Washington is a land of near-opposite juxtapositions. The rolling hills and grasses of eastern Washington next to the snow-capped peaks of the Cascades. The natural emerald of the state's forests with the man-made green of fields upon fields of corn and other crops. And today, I experienced one more to add to the list:

The tranquil, pastoral setting of a farm next to the tiny roaring engines of a racing kart track.

Of course, the karts were sleeping today on my visit to Sumas International Motorsport Academy. But the upcoming weekends will awaken them once again, and the ever-present smell of the dairy farm will mingle with that of burning rubber.

And because it's Washington, the two will fit together.

What's my point here with this long-winded description of about one and a half hours worth of driving? It's this: Washingtonians, both native-born and transplanted, should get out and explore their magnificent state. Pick up a compass, pick a direction, and just go.

You will not be disappointed.