Although I can't speak French, I am familiar with the term deja vu, which refers to the feeling of already having experienced something when we're actually experiencing it for the first time. We've all had that feeling, and I certainly have felt this illusion before, but never has the feeling haunted me so much as in my trip through Washington state.

It all started--without my even being aware of it--on the first day's lunch stop in Leavenworth. We had just crossed the Northern Cascades from Puget Sound. It was gloomy and raining when we left the Seattle area, and as we ascended to the 4,000-foot Stevens Pass we climbed above the weather to discover the sun shining brightly on the clouds below.

A thick coat of evergreen and pine trees envelope these Cascade Mountains just like the Rocky Mountains. Dropping down the forested eastern slope of the mountainside, I had no clue of what lay ahead--for all I knew these mini-Rockies continued forever, all the way to Idaho. But suddenly the road delivered me to an open flatland garnished with the small town of Leavenworth. It was obvious that the tree-covered mountains I had just ridden over were now behind me and something entirely different lay ahead.

Leavenworth, which proclaims itself "Washington's Bavarian Village," is exactly as you would imagine--fashioned as a quaint little German town. Anyone who has traveled in Europe would no doubt have the feeling that they've been someplace just like this. That's what I felt.

After lunch we ventured out on a road along the Columbia River. A road that hugs a river always reminds me of the time I rode through Idaho along Highway 55 on the way to Calgary. I had never flirted with a river so long as on that Idaho trip, meandering through sweeping turns and crossing bridges from one side to the other. I'd also encountered roads like this in Colorado and Utah, too. I'd seen this before.

Then we arrived at Chelan, located at the very south end of Lake Chelan. Wait, I think I've been here, too. But no! I've never ridden in Washington state, so how could I have this feeling of having been here? That evening in Chelan the day's ride played and replayed in my mind, reminding me of journeys in other places. I've never traveled in a state that made me think I was somewhere else until this trip through Washington. And that was just the beginning.

During each day's ride I had brief flashbacks--sporadic moments that took me back to another ride in another state--that made Washington feel somehow familiar, yet ... different. I was getting the impression that it's as if the state tried to duplicate every part of America, not to copy it exactly, but instead, to put its own unique spin on it.

And it made me wonder, is the state of Washington simply an imitation of the rest of this country, or is it an enhanced--even perfected--version of the United...