One L-O-N-G Day

After getting off to a 5:00 am start, we were able to put an enormous number of miles (or kilometres) on this little SX4 today -- almost 1200 km. It was dark when we started, and it was kind of fun to try out the new GPS right from home. I am sold on this little gadget. Our friendly voice, Susan, guided us every step along the way. And what a way it was!

We stopped just past Bellvue to get gas. Of course, we chose the most expensive gas we could find. Back on the road, and up Snoqualmie Pass . . . big mountains, big roads, big rain. I finally realized that the 12 volt splitter that was supposed to be providing power to both the GPS and the fridge was not working. We took turns plugging in each unit until we got to Ellensburg where we found a Fred Meyer's store and spent $3.99 on a new one. The useless splitter I bought at Canadian Tire cost $10.00. That little detour made us late for our lunch meeting with Laurie, Brandon, and Tyler in Spokane, and in my rush to get going, I forgot to fill up again with gas. "No worry," thought I. Well, big worry! The gas light came on and we seemed to be miles from anywhere. Susan, and the GPS to the rescue. We coughed our way into a little service station and found gas at about the best price we had seen.

We finally got to Spokane and had a nice visit with Laurie and the boys -- back on the road again after an hour or so. Lake Coeur d'Alene is one of the prettiest lakes around, but the rain and clouds prevented us from seeing all the beautiful views along the way. We entered the mining area of Idaho -- Kellogg and Wallace especially. The mountains here are big -- massive rather than craggy -- covered with dark green trees and lots of rounded grey rock. The little towns show their history. The buildings are old, but there is plenty of evidence of a downtown that obviously served a larger population than the four to six thousand who now live in this part of Idaho. Apparently there are still producing mines in the area -- mostly silver. In any case, it seems like an honest, blue collar area -- even the scenery is no nonsense, honest, and solid.

Fourth of July Pass and Lookout Pass brought us into Montana where we snaked through a narrow valley with the Clark Fork river winding along, first on one side of the highway and then on the other. We must have crossed about a dozen bridges over that river.

The valley opens up a bit at Missoula, and then narrows again along the road to Butte. I remember this part of Montana, but we couldn't see much because darkness has settled in. We are now in Mountain Time, so we were even later by the clock than we had planned.

Tomorrow will see us getting into the Big Sky Country of eastern Montana and then along to a bit of Wyoming and into South Dakota. It is amazing how the miles and miles take us gradually from the lush greenery of the coast, to the dry desert of Moses Lake, to the wide valley east of Spokane and on into the rocks, mountains, rivers and trees of Idaho and Western Montana and finally back into flat, dry land.

Whew! That's all tonight.