Year 4, Day 7

Day 7...we are starting to wear down. The 500 miles of wheat fields and cows has stopped being absolutely beautiful and the miles and miles of straight roads has hypnotized me one too many times. But, we did it. We made it. We saw it....whatever there was to see. We started by determining that driving farther east was not the best plan. Thunderstorms and me do not get along well. So we headed southwest...Ive decided that the west is best for me. After multiple miles of wheat we found the "wheat montana bakery". Wow. The grind it and make it all right there. The best cinnamon rolls ever! So good we decided to get sandwiches and take those too. One man buying a bucket of ground something that we later determine was cereal. Becca was sure it was for his horses...but nope it was for him. Wonder how long that lasts? Back on the road again amongst the golden wheat fields we headed toward earthquake lake. What a scary place. Basically in 1959 there was a 7.5 earthquake in the river valley. A mountain collapsed and in 20 seconds stopped the flow of the river and burried the area under 400 feet of soil / rock. 23 people were buried alive and a lake was formed. The cabins and campsites were instantly gone and the lake began filling at a rate of 9 feet per hour. The mountain appears to still be falling...we stayed enough to take a picture and get the heck out of there. Spooky! The death clouds as I call them starting seaking us out at that point. I forced my way around one cell while lightning flashed and the sky grew black. Just in time we exited the freeway and made it to the potato museum with 20 mintues until close. Figuring this would not be a giant stop, we covered it in 15 and found a hotel before the next death cloud was over top of us. An early night hidden away from the weather although what is out our window is a bit scary. A long drive tomorrow back to moms in Sparks. Its been a good year this year. Lots of beautiful countryside and lots of fun in the car. What will next year bring..not sure yet, but we cant wait to get there. For another year - Traveling Mama

Year 4, Day 6

So Thankful for day 6! We survived the crazy hotel. Our first day with just us girls! LOOK OUT! Chris is headed south with our new / old Jeep. We are on our own from now on... Heading east down the quaint hwy 200 we made our first stop at the national bison range. HA! We basically paid $5 to use the bathroom and drive in a circle on a gravel road. No bison. Oh well. We saw a "private heard" just down the road...right next to the "jerky" sign. Then we headed to all of our favorite spots! Glacier National Park!!! This is a must see for anyone. Beauty like nothing else. Amazing, overwheling, powerful. Wonderful. The pictures will not do it justice. Get there and see it. It was raining when we were driving in and the clouds broke and it was perfect all day. We took a hike, drove the "going to the sun road", stopped, stopped again, and then stopped some more. Perfect day...then we left the park and the clouds closed in on us and tried to give me another stroke. So much for "big sky country" welcome to black sky, rain and fear for your life country. Trusty mom in the backseat found a road around the cell and got us safely to Great Falls for the night. A nice welcome from two die hard well manered cowboys and KFC in the room (worst weve ever had) and now mom and Becca are back from the vending maching with $5 worth of food. Joy. We have altered our plans for tomorrow because the angry want to kill me thunderstorms are coming back tomorrow. We have decided to head for the hills instead of the plains. Im gonna need more seeds in order to get out of this weather! For now...Traveling Mama

Year 4, Day 5

Day 5 completed. Check that off the list. Becca and I watched a video of the world record waterfall drop a few months ago. This was done at Palouse Falls in Washington. So...we had to go see it. Its 186 feet and scary! I could barely stand near the look out spot, much less go over the falls in a kayak. Silly guy! This place was so far out in the middle of nowhere that mom and Chris thought I was completely insane! We finally found it down a 15 mile dirt road. Good visit after busy Seattle. Then we headed toward the second crazy / weird stop for the trip. We went to Colfax, WA to see the "worlds largest totem pole / worlds largest football memorial. Yep, pretty cool. A tribute to a game played in 1938 in the snow and the rematch 50 years later. No one in town seemed to care about it, but we checked it out anyway. Then for the best stop of the whole time. Sandpoint, ID where Becca was born. The room / hospital was exactly the same and everyone was so glad we were there and welcomed us. So fun! The cabin was next. Love this place. So important to me and so full of memories. We picked up our new project from my dad...a 1965 CJ5 Jeep. Cant wait to get that going again and take it Jeeping. Our stay for the night was at the lovely 1/2 star hotel in Noxon. Shag carpets, wood paneling, 70's lamp shades and a box fan to stay cool with. Swell. We put the chair under the door in case we were in the "vacancy" hotel. A little sleep and on our way thankfully! - Traveling Mama

Year 4, Day 4

Day 4 down. Today was a city day. We left the beautiful country side and headed for Seattle. Water water everywhere is for sure. The ferry was giant. Two decks of cars. We were all a little frightened when the logging truck, 18 wheeler, and tanker truck boarded. CRAZY. Two school busses got off as well. Holy Moly. We were welcomed to Seattle by a ton of cars, noise, congestion, and craziness. City life...definately not for any of us, but we made it. Our first stop was Pike Place Market. Cool for sure, but the fish throwing portion was not very cool.. no one doing anything and too cramped to see anything. However the flowers and fresh fruit / veggies was worth it. So beautiful and wonderful smelling. If we could have removed 10,000 people or so it would have been better. We also experienced the gum wall...yes an entire wall covered and I mean covered in gum. GROSS to say the least. I feel really bad for those living / working around here. ICK! Our last experience was to walk about 20 blocks or so to the space needle. Cool for sure. A very beautiful place, but we all enjoyed the glass garden more. Amazing blow glass sculptures that amazed us. When we had had enough we quickly (as quickly as lost tourists can move) got back to our car. It took 25 minutes to go several blocks. City experience for sure. Glad its our only day in a big city. We headed east and toward the trees / farm land of eastern Washington where we will spend the night. We missed by one day the small town fair / rodeo of Ellensburg, WA. DARN! But a very friendly town for sure. We have soaked in the hot tub and releived our stress and now we rest for Day 5! - Traveling Mama

Year 4, Day 3

Day 3. Best day so far for sightseeing. What a beautiful state Washington is. My favorite so far of all the states along with Tennessee. So green. So natural. So Pretty. The day started off at the Ape Caves near Mt. St. Helens. A mile long underground lava tube you climb down into. We made it down and about 500 yards. One flashlight in hand. DARK! Holy smokes was it dark. It was like being inside the stomach of a giant. It was wet, drippy, windy, and DARK. You could not see in front of your face if the flashlight was out. With no extra batteries and not a lot of courage we decided not to go all the way through. It was still cool and we made it far enough that we couldnt see the opening any longer. Instead we explored the lava flows above ground around the mountain. Then we headed west. The Olympic National Forest greeted us multiple times along our way. This place is amazing. Trees, trees and more trees. The Quinot rain forest was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Its a temperate rain forest and in the US, they only exist along this area of the northwest. Amazing. We could have explored there all day. Among this area is Forks, WA where the Twilight series was filmed. None of us are fans, but still cool. The town is overrun with Twilight everything. Tonight we stayed in Port Angeles, WA. Just outside of town is a lake called Lake Crescent. This will be my home someday. Tall mountains around a clear cold lake. Fish jumping, sun setting around hanging clouds. Dreamlike. We can see Canada out our hotel window. The lights of the ports flashing, very inviting. But Canada is not on our list so we will just look across and imagine. Until tomorrow. - Traveling Mama

Year 4, Day 2

Day 2!!! We started the morning in Roseburg. Nothing much here but a good stopping point along the river to rest for the night. An early start took us over the coastal mountains to the pacific. A large heard of elk greeted us in Roosevelt. Green pastures, trickling water, ocean smell, and bull elk. What a great way to start a morning. Continuing on to Florence, OR we made our first "tourist trap" stop at the sea lion caves. A speedy fast elevator took us down 215 feet to the worlds largest sea cave. The sea lions were not inside today since it was so beautiful, cant blame them, but the cave was cool anyway. The elevator didnt count by 1, 2, 3 etc it counted by 10, 20, 30. Wow that was quite the ride! Today was the first day we took the interstate. Darn! But we had to get to Portland. Being Labor day weekend the traffic was miserable. We should have taken that as a clue....traveling up a long windy road alongside the river we arrived at a beautiful dome shaped building, the Crown Pointe Vista House. Really cool place apparently built in 1917 as a "stop along the road to rest". Its made of marble and rock and has a beautiful view of the Columbia and Washington across the way. A good stop but too many people. The next stop should have been Multnomah falls...but AHHHH the people. It took 30 minutes to just pass the parking lot. So we took pictures from the road. Oh well, cant beat them all. So now we have arrived at Lisas house. Shes made a great dinner and some homeade ice cream for later. A nice bed to sleep in should start us off on a good foot tomorrow.

Year 4 Day 1

Greetings from Oregon! Its that time again . We started out in Sparks, NV picking up mom and then headed north. Some familiar places along the way including Susanville and Eagle Lake. We headed toward Oregon after of course stopping multiple times along the way. Crater Lake was our first stop. We drove from the south entrance to the North entrance along rim drive. What a beautiful place! The water is so blue and inviting. We read that it is the purest water on Earth! Way cool. Every over look stop later we headed west again toward Toketee Falls along the Umpqua River. This river reminded us so much of the Truckee river and of course Chris wanted to stop and fish every chance he got. No fisning this time, but maybe a place to keep in mind for later. The falls were beautiful! Toketee means graceful and graceful they were; however, Mom was not so much. She took the first fall of the trip tearing the skin on her other knee. Swell. We stopped tonight in Roseburg Oregon. Of course there is a pool and of course its a Holiday Inn Express. Our usual. Tomorrow we head off toward the coast and some cooler ocean winds. Enjoy the photos for now. :-) - Traveling Mama.

Year 4 Getting Ready

Greetings all. Year 4 trip is almost here. Trip will be Aug 31st - Sept 8th 2013.

Day 1 - Sparks, NV to Roseburg, OR with stops at Crater Lake, and Toketee Falls
Day 2 - Roseburg, OR to West Linn, OR with stops at Oregon Dunes, Sea Lion Caves, Portland Rose Garden, Crown Point Vista House and Multnomah Falls
Day 3 - West Linn, OR to Port Angeles, WA with stops at Ape Caves, Olympic National Park and Hoh Rain Forest
Day 4 - Port Angeles to Ellensburg, WA with stops at Space Needle, Pikes Place, and Norther Exposure Restaurant
Day 5 - Ellensburg, WA to St. Ignatius, MT with stops at Codger Pole, Becca's Birthplace, Family Cabin, National Bison Range
Day 6 - St. Ignatius, MT to Great Falls, MT with stops at Kerr Dam, Glacier Park
Day 7 - Great Falls, MT to West Yellowstone, MT with stops at Roe River, Moss Mansion, Pictograph Cave State Park, Prairie Dog Town, Earthquake Lake
Day 8 - West Yellowstone, MT to Sparks, NV with stops at Mesa Falls, Potato Museum, and Shoshone Ice caves
Day 9 - Reno Hot Air Balloon Festival and Home

Cant wait to go! Another fun year ahead. :-) Join us by following my blog.