Oh Canada...Eh!!

Today is Friday, Sept 5th. Still staying in the Seattle area tonight. We had a great time today and took in a Mariners / Yankees game tonight.

Saturday, August 30th.

Woke up today after finally getting another really great night of sleep. It pays to stay in a place with electricity to run our heater!! Again, although we were only there for a nights staty, we really enjoyed this RV park just outside of Glacier. It was really nice and clean and had a lot of great amenities such as a TV lounge with WiFi which was heated. They also had very clean bathrooms and showers and a nice laundry facility. Seizing her chance, Bambi got up in the morning and did a couple of loads of laundry. We didn't bring a lot of extra clothes on this trip and I guess we were both digging to the bottom of the barel so it was good to have all clean selections again.

We left the RV park and eaded around the South side of Glacier park. Again, with a trailer, you can not go on the going to the sun road which cuts across the park. So we headed over through East Glacier and stopped for lunch at the Glacier park lodge at the East entrance of the park. This was a nice old place and still has a lot of it's original charm. It just seemed like the kind of place where Roosevelt himself would have stayed after a big game hunt in the park. The grounds here were beautiful and included a golf course and the front yard even had a little miniature golf course and flower gardens as well. The views from the dining room were really spectacular as you could look over at the parks mountain range while eating. Food was good and we were on our way again.

We headed up the East side to a little town called Babb MT where we took a left and headed back into the park to "Many Glaciers" area. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot we could see something was getting people excited. People were all standing in the parking lot of the campground store area and looking up into the mountain with their binoculars and spotting scopes. So naturally, we were curious and walked over for a look ourselves. There up on the mountain, just above the store area was a huge grizzley bear. It was a long way up but a couple let us borrow thier binoculars and you could see him quite easily. Cool to see.

We saw that this trail afforded yet another opportunity to hike up to a mountain lake and see another waterfall. Once we saw that the name of the area was Red Rock Lake and Red Rock Falls, we just couldn't resist. It was a couple of miles hike up the lake but was once again just beautiful. We finally reached the falls and though they were not nearly as tall as the 2000 feet falls we'd seen the day before, they were spectacular none the less. The really cool thing about these was that they had huge rocks and boulders in the river and in the falls. So, if one dared, you could jump from rock to rock and really get up in the falls and experience the place. Of course, we took the challenge and it was fun to get so close where we actually got wet from the mist of the falls.

We checked out the many glacier hotel and took off again.

We were headed to Canada tonight and we needed to get going in order to get through the border and then find a place to sleep for the night so we needed to hit the road.

We finally hit the Canadian border and got checked through with no problem. We were a bit surprised at just how easy it was to go through. We handed the guy our passports and he asked us where we were from and where we were planning on going and why. We told him we were just here on vacation and would be heading toward Banff. He asked us what was in our trailer and we told him that we only had camping gear and our bikes etc. He kind of looked over at it and said "ok". Then he asked us one more question... He asked "When does Canada celebrate the 4th of July?" Now the average tourist may get a bit tripped up on that one but not us...oh no. We said "Canada celebrates the 4th of July.... on July 4th. It just so happens that the US also celebrates their independance on that date." We were glad that we got it right too because I think the penalty for getting it wrong is your choice of a body cavity search or having to join them in a rousing chorus of "Oh Canada."

Ok, so I made that all up. He did ask us though if we were carrying more that $10,000 in cash either US currancy or Canadian? We actually laughed a little when he asked us that because if you know us... we usually have right around $6 cash between the two of us. Besides, we're Dutch... if we had $10,000 in cash, we surely wouldn't be parading it around the country!!

Anyway, we finally found ourselves in the little city of Cardston Alberta. We decided to stop for the night before it got too dark and cold... and besides, we were getting hungry. We were just driving through town when we saw a sign for another RV camp so we pulled in. This place was descent but not anything as nice as what we'd had the night before. We knew we'd been spoiled forever now. But it did have electricity - which we'd be needing tonight as it was going to get very cold again.

We unhooked our trailer there at Lee Creek Campground and headed into town where our AAA book on Canada said to try a little downtown pizza place called "Pizza and Cream." Once again, the AAA book does not lie. It was really great pizza - we talked to the owner and he said that the reason it's so good is that everything is made from scratch right there including the crust and the sauce. His sign self proclaimes it to be the best pizza in the world. Don't know about that, but it was definitely up there alright. The whole experience was fun as the place resembled a 50's diner with juke boxes on the wall at each booth and movie memoriabilia on the walls. They even have a phone on the wall at each booth that rings to the kitchen if you want to "phone" in your order when you're ready. Cardston itself was an interesting little town. It was originally settled by members of the mormon church who fled the US because of their anti-poligamy laws. Here's a question. What the heck does a guy even do with more than one wife anyway... Ok, I get the jokes and all the overtones but seriously??? I can barely hang in there against one wife... can you imagine three? Everytime you'd want something, you'd be outvoted and at the end of the day you'd just have three wives with headaches anyway. No, no... not for me. One wife is more than enough for me.

I just have to add something here. The reason I put "Eh" in the title today is that while I was at Palmer, there were a lot of Canadian students. We made fun of them because they always say "Eh" in a lot of their sentences. Now, apparently the expression "Eh" can mean a variety of things... It can mean, "I didn't hear you", "Do you agree with me", or it can just be a thing that you throw in at any point of the conversation for reasons unknown. Now surely, we thought, not ALL Canadians use this expression right? I'm sure they don't but we were only in that pizza place for about 3 minutes when we heard a conversation between a lady at one table and a guy at the other when the lady asked "So, what's your son doing these days eh?" Bambi and I both heard it and began using it in our own conversation. You should try it sometime eh? I will admit that one of my younger exposures to Canadians was only through the movie strange brew with the McKenzie brothers where they are on a journey to get free beer and end every phrase with eh. They also refer to each other as hoser but we never did hear anyone use that expression... that would have just been awesome though...Eh!

Anyway, we went back to our park where we got to meet our campground hosts. The place was being run by a group of kids (I'll say kids because they're a fair bit younger than me anyway). there was two young guys who appeared to be in charge, but I think they had all their friends over too. It was just fun because Bambi and asked if we could hang out in their office a while to blog and check email which was fun. We got to talking to them and it turns out, during the evening they run this RV park but during the day they are all whitewater river guides. They were kicking back in the office as it was cold outside and they were joking around and making fun of us mostly. We were all having a good time but they were definitely a care-free type of crowd.

We enjoyed hanging out there, but eventually we had to go back to the trailer for the night. It got really cold during the night but our faithful little heater really did the job of keeping us warm and it was greatly appreciated because when we woke up in the early morning, it was near freezing and pouring rain.

I guess God knew we'd had enough of freezing at night and got us to an electric site just in time!!

Glacier National Park

In keeping with my new tradition of keeping you all up to date on our actual location: Today is Thursday, Sept 4th and we are spending the day today and tonight in Seattle. We plan to stay tomorrow night as well as I was able to get tickets to the Mariners / Yankees game for tomorrow night at 7pm.

8/29/08

We woke up this morning in Kalispell MT and we were just glad to have woken up once again...it was very cold again last night. Of course that's what happens when you sleep NEXT to the brand new / beautiful Holiday Inn Express instead of INSIDE the brand new / beautiful Holiday Inn Express. We really didn't intend to go parking lot slumming last night. It's just that it got to be very late by the time we hit Kalispell and we were just both very hungry and tired... maybe even a little crabby by this point!! Anyway, we just needed to sleep and we decided that we could tough it out tonight. I slept pretty poorly and Bambi slept even worse. I woke up to find that she had spent 1/2 the night sleeping in the truck again. Then and there, we decided that if we're going to stay on the road, we need to find a place to stop a little earlier in the evening and preferably with electricity so we can run our heater!!

Anyway... we actually went inside the Holiday Inn to "borrow" their electric plug and WiFi so that we could check some emails... we also borrowed some heat which felt great. Now I'll admit... a part of me wanted to "borrow" some of that awesome looking continental breakfast they had going on. I've never seen anything like it... a veritble smorgasbord of french toast, biscuits and gravy (yeah, you know I loves me some biscuits and gravy!!), bacon, sausage, cereal, and fruit (if you're into that sort of thing). But, you'll all be proud to know that the code of ethics when it comes to supermarket (or hotel parking lot) slumming says it's ok to "borrow" WiFi, but we don't steal breakfast. I'll have to admit though, it was tempting to just try a little taste. But NO.

So, off we went. We were hungry though, so we went over to a Great Harvest Bread Company and had some breakfast rolls in Kalispell. Then it was off to Whitefish. Whitefish is a really cool town that I believe I talked about in yesterdays blog. Bambi and I spent an hour or two just cruising the downtown shops. We had to get going to make it to Glacier but there was a lot of Whitefish we hadn't seen yet like the lake and the ski resort area. I'm sure that the area would be a lot of fun to vacation in both Summer and Winter time.

We finally drove over the Glacier area and by the time we got to the Glacier West Gate, we were both just tired. Neither one of us had slept much and we were both just feeling it from the fact that we'd been driving so much the last day or two. So, we pulled into a nice parking lot in West Glacier... and took a nap. Oh, it was a glorious nap too. Bambi stayed in the truck with the windows rolled up, sun streaming in, so that she could get really warm. I crawled back in the trailer and left the door open with the mountain breeze blowing through... it was great!!

After a nice little power nap, we decided to just stay right there and have some lunch that we had packed along... yep PB&J. You know, I'm really actually liking the PB&J thing. Being now well fed, and well rested, we felt like a whole new day had dawned and we were ready to hit the hiking trails. And hit them we did. It wasn't but a few miles into Glacier and we saw a great hiking trail called "Trail of the Cedars". This was truly a beautiful hike. It starts with a little jaunt to Avalanche falls which is the narrow little canyon falls that you'll see in the picture. The water was really rushing through this little narrow slit in the rock walls and made a beautiful sound as it did. The trail kept going on though, and so did we. We checked the hiking sign posted at the falls and it said "Avalanche Lake - 2 miles" Little did we know that the 2 miles was all uphill. As we got going, we talked to some people coming down and just asked about the lake and they said, you've got to go, it is so worth it. They were right.

Hiking the Trail of the Cedars is like hiking in 2-3 completely different ecosystems. At the bottom, there is the crashing river and the ground around us was just completely covered in vegitation such as ferns and mosses - like the rainforest in Brazil. Then, as we climbed higher, we saw that the canopy of the trees was completely covering us and very little to no sunlight was getting through which made the ground cover very sparse. Here we saw almost strictly lodge pole pines. In some areas, there were trees that had fallen over in the wind and taken up huge areas of dirt with them. Then, as we neared the top, the trees cleared and it revealed a mountain lake with huge cascading waterfalls all around it. It was like a scene from an alpine adventure film. Absolutely beautiful. When we walked down to the lake, we looked at the surrounding mountains which were draining into the lake and there were at least six different waterfalls. The sign said that the falls are dropping some 2000 feet from the mountains into the lake valley we were standing in. It's as if God said, here, see what I can do. I can take something as simple as water and turn it into one of the most beautiful sights you've ever seen. Just awesome.

Again, instead of hiking the 2 miles back down to the truck, we decided to make a challenge of it and ran most of the way back. It was downhill but still enough to burn off the PB&J we'd had earlier ( I knew I should have borrowed some Biscuits and Gravy from the hotel!!). We got back into the truck and headed on with the drive through Glacier. We finally reached a road called "Going to the Sun" road. If you've never been there, this is the perfect name for this road as it twists and turns back and forth all the way up to the continental divide. The road is very narrow!!!! There are parts where you can't meet another car and there is no shoulder and no guard rail. This is why no trailers are allowed on the road, we had to leave ours near the entrance to the park in a big parking lot they have there. Actually, the road is only even open for a few months out of the year because it is usually covered in snow. At one station, we learned that in places, as much as 90 feet of snow can cover the road and when spring comes, it takes a couple of months to plow the road open. There was one point where we were on a sharp and very narrow switchback where you could litterally look out the passenger window and look straight down like 500 feet. I think that in this case, the road should be renamed the "I'm going to see Jesus" road. If you go off the edge, that's who you'd see next.

Luckily, I'm quite an accomplished driver... just ask any of my youth group kids who got to ride to Wal-Mart with me last year to go Christmas shopping for our community outreach night. As we were heading back to the upper room to wrap gifts, one of the kids just had to egg me on by saying, "hey Ross, can this truck even do a 360 on the snow???" Naturally, I had to demonstrate.

Anyway, we finally made it up the mountain and over the continental divide. We got out to take some pictrues and the temperature was notably different from where we had started... in the picture, you'll see Bambi has her hood up. She stayed out there just long enough to look over the edge, take a picture with me and then sprint back to the truck to turn on the heater. Not me... I had to take some time to spit over the railing!! Yep, I'm still 12.

We decided to drive just a little further before turning back around to go back and get our trailer. Because the road to the sun is the only road across Glacier NP and no trailers are allowed, we had to go back and stay the night at West Glacier and then drive around the South side of the park the next day. Anyway, we were about to turn around when we saw a young girl standing on the side of the road. she was not dressed too well (only jeans,a light jacket and a backpack) and Bambi looked at her and said, "Oh, she's got to be freezing!!" She was hitchiking, so we stopped and picked her up. She was just a little thing and after my throwdown with the criminal in CDA the day before, I knew if she got out of hand, I could handle myself. Turns out she was from Taiwan. She was just here in the States for the summer to work at the park. She was a really nice young lady and it turns out she was hiking and missed the last shuttle to where she works. So Bambi and I decided to just drive her there since it wasn't too far out of our way and like I said, it was getting dark and getting very cold!

We turned around and headed back down the mountain pass and got back to West Glacier just in time to grab some supper at a cafe before it closed for the night. Then we headed back in the direction of Whitefish and found an RV park that is still to this time, the nicest place we've stayed. When we got there, the lights were all turned off but a sign hung on the front door of the office that said, after office is closed, ring bell for service. If it's after 10pm, it better be an emergency! I glanced at my watch, only 9:55 - so I rang the bell. The guy came down in his shorts and t-shirt - you could tell he had been sleeping and I thought he'd be pretty mad at me. Actually, we was really cool about it. Probably one of the most friendly guys we've come across so far. At one point, Bambi said it was taking me so long in there, she almost called for help... only her cell phone wasn't getting very good reception. Anyway, the guy was great and I was probably in there for a half hour or so just shootin' the breeze with him. He fixed us up with a really nice site and gave us access to the lounge which had WiFi and cable tv which was cool since I haven't seen tv in 2 weeks... did you know there is an election going 0n in this country???

Anyway, we had a great night there and if you are ever in West Glacier MT - just East of Whitefish, go ahead and check out North American RV park. They'll treat you right.

Back to Big Sky...

Thursday, August 28.

Ok, so I know I'm a few days behind on my blog. It all started when we were traveling through Wyoming and Montana and staying at state parks with no WiFi... or electricity for that matter. So here's the deal. I still want to blog each individual day as they happened in order. However, just to give you an idea of where we actually are in present time, I'll now begin each blog with a quick update before going back in time...great, I shouldn't have written that last line. Now I have the theme music from Back to the Future in my head. (Gotta go back in time... do, do, do, gotta go back in time... Isn't Huey Lewis just the best?)

So, today is actually Wednesday, Sept. 3 (I had to check my watch to make sure... how's that for a different pace of life?). Anyway, tonight we are spending our second night in Vancouver BC. We skipped our trip to Banff because of a prediction of snow and freezing temperatures for at least the next 7 days... probably the next 7 months for that matter. We decided to just head west and get to the coast where we've been rewarded with beautiful temperatures (and beautiful scenery for that matter!!). So there you have it.

Now, back to our previously scheduled programming...

So it's August 28 and we woke up in beautiful Coeur d'Alene. This time we did not awake to the sound of rain on our trailer, instead, it was a perfect day with sunshine and warm tempertures. So, we had some breakfast at our campsite. Bambi had something healthy like a granola bar I think. She probably washed it down with carrot juice and a vitamin B injection. But no... not me. I splurged and got one of those prepackaged blueberry turnover things you can get at almost any grocery store. You know, I think they were made by Hostess or something back in the early 70's and have been sitting on the shelves ever since. They are one, individually wrapped, blueberry filled, sugar glaze coated burst of goodness!! Yeah, those! I hadn't had one in years because everytime I pick one up, Bambi says, OOOOOHHHHH those are soooooo good, but do you know how much fat is in one??? I then promptly put it back and go back to the granola isle. BUT NOT THIS TIME!! I tore into that baby and let the sweet blueberry goodness just role down my cheeks! Now this is living. I figure pretty much everything that I really like is hellbent on plugging my arteries so I'm embracing it and looking it right in the eyes as if to say... come and get me. At least I'll go with a smile...my teeth will be stained blue from the filling, but I'll be smiling.

Anyway, with breakfast behind us, we headed back to downtown CDA and Tubbs Hill. Tubbs Hill is just that... a hill right next to downtown CDA. Except the hill juts out into the lake and has been dedicated as a natural park with hiking trails. We took about 2 hours to climb over the summit, taking in the views of the lake, and also hiking a lakeside trail which afforded some more great views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. We had a great hike but at one point, I think we lost our path and got on a narrow foot path where we had to do a little rock climbing to get back on the main path. At one point, we decided to go to the water's edge and feel the water to see how cool it was. Bambi, in her infinite wisdom, found a log to stand on. But not me... Nope. I walk right down to the water where I bend over to feel the water as a large wave just happened to come in and cover my shoes and socks. So, I got to squish all the way back to the truck with wet feet. Live and learn I guess... live and learn.

We went back to the RV park where we got to take another shower and get into some clean clothes, pack up the trailer and we were off.

As we left CDA, we decided to stop off at a Safeway grocery store (not to sleep this time either, to actually buy groceries!!) We went inside and after walking around for about a minute or two, we could tell that something was amiss. Apparently, just less than 30 minutes prior to our arrival, the pharmacy desk at the back of the store was robbed at gunpoint!!!! No kidding this time. There were detectives hanging up yellow tape and taking fingerprints all over the place. They allowed us to do our shopping but we had to avoid one isle where the person had escaped down. As we were checking out, you could tell that our checker was still a little shaken and was having trouble focusing which is understandable. Not wanting to miss out on all the action, we just decided to have our lunch right there in the parking lot. It was cool, kind of like watching an episode of CSI. The detectives were walking around the parking lot when suddenly I heard some commotion behind our trailer. The suspect had actually returned to the scene of the crime to witness the commotion and one of the clerks recognized him. However, just as the detective turned to see what was happening, the guy pulled his gun on the detective and placed it on the back of his head. Everyone just froze and suddenly, Bambi and I realized that we were a part of this thing now. He slowly moved in behind our trailer, with the cop at gunpoint and started screaming like a crazy man. He said that he wanted safe passage to the outside of town. From there he went on with his demands saying that in return for the cop's life, he wanted one million dollars in unmarked bills and a helicopter. From there, he wanted to be flown to a specified airport where he wanted a Leer jet to be standing on the runway, fueled up and awaiting his instructions. The cop struggled a bit but the man pressed the gun further into his scalp and you could see he was serious. I knew that something had to be done. I was witnessing this whole thing go down just outside my review mirror. So, I crawled over Bambi and outside the truck. Bambi is all like "don't go..." and I was all like "It's my duty as an American... I'll be right back." I crawled next to the side of my truck and when I looked under it, I could see the two men still on the other side of the trailer. I slowly, and very quietly opened the side door to my trailer and chose my weapon. I could hear the police negotiator talking to the man and trying to calm him down, but I could hear from his voice that he was becoming agitated and that someone had to do something... quickly. I snuck around the side of the trailer and spotted the guy. I was nearly spotted but I quickly slid back behind the trailer undetected. Then, when he began yelling at the crowd again, I knew it was my chance... now or never. I sprang into action and wielded my weapon like a pro. I reared back and struck the man over the head. The detective sensed what I was doing and he stomped on the guy's foot making him let him go. The detective dove to the back of the truck and I reloaded and struck the man again... that's right, my weapon of choice was a marshmallow roaster. As he fell, I stabbed the roaster to the ground with one prong on each side of the man's neck, pinning him to the asphalt where he dropped his gun just outside of his reach. I stood over the man looking down at him. His eyes glanced to the right, toward his fallen weapon but I looked down at him and said "Sure, I know what you're thinking... he used one marshmallow roaster. But does he have another one?" "So, I guess all that's left is for you to ask yourself one question... are you feeling lucky...Punk!" "Well, Do ya'?" "Go ahead and make my day." At that, the man layed back, knowing that he'd been defeated. The detective jumped back over and handcuffed the man and said, "The city of Coeur d' Alene owes you a great debt." The store manager ran over and said, "Sir, how can we ever repay you?"

I looked at them both and said, "no need... I'm a Chiropractor, and whether it's saving people from the detrimental effects of vertebral subluxation, or apprehending gun-wielding criminals, it's all just in a days work. Well, on second thought, I would like to have a couple of those Blueberry turnover thingy's."

Ok... so only part of that story is true. It's all true up to the point where the criminal returned. The store actually was robbed just ahead of us getting there and we really did have lunch in the parking lot to watch the detectives do their thing. It was cool to see but we were glad we hadn't been 30 minutes earlier.

Anyway, I entitled this blog "back to big sky" because we decided to leave CDA and drive back East to take in Glacier National Park. We drove North on Hwy 95 to Moyie Springs ID and then East on Hwy 2 into Montana. Along the way, we stopped a couple times at some scenic overlooks and even took a hike to see the Kootenai Falls and Swinging bridge near Libby MT. This is one of those little stops along the highway that I'm sure most people just drive right by because it's only marked with just a little sign. There is no visitors center, nothing special, just a little parking spot next to the highway and a dirt path leading into the woods. But we figured, what the heck, we've got the time. Lets see this thing.

We were so glad that we did. The falls were truly impressive and the swinging bridge was just fun!! Just one of those cool little places you find along the way out here. The pictures of Bambi on the bridge don't do it justice. You're actually quite high and this bridge really does swing when you are up on it. You look down, and the water is really rushing by. Very cool sight to behold.

Anyway, after our little hike, we got back on the road finally ending up in Kalispell MT. Kalispell and it's neighboring town Whitefish are really great towns. Kalispell is growing like crazy on the north side with new housing and shopping all over the place. Whitefish, which we would visit the next day, is a lot like Jackson. Still has a lot of old West flavor but is lined with cool shops and restaurants. It sits at the bottom of a mountain with a world class ski slope called, appropriately enough, Big Mountain. Looks like another great place to take a ski vacation.

Anyway, we finally stopped for supper very late and we were just beat after driving in the mountains all day long. We grabbed supper at a Hu-Hot (It's no taco bell, but I love's me some Hu-Hot too!!) and then drove across the highway to a brand new Holiday Inn Express. It was a very nice hotel and was obviously brand new. Enjoy our stay... not really. We stayed in our trailer just outside the hotel and froze again because we had no electricity. You'd think we'd learn!!!! One thing's for sure... getting out of the trailer to go to the bathroom at 3am and looking up at the night sky was a great reminder that we were indeed, once again in big sky country.

Coeur d' Alene day 2

Day 11 - Wednesday August 27.

Day two in CDA began a little soggy. We woke up today to a steady rain. However, we had a nice place to hang out in our RV park. Bambi found the laundry room had a nice table and chairs and was a good place to just hang out and email for a couple of hours.
We had intended to get up today and go for a hike around Tubbs hill which is a forested trail around a hill right on the edge of lake CDA. However, since it was raining, we decided to push our hike to the next morning when the trails would be dry. Instead, we decided to just hang out at the RV park for a little while and then went to a place called Michael D's for breakfast. It's a little restaurant not too far from the lake but it served really good breakfast and the portions were huge. We decided that after eating there, lunch would not be necessary.
We went back to the RV park and just lounged around for a while and even took a nap. We then took a few minutes to call my mom and wish her a happy birthday. We also took some time to find a Palmer grad in town so that I could get adjusted which was nice.
Finally, the rains let up and the roads dried up nicely and we got out our bikes and took about a 20 mile ride up and down the lake shore on the Centennial bike trail which is a beautiful paved trail running through CDA and along the lake.
Later, we drove to a place called Capones for a pizza and called it a night.
Not really an exciting day, but we were ok with it because the scenary was beautiful and we really had no where else to be so we just took it easy and spent the day getting caught up on some sleep.

Way to go Idaho!!

So, by now you may have noticed... or not, that in each day's blog, I've included a picture of our truck and trailer in the place were we spent the night. You'll notice the absence of a picture of our rig in Butte Montana. Not for a lack of trying though. Here's the deal. We were leaving Butte - and glad to be on our way I must admit, when we realized about 3 miles down the interstate that we had forgotten to take a picture of where we'd spent the night. So, I turned around, drove back into Butte and repositioned the truck and trailer in the parking lot of the
Best Western with the Perkins attached and we took a picture. Now, after all that, can you believe that I must have deleted that picture before I got it transferred into the laptop!!
The problem was, I hadn't downloaded pictures off the memory card in a few days and when we reached CDA (Coeur d' Alene) it was so beautiful we wanted to take lots of pictures but the memory card was full. I began deleting pictures that I knew I had transferred over but must have gotten carried away and deleted that one too. Kind of stinks too because the way we're sucking up fuel, turning around to get that photo probably cost me $10. Oh well, you'll just have to imagine it for yourselves. Now, close your eyes and picture this. It's a town of about 30,000 people set in the mountains... but the town really isn't that nice. Now picture a Best Western hotel... you've seen them before, it looks just the same as all the others. Now picture a Perkins attached to it... and there you have it. See, wasn't that fun!! Now picture the rest. The sun rises over the Eastern mountain range, the air is cool but not too cold. You hear the gentle rustle of the wind in the prairie grasses and you see over to the side, a pickup with a trailer attached. You wait patiently and finally your perserverance pays off and the trailer door swings open and there he stands. Hair blowing in the breeze, muscles bulging from under his shirt as he performs his morning stretches against the backdrop of the eastern sky... It's him... Dr. Ross in all his glory. Ok so maybe it doesn't happen that way. More like - the trailer creaks as you can hear him inside cussing because he can't find the dang light. He bumps his head on the top of the door and falls against the wall of the trailer as he struggles to bend over and put on his socks. The door opens and his receding hairline glistens because of the oil in his hair... no shower last night either. He licks his teeth and breathes into his hand to check the breath... yep, good enough. He groans as he steps out of the trailer, reaches up with both hands, revealing his gut from under his old t-shirt... you get the idea. Oh that Bambi, she's a lucky girl!!
Anyway, it's on to Coeur d' Alene. The drive across Western Montana was relatively uneventful except it does provide excellent chances for Bambi to read to me about the towns we are driving thorugh. See, Bambi's mom Gloria sent us some AAA books with information about the states we are visiting as well as most of the area towns. It tells a short history of the area, along with any notable points of interest and then tells about area restaurants etc. It is really a cool idea and we've really learned a lot as we drive through these states gaining fun trivia. For instance, did you know that we drove right past the tallest free-standing masonry structure in the world. That's right, in Anaconda Montana, there stands a 585 foot tall smelter stack right next to the interstate where a huge mining operation used to exist. It was completed in 1919 and at the time was thought to be the tallest free standing structure in the world (you could easily place the Washington monument inside of it) and is still the tallest masonry structure. It's a relic of days gone by and a sign that Montana was, in the early 1900's, on the edge of technology thanks to it's mining wealth. We didn't get a picture, but here's a link if you're interested in a little Montana history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Smelter_Stack. We've read several other stories about mining and shipping tycoons who lived in these parts and were able to ride the boom to become some of the wealthiest men in the world back then. If you're traveling by car, the books are really fun to have along as they've taken us to some local restaurants that we'd have never tried otherwise but they are listed in the book. It's fun to get into some of these places and off the beaten path a bit. Although, if I was writing the book, I'd throw in a few more Taco Bells along the way... but that's just me!
Anyway... back to our story. Coeur d' Alene is every bit as beautiful as advertised and because we were so impressed, we decided to spend 2 days there so that we'd have a better chance of seeing it all.
Upon arrival in CDA, we went to the brand new visitors center down by the lake which is situated just across the street from "The Coeur d'Alene" hotel and resort that you will see in the pictures. We walked across to the resort which is the host hotel for Kyle's Ironman next summer. What an amazing place - way fancy!! It is situated on the side of the lake with an amazing view. The resort also boasts it's own shopping mall (attached) with easy access to downtown CDA. It has the worlds longest floating board walk which is really cool as it surrounds their entire marina so you can walk way out into the lake. It has it's own golf course with a floating green. The golf course is not attached to the resort, it's on the Southern part of the lake. However, guests of the hotel don't have to drive to the course... no, no. They are chauferred to the course on a private wooden speed boat with a cool class canopy over the bow for the golfers to ride in. Now that's classy. They have several world class restaurants and spas, swimming pools... the list goes on and on. What about us you ask... did WE stay at "The Coeur d'Alene"?? Nope... we slept in our 6X10 metal trailer - now that's livin'!! Seriously though, if anyone reading this ever wants to take a really nice vacation I could recommend CDA. Here's a link to the resort website if you want to really treat yourselves. http://www.cdaresort.com/
We decided to eat lunch in downtown CDA which is a really cool area just next to the lake and the resort. We ate at a place called Crickets bar and grill which had great food and we enjoyed it even more by sitting on their back patio with a view of the lake. The entire downtown is comprised of cool little shops and restaurants. They even had a free concert in a little park downtown with a band that was supposed to be like the beatles. We aren't huge beatles fans but it was fun anyway just to be outside and a part of the action.
We found a place to stay at Blackwell Island RV resort which was up to this point, the nicest accommodations we'd had so far. It was no CDA resort, but still pretty darn nice (It had showers, electric service at every site, AND WiFi... what more could we want!!) We checked in and paid for two nights which put us in a spot about 100 yards from spokane river which is a river that flows from lake CDA and the resort was at the junction of the lake and river which gave us some really beautiful views... all for just $37 / night. The lady at the front desk must have liked us because she was doing her best to see if we had any discount cards like Good Sam or AAA. Bambi said, we don't have AAA but my dad has the AAA towing service in Edgerton MN! The lady goes, "well that's good enough for me." So thanks Roger, you saved us 10% both nights!! After checking in, we went for a walk on the Centennial trail which goes around the lake and gives really beautiful views of the lake adn the surrounding mountains. We went back downtown too where we stopped at a bike shop to get some supplies and the manager is helping us out when I looked as his shirt and saw that it was a race shirt from the Living History Farms race in Des Moines. I said, "you by chance from Iowa?" He said that he was actually from North Liberty (Just North of Iowa City and one of the towns we're considering moving to as it is really close to where I'll be working soon.) We talked with him for a while and Bambi and I were talking about how fun it was to see a fellow Iowan in CDA. We walked around a bit more and decided to stop for ice cream at a local shop. We went inside and were asking the kid behind the counter about the ice cream flavors (Bambi settled on birthday batter -surprise surprise!! I tried the huckleberry which is a type of berry which is very common in Montana, Idaho, and Western Canada.) Anyway, we're talking to this kid and asking him a bunch of questions about CDA and what it's like to live there. He must have been about 16. Finally, we asked him if he was born in CDA and he goes "no, I'm actually from Minnesota originally" We're like no way - what part? He goes, "Well it's a really small town which I'm sure you never heard of called Jasper MN" In unison, Bambi and I were both like, NO WAY!!!! I think we startled the kid. For all of our Pella friends reading this, Jasper is only 20 miles from Edgerton and is actually in the same county. It was pretty fun and the kid seemed pretty excited to finally meet people who knew where he was from. He actually wrote down our names and said he was going to call his Grandpa who still lives in Jasper if he knew any of our family. Small world.
Way to go Idaho!! So far so good.

P.S. I did finally find that picture from Butte but decided to leave the opening paragraphs anyway. Here it is.

Big Sky Country

Day 7, Monday August 25.

We slept well our second night in Jackson Hole and really liked our Supermarket host but decided it was time to move on. Before we did though, we took advantage of a laundromat called the missing sock right across from the supermarket. Bambi did the wash while I... well, I guess I was sleeping yet. But in my defense, I had to stay up really late the night before blogging to keep you all up to date on our adventure. I did get up and straighten up the trailer and help Bambi fold and put clothes away and we were off.

We had read in a brochure that a place called the Teton Steakhouse in Jackson was advertising a $5.95 breakfast buffet and free WiFi. Lets see... you're saying that I can blog, check email, AND eat my weight in sausage gravy??? Well now, that's a deal!!

I always laugh when I get to go to a breakfast buffet and Bambi suggests to me as I'm coming back with like my third plate of biscuits, eggs, hashbrowns and sausage... all covered in gravy, and she says "Oh, did you see that really good looking fruit selection?" "You like fruit right?" Sure, I like fruit ok - if it was the only thing on the buffet... but if you think I'm going to waste perfectly good stomach space on fruit when it could be filled with biscuits and gravy... How long have we known each other?? That's why Kyle and I do buffets so well together, we've learned over the years to skip the salad and bread (the cheap stuff). If you're really going to put it to 'em, you've got to hit them at the meat section...wow, I' shouldn't have had those last two brats!! (Sorry Jason, I just had to put it in there somewhere)

Anywho... back to our little story in Jackson. After a really nice breakfast, Bambi decided to stay at the restaurant and utilize the WiFi while I took the truck and trailer to get fuel and to give them both a good wash. At this point, we'd been gone for a good week and the truck was getting a little funky too. Then we drove over to a Jackson community rec center that had an indoor swimming pool. In another brochure Bambi was reading (and she reads them all), she saw that visitors could pay a daily use fee to use the facility which included full locker rooms and showers. When we went in, we told the kid we'd like two day passes but that we were just going to shower so he let us in for free which was pretty cool. Either that or he could smell us standing across the counter, knew that we'd just spent the night in a parking lot and just showed us some Christian compassion... either way it felt good to be clean again.

We spent our last hour or two in Jackson just browsing through the shops again and picked up a couple of jackets for Bambi. Knowing we were headed North, we figured it was a safe bet to have a few more layers.

From Jackson we had a decision to make. Go back up through Idaho and back into Northern Montana directly to Glacier National Park, or take a detour to the West and go see Coeur d'Alene Idaho. See, a few months ago, we got an email from Bambi's cousin Kyle saying that he has registered for the full Ironman in Coeur d'Alene and sent us a link to the website. We looked it over and had never heard of Coeur d'Alene (or CDA as the locals abreviate it). Judging by the pictures on the website, we couldn't tell where it was. It looked as though it could be in France or Switzerland or something. The website showed a beautiful hotel on the side of a crystal clear lake, surrounded by mountains. When we found out it was in Northern Idaho, we decided it should make our list of places to see sometime. However, we knew that we wanted to go to Glacier and CDA was 2-3 days out of the way. Oh well, you only go around once right... we decided to see CDA and we were not disappointed. More on CDA later.

We headed back up past Yellowstone and decided to stay the night in Butte Montana. Now I have to say, we've seen some desolate areas of country but the drive from Jackson to Butte has to be one of the most sparsly populated areas in the country. They do have speed limits in Montana now but I think they are more like "suggestions" because there is just nothing for miles and miles...vast expanses of nothing. Every once in a while, you'd hit a small little town that offers gas or some food but even there, several of the exits say the name of the town and under it "no services." Not the kind of place where you want to push your luck on the gas gauge because it could be 70 miles before your next gas stop. Luckily we had our bikes along in the trailer so if we ran out of fuel, Bambi could always just peddal her little self to the next town with a gas can and get us fixed right up...lol, just kidding!!

Anyway, we finally made it to Butte. I have to say, we've seen some nice towns on this trip but Butte MT is not one of them. We finally did find a place to sleep (in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn with a 24 hour Perkins attached) but I didn't really feel safe like I had the previous two nights in Jackson. I'm sure there are decent places in Butte but it just struck me that this was an old mining town. The next day as we were leaving in the daylight, we could see the evidence of the mining. The story goes that the city of Butte was built upon a hill which was found to have an expansive copper seam directly underneath it. The city still sits on a hill, but half of the hill is gone and is replaced by a massive quarry or hole where they had strip mined the entire side of the hill way down into the earth. The story goes on to say that the hill was the most expensive hill in Montana as the copper found there, helped produce phone and electrical wire during the early days of the US industrial revolution. I don't really know much more about Butte but I wasn't exactly in the mood to stick around and learn more either.

One thing I can say, they call it big sky country for a reason. As I was driving across the state, I had plenty of time to look up (especially as there is long distances where there is nothing else to look at). The sky is truly beautiful and we have marveled again and again as we were in the state that, especially at night when the stars are out, the sky seems to stretch on forever. I've seen some really clear nights in Iowa and Minnesota where you can really see some stars. But the nights that we spent in Montana were really impressive as you feel like you could just reach up and touch them. If you take some time to look, you can see the hand of God all around you in the beauty of this country.