Friday 21 August 2015
Today, we planned to do some serious driving and move on from Washington to Montana. Much as we like pottering around on the back roads and byways, we need to move further east if we are to see the places we want to see.
I meant to comment yesterday that Washington is clearly one of the States that has opted to legalise cannabis. We've seen several shops openly selling it as we've driven around the State.
We got up early, had breakfast and were on the road by 0830. Our route this morning took us south from Wenatchee down the Route 28, initially following the Columbia river. Once again the valley was lined with fruit farms. We turned away from the river near Quincy and then headed south on Route 281 to join the Interstate. This road was lined with farms too, they'd kindly labelled the the crops that were growing there. I discovered that there is a type of grass called 'Timothy', I'd never heard of it before. It seems to be green when bailed.
We joined the I-90 at junction 151, set the cruise control for 70mph and headed east! We stopped briefly near Sprague and were offered free coffee and cookies by volunteers! I made a donation for my free coffee, the guy serving was dumbstruck when I turned down a cookie!
We left the I-90 at junction 282 in Spokane. This is a far larger city than I had imagined. We seemed to be in town with endless traffic lights on the Route 2 for miles. Eventually, we were back on the open road heading for Newport. The road was quite pretty, undulating through a mixture of farmland and forest.
At Newport, the Route 2 crosses the Pend Oreille river (pronounced Pond O'ray) here and entered the State of Idaho. Not far along the road, we stopped for lunch at Albeni Falls. The falls, named after Albeni Poirier ( whose name was unprouncable to the locals, so they used his first name), a Frenchman who setup a hotel here, are no longer evident as a hydroelectric dam was built here in 1955. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant picnic spot. We ate salad and fruit again. The river, like most in this area, drains into the Columbia River eventually.
From here, our route took us across the 'panhandle' of Idaho still on Route 2. We first headed for Sandpoint and the road flanked the banks of lake Pend Oreille. At Sandpoint the road turned NE towards Bonnar's Ferry. We then crossed the Kootenai river near Moyie on a very impressive bridge over a huge gorge. We stopped briefly to take a few photos here.
Not long after that, we crossed into Montana. The speed limits on Montana roads are famously high. Ordinary roads have a limit of 70mph, other allegedly have no limit. We drove very sedately at 55mph which was as well. The highlight of my day was seeing a skunk run out into the road in front of me! I managed to avoid it which was a good thing as the smell of skunk can last for hours. I've never seen a live skunk in the wild, only ever as noxious road-kill.
Somewhere between the town of Troy and Libby, we stopped to look at the Kootenai Falls. I left Lynn in the car and hiked down through the trees to the falls. They are most impressive and very photogenic. After taking a few photos, I continued down the trail to a wire and plank 'swinging' bridge over the falls. This too was worth a few pictures and the bridge lived up to its swinging name!
Finally, we arrived in Libby, a small town on the Kootenai. We'd booked accommodation at the Evergreen Motel. It is a pleasant place right in the middle of town. I think there are about 12 rooms surrounding a courtyard/parking lot. The receptionist was very friendly and said that she'd decided to upgrade us from a king room to a deluxe room. How kind! The room includes a full sized sofa, kitchen area and dining table.
We ate at a small casino in town. Clam Chowder Soup followed by Avocado Bacon Cheeseburger, no fries! Surely that has to be healthy, avocado, tomato, lettuce and dill pickles and the chowder had celery and potato in it!
I don't know about gambling rules in Montana, but I'm guessing they are fairly liberal as this town, population about 2000, has 4 or 5 casinos that we've seen so far!
We've just checked the weather for Glacier National Park for tomorrow. I reckon we are jinxed here! Tomorrow morning it's supposed to be 33F, yes, 33F with snow! Last time we were here on June 7th we got stuck in a blizzard! What is it about this place? Sunday, on the other hand is supposed to be 77F, how does that work? To be fair, we've had a few showers today and it's been thundering most of the evening.
We've seen more wildlife today than any other so far. In addition to the skunk, we saw deer, red-winged blackbird, Ospreys, vultures, red-tailed Hawks and a bald eagle.
Finally, we've now swapped from Pacific a Time to Mountain Time so are now only 7 hours behind UK time.
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