We got an early start Friday morning, on the road by 7:20. We had wanted to get at least to Coeur d'Alene, ID so we could get home with a long day on Saturday. We have learned through the weeks of travel to start early to avoid the winds and have extra time to relax before dinner and walks.
Passing Missoula, MT and traveling on through Montana, we reflect on how much we enjoy Montana and will be back soon to visit Glacier National Park (still my personal favorite NP) and revisit the state that we think is one of the most genuine and "no-nonsense" of the many states we have visited over the years. We discuss each state as we travel, as probably many of you do. We talk about the rank of the state for land mass, population and the nickname of the state. I am particularly fond of Wyoming, "the equality state" -- the first state to sign suffrage act into law, first to allow women on a jury, first female court bailiff and first justice-of-the-peace, and the first female governor! You go Wyoming!
Montana is the "treasure state" and ranks 4th in land mass. Idaho is the gem state and ranks 11th in land mass but 39th in population! Washington (the left state) is of course the "evergreen state" and ranks 13th in population. We have a ranking system for the roads we have traversed, and Montana and Wyoming rank pretty well! Idaho does well, too. California, Arizona and New Mexico, you've got work to do!
We passed the RV Park we were scheduled to stay for 4 days near Coeur d'Alene, ID and could see from the highway that the river was very close to the park and it was continuing to rain....we felt sorry for them - their full park a week ago had been reduced to zero with the constant rain! Hope they will make it up over the next few weeks. The rain/flooding continues to be a problem all through the northwestern states as we cross the border to Washington and see the Spokane River over flood stage too.
Ritzville, WA becomes our final stop today, 331 miles after our start in Deer Lodge this morning. It's an interesting park, across the street from a golf course and adjacent to a cemetery! I went to highschool in Dayton, WA, which was a school that played Ritzville in football every year. They would always beat us!
When we settled into our campsite, we were next to a gentleman who was attending his 1961 HS reunion, and remembered playing Dayton in football, too. He was gracious enough not to remember our frequent defeats! He warned us that they were rowdy in high school and would likely be loud coming home...we told him we were okay with the 9:00 noise!! ;-)
We're watching the Mariners game tonight for the first time in several weeks...it's against the NY Yankees and so we're glad to see the game on TV. As we have mentioned, we haven't seen much TV in the last few weeks so it's good to finally see the Mariners!
We're trying to make it home tomorrow, assuming no major weather issues, so we'll do our last post tomorrow, but as we travel in the moho in the future, we'll blog here at this website each time for anyone interested. Our next trip will be to Lopez Island to see what's happening with our garden planted before we left on our RV trip! Can't wait to see!
No comments:
Post a Comment