Day Seven-First day in Oregon

Today we leave the godforsaken state of Washington and it's 50 mile an hour windy day. We go to Oregon. As you all know, this is the state we can't stop talking about and we are finally going to see it.

I saw fields of trees, actual fields of evergreens and other trees that look like a corn field only, you know, trees. I still don't know what that was about but it looked really cool.

We go winding down the interstate and get into the Columbia River Gorge, which we are coming in from the east side so it is dry but really pretty. Just as we come to the top of this hill about to descend we see a bridge below and a line-up of cars. In front of them is an accident. We showed up literally three minutes after an RV blew over from the wind and it is now laying on it's side taking up both lanes. We are on the bridge so there is no getting around it. I think we sat there for an hour to an hour and a half. The wind was so strong it was actually shaking our car and we felt like we were gonna tip over. Then our fear of being sitting ducks on a bridge now overloaded with the weight of an hour of traffic sitting on it gets to us, anyone remember the 35W bridge collapse? We did, but no fear, they cleaned it up and we were on our way again. A little excitement for the day.

We still have a long drive, we went along and finally saw green trees in their natural state. The gorge is so beautiful especially once you get to Hood River. We saw one of the waterfalls along the highway and kept moving. We were really surprised by how much we liked Portland. We just drove through it but it's also so green and mostly built up along their two rivers so it's just a beautiful setting. This is getting to be a more difficult decision as we drive.

We decided to drive to the coast to spend the night. Chad found a reasonable hotel in Seaside, the town, on the beach and as you can see from the pictures it had a beautiful view of the sunset. We went to Norma's for dinner and Chad had crab, my crab cakes were THE BEST! and I had enough left over for lunch the next day. Good deal!

Check out the Hood River brewery Full Sail Limited Edition Beer, it's hella good.

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Day Six-Eastern Washington

Day six was kind of a long day. We took off after Chad was done with work and left CDA behind. I drove an unimaginable number of miles through really boring landscape, sorry Eastern Washingtonians, I didn't like it. The pictures featured were not the norm and some of you maybe don't like the views we enjoyed. It was worse. I know, I'm from ND and most would say that I shouldn't talk but the truth is, I thought it was ugly and an easy decision was made. We do not want to live in Washington, at least the majority of the eastern side is out.

As our pictures show we stopped to view the gorge, I think that was the Columbia River and there was a state park with 'petrified' wood which is cool. We mostly motored through this part of our trip and ended the night in Richland, WA. All in all, we had a great day together, we saw lots of orchards and vineyards which was a neat thing. Now we know where our fruit comes from.

Day Five-Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene ID

We woke up and cleaned up and then drove into Sandpoint to check it out. We walked around, found a Starbucks (in a town of 8,000) for a pick me up. It was so cold and rainy. I don't have many pictures from this day because it rained all day.

As we walked around Sandpoint we noticed a plethora of Real Estate companies. It seems like everyone is selling something up there. We decided to stop in to talk to an agent about the area and what kinds of properties are available that we can afford and would want. Pretty much anything you want you can get here. We spent an hour or so there and then decide to explore on our own. We drove to the airport where Chad chatted up a resident for half an hour and then we drove to the ski hill Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

There was a pub on the mountain so we had a pint and a big plate of nachos. The mountain is nice, they have good skiing, nothing too crazy but good. We learned from the bartender that they are only a couple hours from awesome skiing in Canada too.

It's pretty here and we were curious about the area so we drove west of town to take the long way to Coeur d'Alene(CDA). Not as pretty but again it starts to look really nice the closer to CDA you get. We stopped at the visitor's center and then drove along the lake, it's so beautiful, then we decide that since Chad has to work the next day that we better find a hotel room. Once we do that we go right to the nearest microbrewery Coeur d'Alene Brewing Company. There Chad enjoys the beer and especially the berry ones, Huckleberry! That was good. So Chad got a little drunk before dinner, it was fun and the burger was awesome at Moon Time. Another great
day!

Friends and family: from what you've seen of ID would you visit us if we move here? You can comment on my blog to share your thoughts.

Day Four-Our quest begins as we head to Missoula and Sandpoint

We woke up at the "Hotel Intrepid" parked in a nice parking lot in Kalispell MT around 8:00 am. The business we are parked by has a nice bathroom so we freshen up, we make a breakfast of yogurt and granola and are on our way to Missoula MT to see what the terrain is like down there.



The drive west of town is beautiful and then our drive south to Missoula is exceptional for the first hour, actually it's all beautiful but the lake goes on forever and is amazing. You drive along the banks of Flathead Lake which is unlike most places I've seen. It is very long, and must be very deep as there are sailboats in the lake. It is surrounded by blue-green mountains and truly breathtaking vistas. We don't stop, we just admire and drive on to Missoula where we find a truck stop to take a shower and then drive through town. It is surprisingly a nice city of around 60,000 people. We tried to picnic at the park by the Clark Fork river but the bees got the best of us and we end up eating our sandwiches in the car.

Off we go as we have a good long trip to Sandpoint, ID to take. We pretty much follow the beautiful Clark Fork river right into ID. The land surrounding it is also pretty with nice hills and trees. We start to think this is going to be a tough decision for us. As we are about 20 miles from Sandpoint we begin to see the Pond O'reille Lake. It is huge and so beautiful. Sandpoint sits on the north end of the lake and is surrounded by tall evergreens. They have water activity and a cutesy touristy downtown and are 20 minutes from a ski hill. This is something we could get used to. We found a state park and set up our tent for the night.

We decided to leave off the rain flap so we are open to the air and starry sky. We put together a salad of greens and spinach with tomatoes, nuts and dried fruit, chicken and salad dressing we brought. It would have been a great night to picnic but yet again the bees got the best of us and we ate in the car. I have to laugh it's just the way it goes. We went to sleep to the sounds of silence surrounded by giant evergreens. Not a bad day all in all.

Day Three-Drive through Glacier National Park

We wake up on Saturday and enjoy breakfast with our hosts before we pack up our things and find a place to have our oil changed. We are in an older car and need to pay special attention to how it's doing since we are counting on it getting us from point A to point B without stranding us on the side of the road. Anywho, we find the Jiffy Lube and spend almost $300 to make sure all the lights and liquids are taken care of. The crew was really nice and we think they are honest about their recommendations so we take them.

A couple hours later the hose they replaced and told us would not last long needs to be looked at so we stop in a small town on our way to Glacier at the local NAPA and they guy behind the counter gets under our hood and makes us a new hose to fit. (who does that?) We give him a nice tip for spending an hour on us in the hot sun and we are on our way.

We get to the entrance of Glacier National Park around 5:30 pm and we begin our drive. We find a nice hike to take with the time we have and LOVE the park. There is a huge beautiful lake as soon as you come in with dramatic rocky mountains surrounding you at every turn. We park in a nice parking lot and hike to a beautiful view point, take pictures then hike to two different waterfalls. The hike was great, the trails are well maintained and natural. The smells of all the trees and plants is wonderful and we are loving the mountains. We find the shuttle bus stop and they shuttle us back to our car so we don't have to walk all the way back.

We need to start thinking about getting through the park and finding a camping spot. We drive the rest of the two hour drive on the Going-to-the-Sun road and find out there are no camping spots left and it's dark. We end up getting a chicken sandwich at the A&W in West Glacier and drive to Kalispell where we spend the night in a parking lot. Really, not too bad although next time we will grab our sleeping bags as it gets COLD at night.

Day Two-On the road through ND and Montana with a stay in Helena

The second day of our trip I woke up at a decent time, despite our late arrival in Dickinson. I tried running to get my blood flowing for the day and quickly realized that my body thinks I'm crazy so I went for a nice walk and saw a fox in the yard. How cool is that? I got ready and got Chad out of bed and we were on our way by 8:30 am MST.

I drove so we stopped at the Painted Canyon rest area which gives you a glimpse of Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l Park and then took a quick drive through Medora, ND where I spent two summers in high school working at a cafe. Chad has never been here and I thought he'd like to see where I hung out when I was younger.



We were on the open road again and the wind was blowing I would guess 35-50 miles an hour right at our car. Let's just say we didn't get great gas mileage on this day. We have our first trip mishap in Forsyth, MT by locking our keys in the car where we stopped for gas, at the gas pump. Lucky for us we begin to remember how nice and helpful people can be once you leave the city as the gas station attendant called the local locksmith for us. He was there in less than 20 minutes and charged us $10; we were pleasantly surprised and can't stop talking about it and telling everyone.

I got back on the road and drove us all the way to Bozeman where we stopped for gas and Chad began to drive us to Helena to visit Adam and Mara and their son Ross. We got there in good time and Chad made them Lime Halibut as a treat for letting us spend the night, Mara makes great cheesy potatoes and treats us to Huckleberry ice cream. (we soon learn that huckleberries are huge out west in the mountains) We have a great time with their son and catching up on all we've missed since they moved from Fargo, ND. We had a late night with some wine and beer and then it's off to bed around 2:30 am.

Day One-Overnight in ND

Chad finished work, we packed the car and set off on our quest for a new home out west. We left Minneapolis at 7:45 pm CST on Thursday, August 21 and settled at my mom's house in Dickinson, ND at 3:45 am Mountain time. We visited with my mom and Keith for almost an hour then they got ready for work and we went to sleep. It has been a good trip so far, kind of a late start but we made good time and will get to sleep in a comfortable bed tonight.

To be good road trippers I have treats for the trip along with a packed cooler to help us save money on meals. We bought water at Costco, along with fruit and veggies, salad, grilled chicken, dressing, lunch meat, bread, crackers, cheese, yogurt and granola and soda. We are off to a good start to save money and time on the road.