Day Eighteen: You Can't Ride in My Little Red Wagon

Even with the train across the way, last night was not totally unbearable. I think the train only passed twice during the night. The rain held off for the most part- it only drizzled a little. When we woke up, it was a little windy and I was afraid it would pick the tent up and crash it into the barbed wired fence behind us. Apparently, the campers out here wake up slowly, which made using the bathroom very convenient. We spent this morning at Riverfront Park today. It's a really cute park in the middle of downtown Spokane. There is a sculpture garden there, and it has some really amazing pieces. The first one we came to was a bunch of runners made from metal. There are a whole bunch of statues that are running around the corner to the finish line. Robyn elbowed the winner out of the way to win the race! The next one was the Red Flyer. Or, in this case, the very large red wagon! It is absolutely ginormous! You can also slide down the handle. I realized that I don't like slides very much. There are also a whole bunch of "real" sculptures. There is a large Chinese lantern and another in the lake (I'm not exactly sure what that one was supposed to be) Unfortunately, we didn't see the garbage-eating goat sculpture. The park has beautiful flowers all over the place, so we were able to get some cool pictures of them. There is also a clock tower that has bells that ring every hour. The park is also "home" to the Spokane Falls. Not quite Niagara or Grand Coulee, but it is apparently the largest falls in an urban area in the country.
After that, we spent some time in River Front Square, which is a shopping mall. It is a very high-end set of stores. We went to a store that was probably the coolest store ever! The store is called aNeMoNe. They have an entire store of paper flowers! They make all of their flowers at the store. They make bouquets, corsages, barrettes and hair clips, and anything else that has flowers on it. We went to a few other stores, but they were too expensive for our budgets.
We were trying to go to Riverside State Park, but decided we didn't want to pay for how long we were going to be there. It was only going to be a 10 minute deal, so we chose to forgo it. We spent the afternoon getting the car checked up, so we can continue our trip. We passed the time watching reruns of Friends. It's still funny! After about 90 minutes, the car was ready to go. They even washed it for us, for free! It's time the bugs got off the windshield. Gross, I know, but we tried countless times to get them off, and just couldn't! We then to Walmart to get some stuff for dinner and breakfast. We're going to give the grill another go around, and hope that it works this time. If not, we can always make oatmeal! They have everything you need at the Supercenters, even wine at $3.45 a bottle. The one thing that is weird about this area are the roads. There are quite a few that are one way, but they're like 4 lanes wide, so it makes it hard to judge where the car coming towards you is headed. After that, we came back to the camp and took it easy. As we are making dinner there is this little boy, like 15, who keeps running back and forth with his backpack, like he is going on some strenuous run through the camp. There are only 3 'roads' he can run here, and it's not like it's that hot...Just saying. So, now it's time for some dinner and wine, and maybe some picture posting!

Day Seventeen: Welcome to Washington!

Today was an exciting day! We travelled through three states today and hit 4,000 miles. We left Montana rather early this morning. We were planning on having breakfast at the camp, but apparently there was some miscommunication and it started at 8:00, instead of 7:00. So we decided to head out, so we'd be in Washington that much quicker. We stopped at McDonald's to get some coffee, and we were a little nervous, because the last time we went there, the kid couldn't get the order right. But the girl today looked competent, and made a good cup of coffee. Now if only that old man didn't cut me in line...
At around 10:00, we crossed into Idaho, and into the Pacific time zone. So, we are officially three hours behind everyone at home. Luckily, it was only about 80 miles through the state. There wasn't much to see there. One state kind of mixes into the next up here.
At around 12:15 (our time) we got into Washington. The first city you get to is Spokane, which is where we are staying tonight. They were doing some road work, but luckily we got the "Welcome to Washington" sign. Since it was too early to go to our camp site, we decided to take a drive to the Grand Coulee Dam, out in Grand Coulee (creative, huh?) It was only about 87 miles out of the way, but we probably wouldn't have seen it if we didn't go today. It was huge! It's like a mile long, 550 feet high, and it took 12 million cubic feet of concrete to build it. It dams up Lake Roosevelt, which is around 150 miles long, and reaches up into Canada, and the Columbia River. Apparently when they put it to use, they flooded out a whole bunch of towns. On the way out, we passed through a city named "Wilbur". Their mascot?? Wilbur, from Charlotte's Web, of course!
When we finally got back to Spokane, we went to the Visitor's Center, to get some information and to see what attractions we shouldn't miss. The lady there was super friendly. She gave us a bunch of different ideas and places to go. It's an interesting place, to say the least. The drive out is like desert/plains. The city is the second largest in the state, and the Capitol, but you wouldn't guess it. We went to the campsite, and the girl at the front desk tells Robyn that there is a lot to do here. Also, there is a train that goes by your site every once in a while. (Here comes another one as I write this) We pull up to our site and the maintenance guy is coming around with a wrench, turning off the sprinklers that have been watering our area. It makes it very difficult to dry off our already-wet tent... "It's OK, this area is on river rocks, it should be dry in a few minutes". Great, so now, not only do we have to sleep in a wet area, he failed to mention that it is very difficult to stake your tent in to an area with river rocks. We are just hoping neither of us gash ourselves with the half-in stakes.
After we set up our tent, we were looking through the books, to plan our stay. Some girl comes over, asking us if we know where the Air Force/Navy base is. And then asks where the bathroom is. Then tells us she "scored off the charts on the Air Force test". It was 3 minutes of our life that we are still confused about. We have to keep looking over our shoulder to make sure she's not around. I think I brought a lock with me...
So, for now, it is time to look for things to do tomorrow, hopefully with no disruptions! Hopefully we will have some time to put new pictures up tomorrow.

States Visited: Connecticut, Idaho,Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming (13/50)
Provinces Visited: Ontario (1/10)
License Plates Seen: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming (49/50)
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan (8/10)