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)

Day Sixteen: Glacier National Park & Northwest Montana

We travelled to Glacier National Park today. Like we said before, there's not much in between one city and the next here. Their state highways look like town roads back home, except you can go up to 70 (which I wouldn't suggest). It took about 4 hours to get there. When we finally did, we drove down the "Going to the Sun Road". Unfortunately, it was blocked after 16 miles. We drove as far as we could, but didn't see too much. There is a gorgeous lake there, Lake McDonald. The water is really blue, but it looks like there's a hint of green, but it's from the trees. There are mountains all over the place, too. Unfortunately, we did not get to see the actual glaciers, which was really disappointing. We would have had to drive around the perimeter of the entire park to get to the other entrance. We tried to go down one of the roads, but it was a roller coaster dead end. The potholes on the road were like a foot deep, spread across the width of the road. We only spent an hour or two there.
After that, we decided to stop at this place called "The Red Caboose". It's a little DIY frozen yogurt shop in a building designed like a caboose. It was delicious and totally worth it! We tried their huckleberry flavor, since that's the state fruit. It was OK, but I don't think it's something you can eat too much of. After that, we decided to go to our campsite and set up. We're all the way in the back. I hope there aren't any bears around! The camp has a petting zoo, with a llama, a baby cow, a miniature pony, two donkeys, two alpacas, and a goat with really long, scary-looking horns. But luckily they were all more interested in eating. We took a walk around the camp. It's surprising what some of these RVer's bring with them. There is one with a light-up palm tree and festive lights.
Now that we are all settled in, we're going to take some time to plan our stay in Washington. We'll be headed there bright and early tomorrow morning! So exciting! Not only will we get two more states on our list of crossings, but we'll also cross into the Pacific time zone. We'll be totally confused as to what time it is!

States Visited: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming, Wisconsin (11/50)
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)

Day Fifteen: Week Three

We didn't do much today. There isn't much to do here in Helena. It's a kind of boring Capitol city. So we kind of just relaxed. We tried to go through the 1000+ pictures we took in Yellowstone. I don't think we finished, there were so many! We found some things to do out in Washington next week. And caught up on laundry. Nothing like a dryer that only half-dries your clothes, and then gets stuck so you can't add time to dry the second load. We had to spread the clothes out all over the room to dry them....annoying. We went out to dinner and decided that whoever lost rock-paper-scissors would drive to Glacier and the other would get to take all the pictures! So Dawn will be driving and I will have the camera. YES! (Another thousand to look through) Oh, and in the parking lot, we saw a maroon used-to-be luxury limo. Probably the most ridiculous car I've seen in a while. It looked like two cars that were fused together, but you couldn't tell where. If that was the case, it was pretty impressive. However, it was rather interesting last night as we were going to bed. The sun here doesn't set until 9:45ish, so it was still possible to see outside that late. Kind of screws you up a little. You think you'll go to bed once it's dark, but by then it's too late. Just an interesting tid-bit. Anyway, not much else here. Now it's off to Glacier, and then Washington!

States Visited: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming, Wisconsin (11/50)
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)

Day Fourteen: Big Sky Country

Today was not a very exciting day. We decided to take a few days to regroup and relax. We started off pretty early- even earlier than the kids next to us (turns out they were up, just waiting to yell and scream). After fighting with the tent for a good half-hour, we were finally packed up and ready to go. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs, in the Northwestern corner of Yellowstone, before leaving the park. It was impressive, to see the thermal terraces. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but then again, I'm not sure what I was expecting. It took us two hours to actually leave the park. We entered Montana at around 9:00 this morning. The first town in Montana is called Gardiner. There isn't much in town, but it is very "Western".
We planned on heading up to Helena, the Capitol. There isn't much in between. There is a town called Bozeman, where Montana State University is located, so it's pretty big, relatively speaking. We stopped there for lunch- totally worth it! From there, it was another 90 minutes to Helena. If you want to know where your tax dollars are going, it's going to fixing the roads in Montana. There was at least 30 miles of road work, in remote areas. Not much to see on the drive, except for the historical marker that said, "Thar's gold in them thar hills!" There is a reason they call it "Big Sky Country"- because that is all you can see for miles. There are no buildings to block it.
We finally got to Helena and went to Starbucks to catch up with civilization. It was one of the nicest, friendliest one we've been to. We found a hotel to spend a few nights in- it's really nice compared to the ground. We also heard that there was a bear attack in Yellowstone a few days ago. The activities around the park all make sense now. If it happened when and where we think, we were pretty darn close to it...luckily we didn't go in the backcountry. Apparently everyone else knew about it before we did. We spent a little time trying to plan the next leg of our trip (and probably the most exciting!) Other than that, not much happened today. We're planning on relaxing tomorrow, so it's probably going to be another low-key post. And with that, it is time for bed!!

States Visited: Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming, Wisconsin (11/50)
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)