All 50 Road Trip-May 28, 2018, Day 17

(click here for today's pictures)


Seattle, WA to Kalispell, MT


Robby woke up at 4 to jump in the car to take Nonna and Pops to the airport for their 6 am flight. He said that it took him 22 minutes round trip. I, however, didn’t know that he was even gone. I did hear his alarm briefly but that was about it.


At 7, it was time to start stirring again. This hotel, despite the wonderful laundry room, has the interesting breakfast. Everything is prepackaged so we grabbed a handful, literally, and then headed to the car for our 8+ hour day. 


Somehow it always ends up being that I have stops for very, very early on our journey or when we are about there. We always need most stops in the middle of the day. Our first stop was Snoqualmie falls which was just about 20 minutes outside of the city.


The falls were really pretty, and we spent a good long time walking around. When we left the hotel, Robby said that we had 3 spare hours to toy with during the day. We spent the first hour of that time at Snoqualmie falls which is also where Twin Peaks was filmed. I don’t really remember much about Twin Peaks, maybe I will have to watch a rerun or two of them.


As we were leaving the town, we went through their neat little historic district. We jumped out to take a few pictures of the train depot. Then, we bought gas once more, passed out waters and then were back on the road. 


But we didn’t make it to far before we stopped at a Safeway. We did need items for lunch for the next few days so Robby loaded up. The ice chest barely closed by the time we stuffed if full again with cokes, cheese, lunch meat, cubed cheese and sausages. Again, there is nothing better than eating a sandwich while on the road somewhere. Seriously. Sandwiches are not that much fun at home, but are much more exciting on a trip.


We passed the first real leg of our journey by listening to a podcast about big foot. It was over an hour long so it definitely kept the big boys and Reagan’s attention. We did stop at a rest stop with Mt. Rainier still looming off in the distance, and a few miles later we stopped at a huge sculpture of horses. It had a beautiful view of the Colombia River gorge there. 


At least a week ago, we were riving, and I mentioned that every crop should have its name on the fence. This morning we passed a sign saying “crop names on fence next 14 miles.” It was the best 14 miles ever for me reading all of the crop names. There were potatoes, buckwheat, alfalfa, sweet corn, field corn,peas,beans and wheat. If I ever help pass a law, crop names on the fence will be the one I pass.  


We finally made it to Spokane, which would have been in our original hotel stop, around 4. We still had 4 more hours to go but still had time to get out and run around the World’s Largest Radio Flyer wagon which was also a slide and monkey bars. When Whitman went down the slide the first time, he flew at least 2 feet off of the slide before hitting the ground. 


There was a little park area nearby that we spent a few minutes at. Also there was the Loff Carousel. Anderson pointed out that Robby did say that we would not ride it, but soon we were all sitting on the carousel. It was different in that as you passed on your outside horse, you would grab a ring from a machine. Then on the other side you would throw the ring into a painting that had a mouth of a goat. 


We left the park, there was a statue of a goat that would suck up your trash. Reagan was the one holding the trash, but she was not that impressed by the trash eating goat. A little further in Spokane was Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle. It was a huge milk bottle which was closed for Memorial Day. Boo! That was fine though because we stopped at a 7-11 that we passed a few minutes before. We did save probably 25 bucks and that made Robby pleased as well except both of us had been wanting ice cream for a few hours so we just bought ourselves some while the kids enjoyed their icees.


We drove a bit further into Idaho. This has been one of the most beautiful drives today. We eventually had to stop for more gas and then picked up supper at McDonalds. We have no had McDs two days in a row and that is plenty for me. 


The kids ate as we jumped off the interstate for a little bit to drive through Wallace, Idaho. It is a little town that the interstate had to go around because all of the buildings are registered as historic places. Wallace is interesting because the residential area is built on the side of a mountain so they are known for their wooden staircases leading to the houses. It is pretty neat to see. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time explore the stairs since we were already running late, late!


We eventually turned off the interstate and headed up a two lane road towards Glacier National Park. We rarely saw anyone on this road except for people flying past us. It was stunning. When we were about an hour from our hotel, Whitman decided he needed to potty. We pulled over and as he did his business I told him to look around because this was the most beautiful place that he would ever potty. Him looking around was a bad idea because I almost got my shoes wet. Robby jumped out to take a picture of the scenery about the time that I realized that there were gnats everywhere. I threw Whitman in the car, slammed our doors and started waving my jacket towards Robby’s open door trying to shoo off the bugs. This all happened about 9:45-even though the huge moon was out, it was still daylight. 


Reagan is feeling much better today. She took more breakfast from the hotel than anyone else and ate every bit of it. She does have a bit of a cold even though her tummy is better. Now, Graham has said that his ear hurts tonight. I have tons of medicines with me so after tonight, we will reassess tomorrow.


We made it to the hotel around 10:45 which was not too bad for losing an hour. We also made many stops along the way today. Tomorrow we will be at this same hotel so we will have plenty of time at Glacier National Park.


Current Dennie Kid State Count (May 28, 2018):

Reagan-Complete-May 22, 2018

Anderson-Complete-May 22, 2018

Graham-Complete-May 22, 2018

Campbell-Complete-May 22, 2018

Keaton-Complete-May 22, 2018

Whitman-needs North Dakota


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