Day 5 - 6 (Cody, WY)

Arrived in Cody, WY late afternoon and stayed at the Ponderosa RV Park. We spent two nights here. Next morning we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum and spent about 5 hours there. It is made up of 5 different museums in one facility, four of which we went toured. The four we toured were the Museum of Natural History, Buffalo Bill, Plains Indians, and Cody Firearms Museums. The Western Art Gallery was closed. We took a break and found 4 caches in the area before visiting The Irma Hotel, which Bill Cody built in 1902 and had his Wild West Roughrider Show headquarters. Within this beautiful hotel we got to see the "famous" cherry wood bar which Queen Victoria gave to Bill Cody as a gift. We had a great time and really enjoyed this flavor and history of this special town.

CLICK HERE to view our picture slideshow. If you would like to read the picture captions, then change the viewing time from 3 to 6 seconds. When you have finished viewing the slideshow, click the BACK ARROW icon in the upper left corner of the page and it will take you back to our blog page - enjoy!

Day 4 - May 12 (Dillon, MT)

We are currently in Dillon, MT and are staying the night at Southside RV Park. The elevation is around 5,100' in Dillon and it is suppose to get into the mid-20's tonight. Dillon, MT is a farm and ranch community that has a touch of culture, history, and recreation. At one time it was the largest wool shipping point in Montana. It was also central for early Montana mining camps and settlements. We decided not to cross over Lost Trail Pass (7,100') because of the severe winter conditions in the mountains today, so decided to go east on HWY 90 to Butte, MT and then head south to Dillon, MT on HWY 15. We had dinner at Sparky's Garage Diner where we had a plate of BQ pork ribs, baked beans, sweet potato fries, and corn bread. that were outstanding. Our waitress, Melody, just graduated from University of Montana Western with a 4 year degree in education. She was very excited, full of idealism, and energy. She had just finished her first job interview and will be teaching 2nd grade. Her class load will be 13 lucky kids.

The University of Montana Western was built in 1890 as a Normal School, preferably a teacher training college. It recently has branched out into other academic areas, thus becoming affiliated with the Unversity of Montana. Melody's classes during her 4 year preparation were very much different than other institutions. She attended class for 18 days, from start to finish, and took her final. She would be in class for 3 hours per day for that time period. She mentioned that it was a very concentrated program, but she loved the learning experience.

As you can see from the picture above of TREK, we woke up to a very beautiful morning for our trip through Yellowstone National Park and onto Cody, WY.

CLICK HERE to view our picture slideshow. If you would like to read the picture captions, then change the viewing time from 3 to 6 seconds. When you have finished viewing the slideshow, click the BACK ARROW icon in the upper left corner of the page and it will take you back to our blog page - enjoy!

Day 3 - May 11 (Missoula, MT)

NO pictures today!. We left the RV park and got fuel. We were headed south on HWY 93 over Lost Trail Pass (7,056') towards Dillon, MT. OOPS! Big change of plans - the engine diagnostic indicator light came on and we have decided to head west to Kellogg, ID and the nearest Sprinter dealership to get it checked out. After reading in the owners manual about potential problems, we decided to head west. Ever heard of Dave Smith's Motors, well that is who took care of our warranty issue in about 10 minutes and put us back on the road east again to Missoula, MT. After a 250 mile round trip to take care of this issue we decided to stop at Jelly Stone RV Park again, so we could watch "Dancing With The Stars" and "24". We had an interesting day, but were glad that TREK was healed and ready to continue on her journey with us.

Day 2 - May 10 (Missoula, MT)

We headed east and crossed the Snake River between Clarkston, WA and Lewiston, ID. We headed up HYW 12 along the Clearwater River scenic by-way for about 90 miles towards Lolo Pass. We followed the river through beautiful farms and pine studded gorges on a narrow twisty road. This is through Nez Perce country, where Cheif Joseph led his people. Along the route the Locha ("rapid waters") and Selway Rivers merge with the Clearwater. We got to see many rafters and kayakers challenging the wild rapid, especially along the Locha River. We traveled over Lolo Pass (5,225'), which is the state line between Idaho and Montana. We wanted to stop by Lolo Hot Springs as Skip was there when he was 7 years old. We spent the night in Missoula, MT at Jelly Stone RV Park, where we met Linda and Georgette from Kelowna, British Columbia. They also had a Roadtrek and it was fun to share stories with them. We had a great night and were ready for Day 3 to come!

We Are OFF And Trek'in - Day 1 (Starbuck, WA)

We got up early this morning May 9th (Saturday) and hit the road. We had planned on leaving Friday, but got hung up with the satellite dish installation. The weather was beautiful so we decided to go on HWY 26 when we crossed the Columbia River at Vantage, WA. This is the highway that you would travel if you were heading to Pullman, WA to watch the "Cougars" play football. It takes you through Othello and some beautiful farm country. We turned right at Washtucna, WA and headed to Starbuck, WA. This is a bump in the road and we stopped to check out the famous old jail house. Yes, there was a little restaurant across from the jail that served coffee, just not Starbucks. We spent our first night at the Tucannon River RV Park which is about 55 miles west of Lewiston, ID. This is a very nice park right next to the Tucannon River, which is one of the few "wild and scenic" rivers left in Washington. We got to use the satellite dish for the first time and beamed in on all of the local channels out of Seattle. It was great!

The 4-Way Test

A very close friend of ours shared the following statement with us regarding the things that we all think, say, and do. I would like to share what he had to say with you!

- Is it the truth?
- Is it fair to all concerned?
- Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
- Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

These four principles seem like they are pretty good advice!

Grayland Beach State Park

On March 9, 2009 (Monday) we took Trek on a shake down trip to Grayland Beach State Park which is about 8 miles south of Westport, WA. We are preparing ourselves and Trek for our BIG trip in May to ID, MT, WY, SD, ND, and into Canada. We had a great trip and really had beautiful weather considering this time of the year. We had our camping spot pretty much all to ourselves and could climb the sand dune behind our site where we could look out over the ocean. We awoke the first morning to cold temperatures and YES snow. This did not stop us! We headed south for 5 miles to Tokeland, WA and bought some fresh dungeness crab right off the boat. We also hunted down some geocaches in the area for a total of 12 during our entire trip. Some of the great memories will be having clam chowder at the famous "One Eyed Crab" restaurant in Westport, visiting the Westport Meritime Museum, cooking pancakes on the grill outside, watching the surfers off the Westport jetty, enjoying a beach fire, and the beautiful walks on the beach and around the Westport area. We stayed for four nights and cannot wait to go back sometime soon. The weather, after the first morning, was clear and sunny with the temperature staying in the mid 40's. We hope that you enjoy our pictures!

The picture above is of the original Westport Lighthouse. Standing 107' tall this was dedicated in 1898. It is the tallest in Washington and the 3rd tallest on the West coast. The base sits on 12' of sandstone. Walls at the base are 4' thick and are made of brick with a coating of cement on the outside. It takes 135 steps to bring you to the lantern room. In 1898 this sat 400' from the high tide line, now it is 3,000' back from the high tide line. We love lighthouses and wanted to share just a little more local history.

CLICK HERE to view our picture slideshow. If you would like to read the picture captions, then change the viewing time from 3 to 6 seconds. When you have finished viewing the slideshow, click the BACK ARROW icon in the upper left corner of the page and it will take you back to our blog page - enjoy!