The Road Goes On… – Page 27 – The road goes on…

Pullman, WA to Leavenworth, WA

July 29, 2014

The morning came early. 4AM to be exact. We left the Walmart parking lot to catch a sunrise in the Palouse. We were lucky to find a great spot on a dirt road to photograph, making the early wakeup worthwhile.

Now we deserved a great breakfast and that we got at the Top Notch Cafe in Colfax. This cafe could have been on Route 66 with its booths, barstools and milk shake mixer. The food was plentiful and really good. Pete, the owner, had lived in a number of different states and had bought this cafe from his nephew about 10 years ago. A good number of locals had their morning coffee, chatted and teased each other about the size of their combines.

Next stop was Spokane, a beautiful city bisected by the roaring Spokane river. Two hydroelectric plants dating from the early 1900s provide power to the city. A riverside park has gondola rides across the falls, an Imax theatre, sculpture of runners and an old carousel ride among other attractions.

The drive from Spokane to the Grand Coulee Dam was mostly through the plains and we had 40 degree temperatures. The early morning wakeup caught up with us so we stopped at a rest area for an hour long nap.

We reached Grand Coulee Dam in good time, parked in the shade to keep Pepsi cool and visited the information centre to learn about the three powerhouses at the dam. A very informative video explained the geological processes that created the spectacular basalt column formations we were to see later on in the day.

We had a swim at the Steamboat Rock State park before heading further west.

All of a sudden it seemed that Hwy 2 had taken us to Bavaria, with alpine mountains, painted houses and schnitzels. The now busy town of Leavenworth had been a logging town that had fallen on hard times and had reinvented itself as a Bavarian themed tourist destination in the 1960s. We just had to stop for a schnitzel dinner at the Baren Haus.

A forest fire 8 km away had closed Hwy 2 and prevented us from continuing and the detour on a winding and narrow road at night didn’t seem advisable so we stayed at the lovely Alpine RV campground for the night.

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Coeur D’Alene, ID to Pullman, WA

July 28, 2014

The day started slowly by taking care of some housekeeping, a nice long shower and breakfast, but it would become an exciting and long day.

At 11AM our friend Jojo came and picked us up in her battle hardened Ford Expedition used for photography missions on rougher roads. First stop, however, was a civilized lunch at a very nice restaurant at a beautiful artificial lake designed by her brother. We followed Jojo in the Roadtrek to Pullman where we parked at Walmart. The four of us then piled into Jojo’s non-airconditioned SUV and with open windows and fresh country air explored the less accessible parts of Palouse. The roads often have no signs and choosing the ones that looked more travelled and had power lines wasn’t always the correct course of action. This led to exciting 3-point turns on very narrow dirt roads. The landscape was gorgeous with rolling hills, charming red barns and bountiful wheat fields. Harvest season became real by seeing huge combines working the fields and leaving long trails of dust in their wake. Needless to say, we drank lots of water and had lots of fun, stopping abruptly whenever a picture perfect scene presented itself.

The day ended with a gorgeous highlight – a trip to Steptoe butte where we had a bird’s eye view of the landscape we had photographed all day. We ended this wonderful photographic day with a picnic dinner in the waning light with a refreshing cool breeze.

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Hungry Horse, MT to Coeur D’Alene, ID

July 27, 2014

This was a day of driving from Montana to Idaho. We stopped at a roadside cherry stand which turned out to be a small little orchard owned by a woman named Donnie. She told us all about her cherry trees, each of which was named a family member. We took a walk through her orchard and photographed the cherries on the tree named “Anna”. We bought two kinds of delicious cherries, jam and postcards of cherries. Bit of theme here…

The drive was diverse with mountains, lakes and plains. The small towns such as “Paradise” weren’t all that inspiring. We stopped in St. Regis for a salad lunch at a restaurant and casino with a reserved tabled for the cowboy-like seasoned regulars.

The landscape became more and more beautiful as we approached Idaho and we stayed overnight in Coeur D’Alene at the Blackwell Island RV Park which is located where the lake and Spokane river meet. A wonderful spot with lots of Albertans. We talked for quite a while with Tim and Wendy who had trouble with their new Via camper and had to visit their local Mercedes dealer to get a software update for the engine so that they could drive at regular speed again.

A swim in the river and dinner, with wine, under our rarely used awning -wonderful day!

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St Mary, MT to Hungry Horse, MT

July 26, 2014

Morning came extremely early – 5AM so that we could photograph the sunrise and early morning hours on the Going to the Sun highway. This also meant less other tourists and easier driving along the narrow parts of the mountain road and parking at the various points of interest.

We stopped a couple of times for pictures. One highlight was a family of mountain goats.

On the west side we stopped for a hike at trail of the cedars after breakfast in the RV.

After exiting the park we stopped for lunch at West Glacier and then looked for a place to have an afternoon nap. We lucked out at a fishing access point on Lake Five which also had great swimming opportunities. After a great swim in glacier fed water we continued to Hungry Horse where we found a nice campground for the evening.

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St Mary, MT

July 25, 2014

Over a huge breakfast at the Johnston’s Cafe we planned the day’s activities. Continuing high winds made us decide not to risk taking the Going to the Sun highway so we went horseback riding instead.

Ruth rode “Smokey” and Martin rode “Larry the Cable Guy” for an hour and a half accompanied by two guides, Chum the cow herding dog and a white pony that left its grazing ground and followed us on our outing. The landscape was breathtaking.

By late afternoon the winds had died down and we drove the west part of the Going to the Sun highway to Logan’s pass. The landscape was just beautiful and at the visitor centre we encountered a big horn sheep and very curious Columbian ground squirrels.

We had dinner at a Mexican canteen run by Blackfoot indians and then spent a second night at Johnston’s Campground.

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Culbertson, MT to St Mary, MT

July 24, 2014

After a really stormy night with lots of rain and lightning that lit up the sky like daylight we set out early to cover the last stretch of prairie. We had gotten used to being accompanied by dozens of freight trains running parallel to Hwy 2 and the many grain elevators along the way.

Vast dry prairies were only interrupted by oasises near rivers and creeks. The small towns we drove past looked almost forgotten with a number of abandoned houses. We crossed several native reservations and learned that it was here that the natives lost their fights over their land.

The only long stop we made was in Havre. We had lunch at Joe’s Steakhouse and our waitress Meagan gave us lots of information about the area around the west side of Glacier National Park.

The most exciting part of Havre was the historical underground tour. Havre was a rough and tough railway town. In 1904, a large fire started by four vagrants who had had a dispute with the saloon, burned down most of the business district. The respectable businesses had no choice but to move into the basement underground with some of the less respectable establishments. Glass tiles in the sidewalks provided some daylight in the underground. On our tour we saw lawyer’s and accountant’s offices alongside a bar and brothel.

From Havre we continued along Hwy 2 to Browning and then Hwy 89 to St. Mary, our gateway to the Going to the Sun highway that goes through Glacier International Park. This section of the trip was a difficult drive with very high and gusty winds.

In St. Mary we stayed at Johnson’s of St. Mary Campground and RV park where we had a sheltered campsite.

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Crookston, MN to Culbertson, MT

July 23, 2014

In the morning we left Crookston for a brief visit of the Malmberg Prairie, one of the few virgin prairies left that have never been plowed.

A short drive later we were in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the site of a major flood in April 1997 where the Red River crested at 48.8 feet, flooding 95% of the city and causing an evacuation of all of the city. An obelisk shows the high water mark.

Lunch was at the fabulous Dakota Harvest Bakers and consisted of super delicious tomato-vodka soup, roast beef sandwich and black cherry pie. Pepsi made a lot of new friends.

Next stop was Rugby, the midpoint of North America and site of the Prairie Village Museum.

The western part of North Dakota has a construction frenzy as the result of an oil boom. Workers are living in trailers everywhere and pickup trucks are plentiful. Hotels cater to extended stay guests and even ghost towns like Ross are alive again.

It was difficult to find a place to stay, so we drove on and found a free municipal campground in Culbertson, Montana.

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Wakefield, MI to Crookston, MN

July 22, 2014

In the morning we had $0.25 and $0.50 showers, a nice in-RV breakfast, flushed tanks and then headed for the Wisconsin border on Hwy 2. Our first stop in Wisconsin was Ashland which is famous for the Ashland Soo Line Ore dock. Unfortunately this dock was torn down last year. Murals throughout the city depict life in the late 19th century and shows the dock in its glory.

Pepsi briefly made friends with a cat before scaring her off with a big “woof”.

We found the Gabriele bakery where we stocked up on gummy bears and cookies.

We then took a side trip to Bayfield on Hwy 13 and had a white fish lunch at the Greunke’s Fine Food Restaurant.

Bayfield is famous for its fisheries.

We booted through the rest of Wisconsin and stopped in Grand Rapids, Minnesota for dinner at New Grand Buffet Chinese restaurant across the Blandin Paper Company mill.

We made it almost to the North Dakota border staying in a Walmart parking lot in Crookston, Minnesota.

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Gaylord, MI to Wakefield, MI

July 21, 2014

An overnight stay at a Walmart parking lot is never complete without a coffee or tea at their McDonald’s in the morning. What a surprise – no McDonald’s! Instead we found a Subway and of course we had to sample their breakfast menu. According to tradition, this is followed by a brief shopping trip at Walmart store itself. This time, two T-shirts and a pair of cheap sunglasses found a new home.

At 9AM, we departed for Harbour Springs. There we toured the very pretty town with beautiful gift, kitchen, clothing, fudge and ice cream stores. We resisted all temptations and moved down to their harbour for a stroll.

A Harley-Davidson with a rifle pouch caught our attention.

Harbour Springs is one end of the Tunnel of Trees scenic route. This is a winding and narrow road with old trees on both sides meeting each other above you as you drive through. Beautiful glimpses of Lake Michigan and lovely houses along the route made for a beautiful experience.

The crepe stand about three quarters of the way up provided a place to stop for a savoury lunch.

We then returned to I-75 and crossed the Mackinaw bridge.

We tried the traditional pasties and bought the local smoked fish in St. Ignace and then started our trip on Hwy 2. Our GPS routing suggested a short cut bypassing a number of interesting towns along Hwy 2 and replaced them with empty roads. We joined up with Hwy 2 again and made it to Wakefield where we are staying at a lovely community campground by a lake with ice tea coloured water caused by the amount of iron ore in the ground here. We had a wonderful swim nonetheless.

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Dundas, ON to Gaylord, MI

July 20, 2014

After a frantic packing session, we were ready and left at 2:20PM. Our plan was to make Harbour Springs in Michigan but this wasn’t going to happen. We made it across the US border at Port Huron after following a horse trailer that had been tagged with contraband by a customs officer who was training their beautiful and talented sniffing dog who succeeded in finding it without any difficulty whatsoever. The dog was enthusiastically praised by its handler. We were next in line and where waved on after answering a few questions.

A couple of hours later we were getting hungry and looked for a place to stop and discovered we were near Frankenmuth. The German hearts began to beat heavily and we took the detour to check the town out. The town is pretty, touristy but has charm.

Our favourite store was the Woolen Mill, Michigan’s oldest operating woolen mill.

At this point we were really hungry and stopped at Zehnder’s Famous Chicken Dinners.

We had a great meal with raspberry lemonade cocktail. An endless supply of delicious relishes including a very special cranberry salad, cheeses and pate was followed by fried chicken, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, stuffing, green beans and gravy. Needless to say, there was only a small amount of space left for a very small ice cream dessert. All this for $19.95.

Frankenmuth cost us 3 hours and we didn’t make it all the way to Harbour Springs that day but called it a night in the Gaylord Walmart parking lot.

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