Sandpoint to Home Sweet Home

We departed Lake Pend Orielle at 7am.  It was clear and cold....37 degrees.  The lake was beautiful as we left it, areas of fog forming in the crisp morning air.

Silverwood theme Park was all decked out for Halloween, decorated with pumpkins and cobwebs and spookhouse.

The city of Spokane was very interesting as we drove by with shops and shopping malls with Big name stores that one would expect to find in New York City.  But west of Spokane, its just miles and miles of yellow grass with a black snake of I-90 going through it.

As we passed Sprague Lake, we decided to get some fuel for our little car...only got 37.5 mpg on this leg.  Dick saw a man with a hand truck full of boxes of peaches trying to get into the store....he ran to open and hold the door for him, and as a thankyou, the old man gave him two peaches as thankyou, and gave me a warm toothless grin.  How sweet!

As we merged onto rt. 394 to Pasco, we passed a huge corrections Center at Connell, with high fences topped with concentina wires to prevent inmates from escaping.  We passed trains with containers cars, coal trains, wind mills turning in the wind, and fields of yellow mustard being raised for seed.  Also we saw many fields of soy beans, corn, and milo right here in Oregon being grown for seed.

We stopped in Boardman at our favorite RV Park to eat our peaches that were a gift for doing a favor.  This is the Marina part and behind Dick is the sheltered part where the boats are moored.  And over the jetty there is the huge Columbia River.  Today the river was calm and smooth as glass.  Wow those peaches were tasty!

After the peaches we felt hungry, so we ate here at the popular "Poppys" drive in cafe.  We shared a chicken wrap and we were soon on our way toward home.  Could only do 65 miles per hour now since we were in Oregon....seems slow after 70 and 75 miles per hour speeds in Idaho and Montana.

Aaahh!  The Columbia River Gorge scenery is the most beautiful in all the area we have been through. 

Love to watch the river's traffic!

The Maryhill Museum on the Washington side.

And home sweet home!

Dick is so glad to be back that he is kissing the ground.

Rt. 2 Across Montana into Idaho

This picture of the sunset was taken last evening from the front of our motel, La Casa, in Glasgow, Mt.  We found it so lovely!

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 5.  The sky is clear and it is 50 degrees.  But we see clouds in the West, and the TV tells us that we will be driving through rain today.  Dick's heart went into A-fib this morning for the 2nd. time on this trip. So out with the "magic" pill, Flecanide, and we hope that within two hours his heart will be of normal beating.  We drive through wheat country and note that the harvest has been completed.  The fields are all stripped of crops and now the working of the ground and planting must begin.  The plains are dotted with both black angus and red angus cattle.  They look so picturesque against the green and golden fields. 

A dinosaur watched us as we drove by out of Glasgow.  Many prehistoric models were on hand to watch the cars drive through this area.

The sunrise this morning.  We were on the road by 7am today and enjoyed so much the beauty of the morning.

We cross the Belknap Indian Reservation at about 8am.  It is overcast with rain sprinkles every now and then, but not yet rain.  The sky becomes darker as we drive and Dick says he cannot see the road, so when we got to Haver, I took over the driving.  At Haver there is much construction going on as they are working on a new highway, so it will be four lanes instead of two.  We see a few oil dericks on the reservation as we drive by.  We pass over the Sweet Grass Hills and see a beautiful herd of wild horses...about 30 in the group.  They were multi-colored.  We saw a coyote out looking for his breakfast by the side of the road as we entered the East Glacier area.  Along the South Fork of the Flathead River, we shared a picnic lunch of a six-inch Subway sandwich that we had not finished from yesterday.  When we arrived at West Glacier, the storms of rain were over with and the sky was clear again.

We enjoyed the colorful trees of fall as we drove.  There were many stands of Quaking Aspen that were shades of bright  yellow.

This is beautiful McGregor Lake and Thompson Lakes that followed the road for about 15 to 20 miles as part of the Logan State Park Systems.  Rainbow Lake and Look Lake were also a part of this series that we could see as we drove.

The hiking trail into Kootenai Falls.  We walked to a viewing platform over looking the top of the falls and took pictures.  We could have hiked down farther to capture the entire falls, but the climb back up the trail was worrisome with Dick's heart problems.  The magic pill had worked, but we didn't want to push our luck and possibly signal the A-fib to start in again.

This is the top of Kootenai Falls.

This is the Kootenai River many miles downstream from the falls.

At 4:30pm, we crossed over from Montana into Idaho.  Our next stop was Sandpoint to get Bret some huckleberry pies at the Pie Hut.  We got there just as they were closing, but the had just taken 3 pies out of the oven.  We bought two to take home to Bret.  They smelled so good and were so tempting to "just taste a little bit", but we were good and did not touch them.  Then we found a lovely Best Western motel right at the edge of Lake Pend Orielle.  A restaurant in the facility treated us to a fine dining menu.  We will be home sometime on Thursday if all goes well with the rest of the journey.

Looking out our motel window at the Lake.

Following Route #2

Looking out our motel window this morning at about 6:30am toward the East.

Devils Lake about 50 miles out of Grand Forks N. Dakota.  Windy causing there to be white caps.  We drove on a road that went though the middle of the lake very similar I would imagine to the Florida Keys.

We only stopped here for a moment.  There is also the Bureau of Spirit Indians Tribes herel.  (Sioux and Dakotas)   The drive here goes through the Minnewaukan Indian Reservation.

Dick was fascinated by all the huge concrete grain silos.  He loved all the farm equipment that we saw by the side of the road, or in the fields working, or just sitting in the dealers lots.

Here we are standing at the geolographical center of t North America.  It is a monument right next to the Indian Museum of the Northern Lights tower.

The foreground is an artists interpretation, and in the background is the real thing.....one could climb to the top and enjoy a panoramic look if one desired.

One of many, many farm equipment dealers that Dick loved to ogle as we passed by.

This is a new oil Derick of which there are many more new ones in this area....drilling seems to be the new pastime.  As we drove we could smell the oil.

Also this area has wind generators galore, and new powerlines are being constructed along the higways for miles and miles.

Also new Natural Gas pipelines are being laid.  And the railroads are being upgraded with new ties, rails, and railroad beds.  So much work is going on here that it looks as if N. Dakota and eastern Montana have a booming economy.

As we drove across the vast country side, all we could say here was....."boring, boring, borinb"!!!!

Leaving Grand Forks, N.Dak. this morning, we headed West on Rt. #2.  It is 46 degrees with a clear sky.  This area is in the Red River Valley, once a big lake during the ice age melting.  It is now quite swampy with many low small ponds and lakes along the highway as we drive.  We are driving down the road at 70 miles per hour, meeting combines with 30 ft. headers that drive down into the low median strip as we pass with their long headers jutting up high into the air. 

Iowa to S. Dakota to N. Dakota

It is October 3 on a Sunday, the temperature is 36 degrees and the sky is clear!  We are on the road at 7am.

It's so cold that steam rises from the rivers and lakes.

Wind generator farms are active on the bluffs, and erupt skyward right out of the soy and corn fields.

Corn fields go on and on.

A fill-up takes only 6 or 7 gallons of fuel and gives a huge 45 miles per gallon.

Water in the lowlands between the soy and corn fields.

As we pass rivers, they are steaming with fog in the cold crisp air.  We passed up Iowa's Aviation Museum.  Dick says he's not really interested in stopping, so we didn't.  We see huge wind farms as we travel on I-80.  We see terraced farming as we drive along the bluffs growing corn and soybeans and later surgar beets and sunflowers.  Encountering lots of road construction, but only are required to slow down to 65 from the normal 75 mph.  There are many state roads of gravel that go along the freeway and as cars travel over them at what seems breakneck speeds, we are covered with the clouds of dust when the wind blows our direction.  After putting on 308.4 miles, we gas up our car and will only take 6.9 gallons....love it!  This time it said we got 44.7 miles per gallon......great little focus!!!  We are passing gleaner combines, J.D. combines, and many more types...Dick is really enjoying watching the machinery in action!  There is a lot of swampy land between the corn and soy fields in low areas.  We cross from S. Dakota into N. Dakota at 3:15pm.  Dick has a friend in Fargo that he would like to locate, so we will stop there......no luck....not in the phone book.  He taught this young man to fly about the time Pete Brawn got his pilot's license.  North Dakota is called the Bread Basket of the World with all the farm products they harvest here.  Also passed a sugar refinery and watched truckload after truckload of surgar beets being brought in.

Illinoise into Iowa

Today, was our first cloudy and rainy day.  We left Crawfordville Indiana at 7:45am.  It was still dark and 58 degrees.  There was a gorgeous sunrise in the south as we drove through the rain and headed NW.  We passed an Elk Farm and saw a beautiful Buck near the road.  We stopped a the Ernie Pyle Memorial Historical Site.  Dick remembers his efforts in the war and was at the National Cemetary in Honolulu went he was buried. 
Soon we entered Illinois and crossed from Eastern into central time Zone and gained an hour.  We passed through Lincolns Home town in Springfield, but didn't stop....was still raining.  Dick noticed how black the soil was in the freshly plowed fields.  We stopped at a McDonalds for pitstop and coffee and were surprised to see the booths and tables full of Amish people in their long dresses and dark caps....escorted by very quiet suited young teenage boys.  We crossed over the Illinoise River at beardstown and the sky finally cleared!
Some things we saw as we drove that struck us as unusual were a huge brick barn, a wooden Holland type windmill built with brown wood, and corn and soybean fields that go on and on.  We crossed the Mississippi River at Davenport, Iowa, and the corn and soybean fields continue to go on and on. 

Ernie Pyle's historic site.

Soybean headers on the combines are 25 to 30 feet wide....and just drive down the road to get to their fields.

Corn being stored in a pile after harvesting.

A restaurant at the Amana colonies.

Where we ate our dinner...the attic of the bakery and cafe!

The Little Red Wagon kids store.

Making Kettle Corn.

Here we bought some rockyroad fudge.

At the Antique shop.

A final place we visited today were the Amana Colonies........and they were having their Octoberfest today and the town was filled with people and polka music and bratworst and kettlecorn being availiable as we walked through the town.

Turning Back toward Home

An airplane had just crashed a few minutes before we went by...police and firement still on the scene.

We have decided to "bag it" as the weather where we want to go...the East coast....is nothing but rain.  Our sister and brother-in-law are in Maine and have been to Vt. & NH and south and they say that it is simply storming.  The threats of continued rain and remnants of tropical storms just isn't worth it to us. 
So we got onto the Ohio Turnpike at Lake Erie and headed West.  Wonderful road...miles and miles of orchards with apples just hanging thickly on the trees.  To dissuade drivers from texting, a sign along the highway said...."Honk if you love Jesus, text if you want to meet him!" 
As we drove, we saw several fire engines and police cars out in the field and flares along the highway.  The reason was an airplane crash in the field.  Dick did not recognize the kind of plane, but is was a small single engine.  Then we headed for Amish Acres....a huge complex of Amish wares with restaurant, and general store and theatre.  We stopped at the restaurant and enjoyed ham and bean soup with home made bread and wonderful apple butter spread.  Too full for shoo fly pie!  They gave us a loaf of their bread as a gift when they found out that we were celebrating our 50th. 
We stopped at the Wabash and Erie Canal Interpretive center at 4:10pm.....it had closed at 4:00pm!
But we walked around and enjoyed the area.

At the Windmill Museum.

At Amish Acres.

At Amish Acres.

At Amish Acres in front of the fudge house.  Dick is holding the loaf of bread...our 50th Anniversary gift.

We saw the Amish horse-pulled buggy, but didn't get a good picture of it....saw lots of Amish riding bikes.

At the Wabash River and Erie canal Interpretive Center.

Forgot to tell you about the Windmill Museum that we visitied.....most wonderful!  And inspired us to try to get our own aer motor windmill repaired and restored.