Friday, July 27, 2012

DAY 36 -37 - 38 TRAVELING from Montana, Idaho, to Washington

DAY 36
MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012

ON THE ROAD AGAIN , today, means back to Rt. 2 West, heading to Trout Creek, Montana.   We drove on Rt. 206; Rt. 35 South for 11 miles and then Montana 82West.  Along that stretch we crossed Flathead River and saw 20 White Crosses in the first hour.    We turned onto Rt. 93 South for 27 miles and were overlooking Flathead Lake, until we turned onto Rt. 28 West for 47 miles.   Eventually, Rt. 200 West brought us to our destination at Trout Creek RV Park.  It was a quiet, shaded spot with friendly neighbors. 

My picture taking today was just of a blue flower I spotted
 when I walked across the road to the Post Office. 
 It reminds me of the Viper's Bugloose
 but I cannot find it in nature books I have with me. 
Can anyone help me confirm it's name?  
 Let me know at:  grandmarita15@gmail.com .


As you can see, it is a prickly plant
Not exactly the kind you would pick with
bare hands, for a bouquet.
Russ and I both had some down time to relax since we only traveled 134 miles today.
He came up with some interesting statistics about our trip, thus far.
We have driven 4,224 miles since leaving home.
Of the above amount, 2,956 of those miles were towing.
We have used 539 gallons of gas.
The total cost of gas was:   $1,889.01.
Average price per gallon is $3.50.
We are averaging 7.93 miles per gallon.
It has cost us 45 cents per mile.

DAY 37
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2012

 
We were back ON THE ROAD AGAIN by 9:45AM, getting onto Rt. 200 West toward Spokane.
In the short span of five minutes we saw 5 White Crosses, and another 5 in the next nine minutes.  At that point, we crossed into IDAHO at 83,378 miles, and are now on PACIFIC TIME.  We now have a three hour time difference from home.  We are keeping the clock in the truck and one in the RV on HOME time, and depend on our cell phones to keep us accurate for where we are.  It will take some getting used to, when we want to communicate with all of our family and friends, after dinner, when some of you may already have gone to bed.

By the time our odometer read 83,434, we were in the STATE OF WASHINGTON.  It only took us 56 miles to cross the Panhandle of IDAHO.   We did get out of the truck and walk back to our RV
for a Potty break, so we can say we put our feet on Idaho soil.  It is a mild 75 degree, sunny day.
As we move further West, the gas prices are increasing.  Today, we paid $3.65 at PETRO which generally has reasonable prices at that Truck Stop type fueling center.   Later in the day, Russ paid $3.69, at the place where he also had an Oil Change, and topped off the tank.  That is quite a jump from $3.39, in Buffalo, WY, on July 5th.
We ended our day at the Sunrise Resorts - Pier 4 Campground on Moses Lake, Washington.

DAY 38
 JULY 25, 2012

We started our day at 10:05 AM, and got back onto Interstate 90West.  Signs told us it was
172 miles to Seattle.  We traveled 169 miles today, and crossed  some rather flat terrain.  We
passed corn fields made possible by irrigation frames, and saw Hay Tarps covering rectangluar bales of Hay.  The Wind Turbines appeared on the horizon again, and were a strange part of the
Natural scenery, as we began to see some Mountains, including Mount Rainier in the distance.



Corn Fields in Washington, were a surprise. 
We had expected this State to be heavily forested,
and not like the Plains country we had driven through
in earlier States. 




We crossed the Columbia River.




We had seen a Wind Turbine blade being transported, yesterday, and
when we saw these Turbines again, we understood why. 



Hay must be one of their cash crops. 
There were row upon row of these open ended
"barns" to store it in, as well as Tarps over
huge stacks the size of a tractor trailer truck bed.




Finally, we began to see distant mountain ranges.




Of course, these Wind Turbines were in the foreground.



This was our first view of Mount Rainier. 
It may be our only view
because today, (July 27th we have a drizzle type rain and fog). 




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