The Great West, day 10 (WA, ID, MT)

Van cleaned out and organized…again. Everyone loaded in their spots…check.  Crank ‘er up….chirp, chirp, chirp…  No we haven’t picked up a pet bird along the way, but something was certainly chirping away under our hood this morning.  Nathan checked on it and wasn’t sure if it was a pulley or ac compressor, but after a few minutes it stopped, so he said we were fine to get on down the road.  After pulling out of North Bend, just outside of Snoqualmie, we got back on 90 heading east.  We discovered later that Snoqualmie is home to some beautiful waterfalls and used when movies are filmed in this area – a little bummed that we missed it, but my sights are set on greater things today!!  Our original route across 2 would have proved much more scenic, but 90 had some beautiful mountains as we began this morning that gradually faded into farmland.  The land was still a rolling landscape and WSU has even made a section of the drive educational by labeling the fences every so often with the kinds of crops planted in different sections.  My favorite views through here were the large rolling fields beneath a beautiful blue sky that was dotted with puffy white clouds.  There were also some fields with wavy rows that had pretty yellow and brown tones. We again saw windmills working to produce electricity for the area.  The mountains are the way I had remembered it when I came to this area to hike back in ‘90, and seeing them made me want to break out singing, “Climb every mountain, ford every stream…”  Mountains are good therapy for me. There’s nothing like a beautiful mountain view to melt stress and worries away!  I didn’t realize, however that there are parts of WA that are similar to views we saw in NV and AZ with dry dirt landscaped scattered with sagebrush.  Yet another example of why Nathan says it’s so much better to drive here than fly.  There are so many things we would miss from the sky, and by doing it this way we have a broader filled in view of our country.  We want our boys to cherish the diversity of the world the Lord has given us which is why we try to build our vacations around State and US Parks instead of amusement parks.

We spent a good bit of our day visiting our second family!  Jan is in Kalispell, but the rest of the family was in Spokane.  Annie and Dion were at the hospital because Annie was having some tests run.  We were able to stop in and visit them and Dion’s mom while Annie was in recovery. It was not the place any of us had planned on visiting, but I was so glad that we were able to see them.  From the hospital we headed to see Mom and Dad (Grammy and Grampy) at the house.  It is always just like coming home when we get to visit with them. We had a great visit out on the deck before heading down the street to say hi to Holly.  She was still at work, but we were able to visit with her for a bit in the lobby. What a treat; I was thinking we wouldn’t get to see her.
As we left Spokane, we realized that we have now rolled over 4000 miles.  So glad I am journaling because I know there are things that I would never remember if I didn’t.  We remembered stopping at the Cataldo Mission in Coeur d’  Alene four years ago when we came through, so we had to stop again and update our family picture taken out behind the mission so that Andrew could be in it with us! J I think I forgot to mention that we have noticed that a lot of the mountain towns/communities are marked on the mountainside with the first initial of the community’s name; I suppose for identification purposes from the sky.  Jan said that she thinks it is probably more of a school pride thing.
The roads keep getting longer and longer to me.  Driving last night and this morning, I see mileage signs and think, “Oh, not much further now.”  Then I drive, and I drive, and I drive, and when I reach the next mile marker, I’ve only covered 10 miles!  It’s really bad when it’s getting later because I feel like a mouse reaching for that piece of cheese dangling in front of it, and I want to scream, “Who moved my cheese!”  I tend to get heavy footed the closer I get to home and coming to see Jan was like that.  It seemed like such a short distance that we would cover today, and yet the road kept getting longer and longer.  I wondered if I would ever see her. 
We pulled off at St. Regis for supper, our first real meal of the day, as we headed north into Montana.  There is a travel center/restaurant there, and mmm did they have some yummy food.  Being in huckleberry country, we all splurged.  We had huckleberry bbq sandwich, double bacon huckleberry bbq sandwiches, turkey wrap with huckleberry sauce, “the best grilled cheese” ever, huckleberry soda, and huckleberry shakes! 
Driving up 135 to 28 out of St. Regis we followed a beautiful river that wound in and out of the mountains with boiling rapids is the turns.  It was such a beautiful drive up!  The mountain views gave way to larger open grazing areas where we saw not only cattle, but also longhorn and buffalo.  The clouds were lit so beautifully as the sun was setting.  (Maybe that’s why it takes so long to reach our destinations we keep having to stop for pictures!)  Jan told us to look for her lake as we got closer in, and I was becoming concerned that we might miss it.  (I didn’t realize that we would follow this lake for 20+ miles.) When suddenly we topped a hill, and there it was!! It was so very pretty with the town’s lights reflecting off of it.  Even at 10 p.m. it was only slightly past dusk!  There was a turnout, so Nathan stopped for me to get pictures.  He had been clowning with me at other turnouts by acting as if he was going to drive on when I would start to get back in the car, or he would pull forward just as I started to snap a picture so that I ended up with the front of the van in my shot.  This time I got back in and he started to pull forward and the van lurched and bucked a little on the gravel as he was about to pull out.  I gave him a look and told him to cut it out when he said, “It’s not me,” and the van died!  Oh no!  We were on the reservation, about 2 miles from the pretty little town on the lake, and about 35 miles from Jan!  Shoot!  Nathan popped the hood and began hunting with a flashlight.  He had me try to start it while he searched for the trouble.  It died again once and then finally kept running, though not well.  Nathan hopped back in, said a little prayer, and we were off again in hopes of limping it along to Jan’s.  After a mile or so it seemed to begin to run smoother again, and we relaxed a bit.  As we pulled to our last light in Kalispell, the van began to chirp and sputter again, but thankfully the Lord carried us safely to our parking spot at Jan’s.  Nathan has tools with him and there are parts stores here, so that is what he’ll be working on tomorrow morning so that we can be mobile again.  It was sooo very good to see Jan!!  We stayed up ‘til after midnight before shutting down for the night.  Jan had offered to let any of the boys that wanted to sleep out under the stars on her balcony.  Caleb was the only on to take her up on it, so he bedded down in the brisk night air with his sleeping bag and blanket, while the rest of us snuggled down warm inside.