Oklahoma Bound- Day 3 Montana

Wouldn't you know that after such a tiring day yesterday that I would wake up at 4:30am.  What!??  Ugh....:-(.  Well, might as well get up then.  Scootard wasn't far behind me either.  We started our routine of getting coffee and packing up our things.....

Three lumps please......:-)  Well, make that six.

packing went quickly this morning and we were right on schedule to start our day.

The only problem was this.....ha.  And I thought I did a good job by down sizing our content and leaving some stuff in Oklahoma on the last trip there!  sheesh....

THAT is the back seat of the car....ha

Because Spring is already here and the time has changed (I think), it is always light when we leave now.  Last year it was always dark or right at sunrise.

Lake Coeur D' Alene (pronounced - Kur-de-lane).

We came upon this sleepy little mining town called Wallace.  Talk about a "throw back" into history.

There is this bridge that covers the Coeur D' Alene River.  We drove across to see what was happening.

Of course it was so early in the morning that nothing was happening.  But there were a lot of cool things sitting around the town that spoke of another time. This is a GMC bus that was invented somewhere around 1946-1949..

Now, to tell you the truth  I could not tell whether this was a space ship or an icecream cone...haha.  Sorry...ha

This is a shot of the town.  It should give you an idea of how tiny this place is......:-)

They still have quite a few historical buildings in place that they seem to take great care of although they may have a different use now. This building is currently being used as an art gallery.

This building is dated 1890 and the lower floor is currently being used as a cafe and smoke house.

Because it was only about 7:00am, I was not able to actually go inside to see what this was.  But the sign that seemed to be the original one said it was a printing company that has been there since 1906.

This building is currently being used for an insurance business.  Looks like it started to be a castle.

and this one is the Northern Pacific Railway Museum....:-).  It would have been cool to go inside, but we would have had to wait quite a while and still had a lot of road to cover.....:-(
 We drove around a bit more to take a few more pictures.  I like to step back in time like this.....:-)

We got back in the road and enjoyed the ever changing landscapes....these mountains were just south of LookOut Pass.....

Next thing you know.....we were in MONTANA!!  I had never been to Montana before.....:-)

The thing between some of these states in the West is that you can drive for miles and with the exception of a sign telling you otherwise, you wouldn't even know you had cross into another territory.  This is the St. Regis River. It flows along quite some time before it turns into a fork.

The further we went, the more I was aware of why Montana is called "Big Sky Country".....:-).  Very cool, indeed..

We had been up for quite some time and needed to grab a bite to eat.  I am not a fan of fast food breakfast, but found that the hotel food is usually worse in regard to the high salt content.....oh well.  off we went...

I think he is sleep walking! hahaha Notice the mouth poised for a loud snore....ha

We checked out mail, eat and hit the road again....Open road, open sky!

We drove through several hours of mountains and cliffs and winding roads. I wondered what it would have been like riding through here on Ms Vickey.  Besides chilly......burrrrrrrr....

the further we went, the more snow we started to see on the mountain tops.

The Absaroka Mountain Range.......cool - eh?

Now, I know it doesn't seem like it here, but it was about lunch time when we rolled through there.  Neither of us wanted salty food and knew we needed something to keep the "pipes" clear so to speak.  So, we chose a more nutritious snack....They were ok until I ate a bright red one...haha  Yikes!!!  My right closed in horror while my left one stared in shock....haha.  It was sour!

These weren't too bad I guess.  I have had sweeter, but hey, we were hungry and still had a lot of road to cover....

Whooo hoooo!  We're getting closer all the time, Ya'll! We are in the nosebleed section now! haha

and then the landscape changed and all of the "dinosaur poo" that we thought we left in New Mexico on our last trip to the states. Scootard and I agreed that some of these massive rock formations had to be from dinosaurs going to the potty....ha

oh well.....maybe not.  ha.  Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies do I see........la la la la la.....la de daaaaa....:-).  That was me singing.....:-).
 

It's hard to get it straight sometimes which mountains are which.  I often rely on my beloved to keep it straight for me.  He has an impeccable memory which seems to store vast amounts of stuff...haha.  So, I asked.  

These are called The Jim Bridger Mountains.....

We made a quick stop to the rest room and I snapped a pic of these flags....very cool.

But look what happened when I tried to get a long shot.......hahaha.  shakin my head, ya'll.

I noticed this plaque on the way back to the car.  I thought this was cool too being a Veteran myself.  Nice to know that some do really appreciate the sacrifices made and the lives lost to maintain our freedom.

 These are called The Crazy Mountains....ha.  Seriously! Who knew!

This was the last little town we passed.  Not much there.  No timber either, by the way.....:-)

and at long last, after dinner at a local restaurant, we made our way to our hotel for the evening.

It was a 12 hour day today with more road tomorrow.......

Stay tuned!  I'm going to bed.

Oklahoma Bound Day 2 - Idaho

I woke up in the middle of the night with trouble getting back to sleep after having passed out at 7:30pm the night before.  When 5:00 am rolled around and I found myself checking my email  I decided it was time to get up.  Fortunately, my beloved was awake as well.....:-).   It didn't take us long to pack up and grab some coffee.

We took a few pictures with Scootard's mom before hitting the road realizing that our frequent visits would not be as frequent as we would be too far away for most of the year.

I don't remember what she said, but it sure was funny! haha

She waved at us from her door and we traveled on to our next destination......

the morning was just lovely.  It was a bit cool, but I had the good sense to put socks on this morning.  I know that being near water always makes things cooler than they would be inland.  this is a picture of Okanagan Falls in the background.  The forefront is the bottom end of the Skaha Lake.

One of the beautiful things about living on the West coast is there is always water somewhere near by.
This is the south end of Vaseux Lake.....I couldn't help but wonder how many people had made their way to the top of that massive rock.....:-)

The is a northern glance of the lake......

It only took us about an hour and 15 minutes or so to get to the US border.  They were curious to know if Scootard still had residency in Canada.  I guess because we were just there two months ago. After a quick check of our car, the guard let us through.  I was so hungry while we waited that I started munching on cheese twist.  Breakfast was calling my name!

Now, the journey officially begins.....

There were some tiny little towns we had to pass through on our way.  They reminded me of Canada.  I guess because we were still in the Okanagan; just on the US side of it.

We came into the tiny town of Tonasket Hard to believe that a town this small would have radar, but hey...who was I to risk it.

If you have followed my blogs very long, you know that I LOVE to go into antique shops.  I don't always buy things though.  Usually I just look around and do a lot of "oooowwing" and "awwwwing".  This time, I saw something that I really wanted.  Scootard had his eye on a few things as well.

It's hard to see it from this shot, but there is a green wrought iron "tete a tete".  Also known as a "kissing or courting" bench.  I just loved it and so did he.  I knew just where it would go in my garden in Oklahoma.  Unfortunately, the store was not open yet and would not be for another hour or so.

So, we decided to look around a bit more.  I was amazed at how trusting the people of this town must be to just leave their things sitting outside like that!  I came up with the brilliant idea to to load the piece onto the trailer and then call them later with our credit card number, but wasn't sure of what the name of the place was.....:-(.  As you can see, there is no sign on the building and there was none on the door either....:-(.

 
While I entertained the idea of loading now and paying later, we walked across to the visitor's center. They had murals on the walls......

and the history of some of the people who had come and gone in years gone by that made the town what it is today.....

And then our stomachs really started growling since we had been up so early.....We found this place just a block or so up the road from the antique shop.

you can barely see our car and trailer in the background across the street. The trailer looks lonely without "Ms Vickey" and "Maj".

We had a full breakfast and discussed the possibility of having to cart out new found treasure in and out of hotels for 6 days to guard against theft.

Scootard was ready to eat his food like he was mad at it or something.....haha.

After much discussion and having already experienced a break in twice in the past three months, we decided to look for one or something similar a little closer to our final destination where the risk was not nearly as great.  We traveled sadly on without our new found treasure.  The remarkable scenery took the "gloom" out of the loss we had just experienced....

This is the far northern end of the Palouse...

Just amazing how the hills roll.  They take on the appearance of "velvet", but not quite what I have seen in California.

This is a shot of the mighty Columbia River and in the very far distant is the Grand Coulee Dam.  That's the next stop....:-).  Yay!

getting cloooooserrrrr......:-)

It was further away than it looks.......

but we finally got there and took a seat ........

and a shot of us standing in front of this massive construction......It looks like snow in the picture.  Scootard said it reminds him of cake batter at times.....:-)

they had a small museum where I tested some of the equipment......

I know.  I need help.  ha

Scootard considers himself a "gear head" and likes to read all about the machanics of stuff.  I was still taking in the water scene through the window.

but I did run across this while walking through the tiny museum.....

Very cool piece of history lies beneath this sign....

and here it is.  We have come a LONG WAY in regard to wheelchairs.

We made our way out of the museum where I snagged one more shot of this engineering marvel.  Grand as it is, I still like the Hoover Dam better....:-).

We signed the guest booked and started on our way again.....

We headed east toward Spokane, Washington.

I managed to snag a pic of this church on the way through

and on to Idaho......

 What a beautiful place.  Your driving along and you suddenly see things like this.....

and then from out of nowhere comes this.

Then we drove right past a field of it and the fragrance filled the car!  I pulled my hands in the window and smelled them to see if any had stuck to me...ha.  I know, weird.
It's Canola.......:-). Yep.  The stuff we get that oil from.  Too bad that they run the smell right out of it by the time we get it in the stores....:-(.

here is a closer look......:-)

Just beautiful......what hath God wrought!

and so after eating some very weird Chinese/American food for a late lunch...we made our way to our hotel room and relaxed for the rest of the day.  Hoping to get a good night's sleep so that we are ready for the next day's road adventure.

Stay tuned!