Day Five of our Journey

Mt Stewart and Mt Baker - Washington

Today was a short drive from Ellensberg, Washington to Richmond, British Columbia a suburb of Vancouver. The drive on I90 was beautiful mountain scenery until Seattle. Seattle was really busy, had an old expressway system, and very aggressive drivers. We went 2500 miles without one close call, but had three within 20 miles in Seattle. All three were drivers who decided they wanted our lane, even if we were already in it and even with their passenger door.

Anyway, we made it to Richmond in time to take the Skytrain into downtown Vancouver. Beautiful city. Tomorrow we will go for the whole day. It's Canada Day (their 4th of July equivalent), so there are fireworks, parades, and lots of free music downtown. Good timing on our part.

Did want to say we are only putting a few pictures on the blog each day, but we are taking about 30 to 50 each day, so they will be on Facebook when the trip is over.

Day Four of our Journey

Clark Fork in Montana and Idaho

Washington was definitely not what we pictured. There were field and field of Alfalfa and Potatoes - who knew there were such large farms in WA.

Started the day in Missoula, Montana and have ended it in Ellensberg, Washington. We traveled across Montana, Idaho and Washington today. We are ahead of the schedule we set for ourselves and will go into Vancouver tomorrow. We thought we would take the opportunity to explore Vancouver on July 1st. Our ship departs Vancouver on July 2nd - Alaska here we come.

We saw some beautiful scenery again today - here are a few pictures of today's journey.

Columbia River in WA - a federal government reclamation project is taking place around this amazing Gorge.

A couple of observations from our first 4 days,
1. Insects are NOT an endangered species if our windsheild is any indication.

2. We saw hundreds of Pronghorn Antelope in Wyoming, but only one or two anywhere else.

Either you cannot hunt Pronghorn in Wyoming, or hunters there are lousy shots.

3. Pine Trees rule the mountains.

4. Orange Barrels rule the highways.

Day Three of our Journey

Yellowstone River - Montana

Snowcapped Mountains - Montana

Big Sky Country - Montana

Mountains in South Dakota

We departed early this morning from Rapid City, South Dakota and have ended the day in Missoula, Montana. Temperatures ranged from 62 to 91 throughout the day. We saw some amazing scenery - what a beautiful country we have. We also saw a lot of wildlife today.

We are ahead of schedule in our travels and will take it a little slower the next couple of days and enjoy this part of the country. Many hours were spent with snow capped mountains surrounding us. Montanta is definitely Big Sky Country. Here are a few pictures of today's adventures.

Day Two of our Journey

Okay, my turn to add commentary. Left St. Joseph,Mo. at 8am today and ended up in Rapid City , SD. The morning started with a double rainbow and some light rain, but cleared up early, and it was sunny and windy the rest of the day. Some one asked what states we went thru, so day 1 was Tennessee,Kentucky,Illinois,and Missouri. Crossed the Ohio,Cumberland, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. Day 2 was Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and the whole length of South Dakota.

Day 1 was parking on I70 for 1 1/2 hours and tons of traffic from St. Louis to Kansas City. Today was the opposite. Lots of huge farms in Missouri,Iowa, and Nebraska. South Dakota was more cattle ranches, and hills than the other states, and a speed limit of 75...loved that. South Dakota begins to give you an idea of how large this country really is. You can see for miles and miles on either side of the road (I90 for us), and very,very few houses anywhere.

Well, we're in for the night and off the road, looking forward to day three.

Day One of our Journey

We got started about 6:15 am and we got as far as St Joseph, MO. Unfortunately about 1 1/2 hours was spent in a huge traffic jam in St Louis; however, we did get a lot of pictures of the Arch :). We are tired and glad to be in our hotel but anxious to continue our journey tomorrow. Here are some pictures of our day spent in the car.

The Arch -

I70 in Missouri

Rusty and I are about to begin the next phase of our lives. We are starting with a trip to Alaska. Stay tuned for updates as we travel.