Back in Montana

De Smet, South Dakota, is the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. As every little girl knows, she is the author of the “Little House” series of books, which we all read when we were 8 or 9. At least, I read them all. I lived, vicariously, in those sod houses on the prairie for months when I was little.

We saw several signs along I-90 for "Dick’s 24 hour TOE Service" in Mitchell, SD. Rebecca and I had a pedicure on Saturday in Chicago. I checked to make sure the polish still looked good – nice to know that Dick was there in case I had a chip.

There are some serious problems with orange cone management in South Dakota. The cones are stored along the highway throughout the eastern half of the state, leaving the western half woefully under-coned. One poor work crew was attempting to fix a road sign with a mere 15 cones! Clearly, the Cone Manager for the State of South Dakota is having problems. Bob thought that perhaps the Department of Cones is undermanned. I’m guessing that they’ve just promoted someone from cone3 placer to cone manager, and the learning curve is still too steep. Could be that he needs to attend a couple of cone storage seminars.

Passed through Colony, Wyoming, which proudly proclaims that it is the “Bentonite Capital of the World.” (This may come as a surprise to the town of Bentonite, Michigan, which thinks that IT is the Bentonite Capital of the World, too.) The Bentonite Materials Company (a division of Halliburton) is hiring, in case anyone needs a job and wants to live in cowboy country.

US highway 212 through the northeast corner of Wyoming may be the loneliest highway in the country. It’s two lane, and almost devoid of traffic. It is also, apparently, the place where deer go to commit suicide. (Passing through Wisconsin we saw 4 fresh deer carcasses piled up together, as though they had followed Jim “Buck” Jones on to I-90.)

Tomorrow we're back in Washington. It'll be strange, having the same license plate as everyone else. I can't wait to get home to my new kitchen!

October 20

Yee haw! We're in South Dakota!

Back in the prairie……..

Chicago has maybe the prettiest skyline in the US. This view is from the street along “Museum Gallery,” where the aquarium and the Field Museum are located. The black building on the right is where Oprah lives, as nearly everyone in Chicago can tell you.

We spent a day at the Shedd Aquarium, checking out sharks, otters, moray eels and NEMO.

The Shedd Aquarium

NEMO (or Marlin)

The kids were on their best behavior, even without naps, so everyone had a good time.

Here are another two kids it’s hard to leave behind!





This morning we were on the road at 5:30 and into Wisconsin by dawn. We’re happy to be back on the open road – where the cars are fewer and the tolls are nonexistent. In continuation of our Stimulus Package Tour, we found that Minnesota may actually own more orange cones than any state we’ve visited so far. (They must have been in hiding on our way East.) It’s actually cone warehousing, since, again, there was little evidence of any actual WORK being done.

There are fewer trucks on the road here in the prairie. Those that are on the highway stay in the right lane, unlike the trucks in Illinois and Wisconsin, who drive in any old lane they choose, without regard to cars.

Chi-town

We're here, in Chicago, at Becky's. It was a long, cold drive from Maine....

On the road again (cue Willy Nelson)... we've noticed a big difference in drivers in the eastern states we visited. Pennsylvania drivers tend to be fairly considerate; Massachusetts and New York drivers are a lot more aggressive. When they pass, they cut right back in front of you, forcing you to step on your brakes (thus stopping the cruise control and making Bob curse). At first, we thought maybe it was just one or two people, but nooooooo, it appears to be ALL New York drivers.

We noticed a LOT more trucks on the highways the farther west we went. Almost no trucks in Maine and Massachusetts - maybe they're closer to the suppliers? Or maybe things are shipped via rail??? At any rate, a ton of trucks on the roads in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

We're getting lousy gas mileage on this leg of the trip. We did great on the way East, but now, westward, it's horrible. They add ethanol to their gasoline here, and we're wondering if that's the cause. We also bought new tires in Maine and had them filled with Nitrogen, so we're wondering if that's an issue.

In Indiana, the highway department is using their cones to great advantage, even though it's really no longer cone season. We're thinking that the old Beach Boys could've written a good song about it - "The Cones of Summer." And speaking of cones, we hereby hand out the Nelson's "Most Creative Use of Cones" to the state of Illinois at the Chicago Skyway, where the lovely orange cones direct traffic (in one lane) first to the left, then to the right, then back to the left, then back to center - all without any evidence of people actually working - just before you drive on to a very high bridge....way to go, Illinois!

Now, to complain a little about Illinois - they need to learn a lesson from their neighbor, Indiana. When they have a tollway, how about they give you a ticket when you enter the tollway, and then charge when you leave? Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York and INdiana all do this - works great. No slow downs. But Illinois? Nope. They stop all drivers every couple of miles so that they can charge you another $2.85.

A note from our night near Buffalo: If you are ever in that neck of the woods and are hungry for steak, go to Curly's in Lackawanna, NY. Fantastic steaks!

And now, we're in Chicago....It rained all the way here, and continued all day yesterday - Bob told me that it was just a quick walk to the Chicago Home Depot - he lied. (and it was raining, and windy)

Anyway, here we are, visiting more kids.....I've already posted wonderful pictures of these 2 beautiful grandbabies, so I'll cease and desist already.

We'll have an early birthday dinner with Becky (her birthday is November 1), and then we'll be back on the road again to Mitchell, SD, next Tuesday.

October 13, West Seneca, NY

Left Maine this morning at 5:45am in a downpour. We drove through Massachusetts and New York, ending up here in a suburb of beautiful downtown Buffalo. We thought we'd managed to evade rush hour because we bypassed Boston - Ha! The entire state of Massachusetts is a Boston suburb, evidently.

We told the kids goodbye last night before they went to bed. Laila is going to miss her Papa (and Papa is definitely going to miss his Laila). Before we left, we celebrated Philip's 4th birthday a couple of weeks early.

Portland, ME, has some wonderful parks - it's a really pretty town. The park we went to has a terrific playground, and since yesterday was a school holiday, it was packed with kids. Laila loved the big-kid slide! Philip just had all-round fun. It's hard to leave these kids!

Sunday, October 11

Fall has definitely arrived here in Maine. The trees around Ross' house are magnificent. I think the sugar maples are the trees that get the prettiest - and, of course, we don't have sugar maples at home. I suppose that's why we don't get the different colors....at any rate, it's cold enough at night now that the leaves are really bright red and orange. Just beautiful. I think we'll probably consider this the ideal time to visit Ross and his family from now on (not including baby watch next spring).

We'll take off on Tuesday morning early and head back to Chicago, stopping for the night in Buffalo, NY. I'm hoping that we can find the same wine that we bought there on the way out here. It was really good, and I'd sure like to take a few bottles home with me!

Bob is really ready to be home with Nellie....he's jealous of the time that Step is spending working on Saratoga Sue. He's also envious of the class that Step is taking at the college.

It may be difficult to leave the kids - it's been great getting to know them better - but we're both ready to be home again.

October 9

The Maine Turnpike was built in 1947. Bob thinks that maybe it's time for them to resurface it. Maine is not spending much of their stimulus package - there are potholes in Maine streets that could hide an SUV.

Yesterday, after Philip's soccer practice, we headed south to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.




Action shots of Philip on the soccer field........and his cheerleader, Laila.

Portsmouth is a pretty town, much like all the other New England towns we've been through. We missed the best part because we were afraid to get lost(having gotten lost once on the way IN to town), but we did find the old North Cemetery. That may not be interesting to many of you, but I think that old cemeteries are fascinating. We found resting places of people from the 1770's through 1901 (at least, that was the newest one I saw). VEry interesting.

New Hampshire seems to be a passionate state. They have lower sales tax, LOTS of political signs, and a state slogan that is on every license plate: "Live Free or Die!" (We find that a little hostile and threatening, frankly.)

We noticed that as we went south to New Hampshire (only an hour away) that the leaves aren't as colorful. Surprising that there's a difference this close.

October 5

All you Microsoft devotees, just cover your eyes......Streets and Trips is a worthless piece of software. There, I said it. It may not be COMPLETELY worthless, but as far as its abilities to get you where you need to go, fahgeddaboudit. I was about ready to toss the computer out the window today.

October 4

Today was the Maine Marathon (cue the "Rocky" theme).....Ross did well. He ran the 13.1 miles in 1 hour 54 minutes. That meets his time from the Chicago Rock n Roll Marathon, so he was satisfied. We managed to position ourselves so that we could see him finish. Philip and Zakia and I yelled "Go, Daddy, Go!" as he passed us toward the finish line. Unfortunately he was listening to Michael Jackson's "Criminal" at the time and didn't hear us.


Great run, Ross!!

Friday we visited a dairy farm and played on their cool toys.....Laila liked the baby goats and Philip liked feeding the ducks. Bob liked the mocha chip ice cream.

Cool toys!

You've gotta love these baby goats!

I learned something today. You can get your hair cut at Wal Mart for $14.95. That gets you a haircut, a shampoo, a whole lotta STUFF in your hair, and a Marge Simpson "do." On the bright side, my hair is no longer in my eyes, and I'm pretty sure most of the stuff will wash out. (Zakia wanted to put a picture of my "do" on this blog, but she'll have to take up blogging herself to do it.)

Bob loaded Streets and Trips on our little notebook computer, and it works as well as the GPS did, so we're all set for the trip back home.

Back in Portland, ME

We drove the 3 1/2 hours back to Maine yesterday, with stops in Hyannis, Mass. and the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory. I had pictured Hyannis as a really wealhy enclave (hey, I'm a child of the 60's, I remember all the tv pictures of the Kennedys), but it's a working town. What we saw was fairly blue-collar, even though it's on the Cape. We managed to get to what we think was the town's marina, where Bob walked along one dock, doing a little boat-looking. All he was, though, was fishing boats. We didn't see a single coastal cruiser anywhere. Too bad. Bob was looking forward to teasing Steppe that he'd found a cheap Krogen. There just aren't all that many boats, when you consider all that water!

The Cape Cod Potato Chip factory was a stop for snacks, pure and simple. They have a self-guided tour, followed by a shop where they give you two bags of chips each. I confess to my fellow WOWies that I ate the chips. Mea Culpa.

As we drove North we noticed that the leaves are really turning up here (not so much in Massachusetts). The orange leaves come first, then the red.....the news reported that this is the peak week in northern Maine, and that the Portland area will reach its peak later. All depends on the weather. It's gotten chilly, so I don't think it will be long........

Cape Cod, days 2 & 3

Yesterday we spent the day in Chatham, Mass. It’s a really pretty town on Nantucket Sound on Cape Cod. You know how most tourist towns that have some kind of theme, only carry that theme where the tourists go? Well, Chatham is actually the real deal. This is a vibrant tourist town that is a true New England town. Every house, every building, is true “New England” (well, of course, since I am IN New England)……I was totally charmed by this town – each house is prettier than the one before. There are no strip malls here. Each store is in a standalone house, a little Cape Cod or Federal style. So pretty. And this town knows how to do the tourist thing! There are numerous free parking lots, behind buildings, so that they aren’t right out in full sight, taking away from the ambiance of the town; plus, there are clean, nice public restrooms every few blocks, landscaped prettily and easy to find. How smart are these New Englanders, eh? They make it very easy to come and spend money in their town! Oak Harbor (sorry, that’s Oak Hahbah) should take a lesson,.


Bob & Laila take a try at the cold waters of Nantucket Sound.....


Ross & Philip stay a little farther up from the waves....

We are having fun getting to know our little Laila. Last time we saw her, she was only 5 months old, so this is the first time we’ve been with her in a year. She has wound her Papa around her little finger (much as her cousins did). As she gets older, I predict that her big brother, Philip, will also find himself wrapped up pretty tightly. She’s definitely a charmer.

Philip is now almost 4 years old (boy, that time sure flew by!), and is growing up fast. He’s having fun at preschool, and is still pretty precocious. (I may be a little biased, here.)

Today we spent the day in Wellfleet, about halfway between the elbow and the fist of Cape Cod (you'll have to look at a map to see what I mean). Another really pretty New England town. We hiked the White Cedar Swamp Trail on the Cape Cod National Seashore - which is pretty much most of the seashore along the Atlantic coast. Then we drove over to the marina in Wellfleet....certainly different than any of our marinas!!


If Ben Franklin'd had his way, these would be our national birds!



Wellfleet Hahbah and the marina.

Tomorrow we head back to Maine.

Cape Cod

We left Maine Sunday morning in a downpour. It let up while we drove through Boston, which was a good thing. Boston traffic, even on a Sunday morning, is not fun. Our GPS died before we left, so we had Mapquest directions for a while, until Ross got the GPS in his Pacifica working. (Unfortunately, that wasn’t until Boston.) Halfway through Boston (but after we drove across that very cool bridge that is shown in the opening shots of “Boston Legal”) both kids had to go potty, so we had to get off the highway. Then we had to find our way back to the highway – thank goodness for GPS! After we got back on the road, however, the skies opened and it rained like crazy, all the way to the Cape. After we got here the winds came up – looked like a crazy hurricane out there!

Cape Cod isn’t exactly what I’d imagined. I suppose I never gave it much thought – I kind of expected a smallish, very New England, fishing town. Not even close. Cape Cod isn’t even a town – it’s the whole peninsula (you see how naïve I am? Obviously, I know nothing about the Northeast). We are in Yarmouth, which is pretty much one strip mall followed by a motel after another. No views of Nantucket Sound from these motels – you have to drive, and then PAY to go to the beach.

Yesterday we drove to Provincetown, locally known as P-town, which is the farthest one can go on Cape Cod. Now, THIS is what I imagined! What a pretty town – every other house was a B & B. Evidently, many people here rent out their homes during the summer, for $2,000 or so a week, and go live on their boats, then come home again in October. Nice. We did the usual tourist stuff – bought sweatshirts, went to all the little stores, etc. Then, we talked Bob into going whale watching. He said, hey he can see whales at home………….not like this, he couldn’t! It was amazing, The naturalist on board was so excited – he hadn’t seen this in years, he said. We went out about 20 miles into the North Atlantic, into an area where they normally feed. We saw a couple of whales off in the distance, then, there we were – in the middle of 14 humpbacks, feeding. They were no more than 20 yards from the side of the boat! One time three of them came up, lifted their enormous tail flukes and slapped the water. Then they dove – and came right back up, with their mouths open, getting all the fish. They come up, mouths agape, until their heads are all the way out of the water, then, as they lower themselves back in the water, they keep their heads out a bit, while the water drains out of their mouths, through their “teeth” (the baleens). This went on for over an hour……..it was AWESOME in the true sense of that word. Bob was glad we talked him into going…..we’ll never see anything like that again. Unfortunately, the ride was pretty rough – 4-5 foot swells, with about a 3-4 foot chop, so there were some pretty sick folks, including our daughter-in-law. She’d have taken the Dramamine, but they don’t advise it for pregnant women in the first trimester.

Yep, you read that right – grandchild number 7 is on the way. Guess I’ll be back in Maine before I expected.

Lobster night

YUM. We cooked fresh lobster tonight for dinner. Takes a lot longer than crab to cook. Not as delicate as crab, but then, these bad boys weighed in at about 3 pounds! Philip ate his entire lobster with no help, thank you very much. This little boy is definitely a Down Easter!



You don't really need anything else but lobster - Ross and I couldn't decide which one was biggest........




As a foodie, I'd say that lobster is much meatier than crab. It could hold its own with a strong sauce, even a curry, whereas crab would just get lost in something too spicy. It's delicious, though. For us west-coasters, it's so different from crab that it's a real treat (just as Dungeness is a treat for our East Coast family). My deal with Ross is this: I feed him crab when he comes to Seattle, he feeds me lobster when I come to Maine. A good deal for both of us!!

I'm looking forward to eating more lobster when we're in Massachusetts next week.

September 23

We spent the day in downtown Portland. It’s really a charming town. All the downtown streets are cobbled, and the town is chock full of art galleries. Most buildings are brick – not what we’re used to in western Washington. People here are much friendlier than we’re used to seeing in the East….certainly friendlier than they were in Maryland, where Ross and Zakia used to live. You can leave the house and car unlocked without fear of being ripped off.

We had lunch today at The Lobster Shack – a local favorite. It sits right on the ocean in the town of Cape Elizabeth. The site was lovely - a lighthouse right there, and container ships passing by. Only one pleasure boat that I saw (not a Bayliner, surprisingly). I had my first lobster roll (must be an East Coast delicacy, since we see them advertised in every restaurant and take-out joint). Hmmmm. A toasted hot dog bun with a dollop of mayo, one sour pickle slice and several hunks of lobster. Well, I suppose I’m missing something. I don’t see the thrill. Give me the lobster with some melted butter and/or cocktail sauce and I’d be happier. Hot dog buns are hot dog buns, no matter what you call them.

Last night Zakia made an amazing Indian dinner…..watch out, Oak Harbor friends – you’ll be eating this meal when I come home! It was fabulous. Ross gave me a birthday present when we arrived – a gift certificate to Rabelais, a bookstore dedicated to books on food, wine and entertaining. I found two cookbooks that I’m pretty sure I’ll use. I was tempted to buy the book that I gave Ross for his birthday (The Bread Baker’s Apprentice), but I decided that one bread baker per family is probably enough…..Ross’ bread is terrific. (We are pretty much a family of foodies – Trina is wonderful at seafood and appetizers of all kinds, Becky is the cookie queen, and Ross is the bread man…..I figure that leaves me with my choice of all the rest!)

September 22

Wow, September is almost over. Hard to believe....the weather here is definitely autumn-like. Cool, in the 40's during the night and early morning, then getting warm during the day. We've had sunny days, which is nice for walking with the grandkids.

Last night our daughter-in-law made a wonderful Arabic dinner: mujidra, zahatar, lebne (I'm sure I'm spelling everything wrong)....translates to lentils, spicy crackers and yogurt. Deeeelicious. We're cooking Indian tonight. Yum.

This weekend we're going to Cape Cod for 4 days. I'll have lots of pictures to post then!

Apple picking in Maine

It's apple season here. We spent the afternoon yesterday picking apples and playing among the apple trees.

Does it get better than this??? Riding on Dad's back eating my apple - all drips go on HIS shirt not mine!



Mmmm, happiness is a fresh caramel apple...........yummmmm

Portland, ME

Spent the day at Fort William, built in 1791 by George Washington.....



Somebody told Bob to "go fly a kite..........." so he did..........


All of us (minus Ross, who actually had to (shudder) work)

We made it to Maine!

We made it to Maine! Whew.

On Tuesday, we drove from Hamburg, NY, to Cornwall, Ontario. We went through Syracuse and into the lakes district. (Did you know that New York HAD a lakes district???) We crossed the St. Lawrence Seaway at Massena, NY, into Cornwall, immediately encountering the Canadian highways. Ummm, perhaps the Canadian Stimulus Package wasn’t as large as ours…….they could use some stimulation. Quebec was even worse, as far as highways goes. Pretty much washboard city. Bob thinks we should send them some of our cones. They do road work WITHOUT ORANGE CONES. I don’t think they realize that it’s some kind of rule that you must use about 120 orange cones per project, and that the cones should extend approximately 5 miles in front of and behind all projects.

We stayed in a cheapie hotel – a Super 8. I had gotten it through hotwire. That will probably be the last time I do that, as they had requested a smoking room for me. When I told the desk clerk that there’s no way I’d asked for that, he found another room for us, but he then told me that we were the third reservation he’d had in 2 weeks where hotwire had requested a smoking room for a nonsmoking customer. The place was clean, but the hall smelled strongly of marijuana. I guess the little no-smoking icon on the door didn’t include any funny-looking cigarettes.

When we got to Montreal on Wednesday we killed a couple of hours shopping – Bob’s favorite store, Canadian Tire (!) and I found a new pair of shoes.  Then we went to L’ile Perrot, a small island between Montreal and its western suburbs, to visit friends. Had a great visit with them.

Montreal c’est magnifique! A lovely city, if you ignore all the French stuff. While I’m aware that Montreal is a French-speaking city, I kind of assumed that, since it is part of an English-speaking country, the signs would be in both languages. Au contraire. No English signs anywhere. Now, I know a few isolated French words, and I can usually figure out the signs from that (“something happening in the right lane, Bob”), but as for the information signs, forget it. My French is SO limited (there is just no good way to work “la plume de ma tante” into a sentence) that shopping was fun, too. The clerks come up, chattering away in French – then they see my confused face and switch to perfectly unaccented English. That kind of surprised me, since our friend speaks with a French accent…..all in all, Montreal is like going to France without the snotty French! I definitely want to go back on one of these trips to Maine.

The drive through New Hampshire and Vermont was really pretty. We ignored the interstates and drove a back road for a couple of hundred miles (Portland is only 300 miles from Montreal). The leaves are already beginning to turn in Vermont…..the nights are getting cold. Here, on the coast of Maine, the ocean is keeping the air a bit warmer, so the leaves aren’t changing yet. Soon, though. All the produce stands have pumpkins and late apples out. We plan to go apple picking this weekend.

Next blog will have pictures!!

September 15

We’re almost there….we’re in Cornwall, Ontario, about an hour away from Montreal.

We entered the tollway system at 6:00am Monday morning at the Chicago Skyway. Went through Indiana (Gary and Hammond, Indiana, are still as ugly as ever.), then Ohio, a part of Pennsylvania and ended up in Hamburg, NY, last night. Today we hopped back on the thruway and drove through the northwest corner of New York, through Syracuse and Watertown and crossed the border here in Cornwall. (In New York, it’s called a “Thruway” instead of a tollway. Bob says they’re in denial. They just don’t want to admit that they pay to drive on a highway.)

A note to all Oak Harbor friends: we passed Ft. Drum, New York, where there is a tourist attraction named Ed’s Museum.

I enjoy upstate New York – not only is it really pretty and bucolic, but they’ve got amusing names and, sometimes, old-fashioned terms. The towns upstate are not cities or towns, they are all “villages.” I find that quaint. This afternoon we drove along the Aluminum Workers Memorial Highway. (Bob says they have to write that down on signs because those workers all have Alzheimer’s from all the aluminum.) Upstate New York is also wine country. I’ve never driven around in the Northwest part of this state. I couldn’t believe the number of vine grape fields (Dee? What’re they really called?) we saw. We stopped at a liquor store and bought some local wine, but the clerk didn’t know what variety of grape New York is known for……I don’t know. But the red seems really nice.

We have decided to call this trip the “2009 Stimulus Package Report Tour.” We are seeing, first-hand, our federal taxes at work. Washington didn’t get much in the way of stimulus, I guess, at least not on I-90 in eastern Washington. Idaho must be spending all their cash in the southern half, because the panhandle was wide open all the way. In Montana, we pretty much set it on cruise control and went through. Now, South Dakota is clearly spending ALL its money on rebuilding I-90 from east to west. Driving through is dismal….the orange cones are endless. Minnesota wasn’t a lot better, but Wisconsin was okay. Northern Illinois is a mess. We paid $4.25 for the privilege of driving on the tollway, where we went almost 20 miles at 40 mph with bumper-to-bumper traffic. (It would have probably been better on the regular highway.) During that 20 miles, where the road is blocked by the ubiquitous orange cones down to one lane, we saw absolutely NO evidence of any actual road work being done. (Perhaps that federal cash is now residing in the Blagojevich Defense Fund.)

Speaking of orange cones, it is my contention that states are actually STORING their orange cones on the sides of highways (really, what warehouse would be large enough for all those cones?) – it isn’t really any kind of highway improvement, it’s simply “cone management.”

Tomorrow we visit the beautiful city of Montreal…….and then, it’s on to Maine.

September 13

20,000 runners. 13.1 miles.

Rebecca was awesome. She ran a great race, although her time wasn't her best. She did better last month when she ran with Trina, Ross and Zakia in the Rock N Roll Half Marathon.

Tomorrow it's on to Hamburg, NY. We'll cross into Ontario on Tuesday, and Montreal on Wednesday.

Friday, September 11

We made it. We arrived in Chicago right at rush hour, so we spent a little over an hour and a half getting to Becky's house.

The drive yesterday was a killer - 11 1/2 hours, from Bozeman, Montana, to Mitchell, South Dakota. Instead of our usual map or mapquest directions, we let the gps lead us. It took us a different way than we were used to - over MT 212 instead of I 90 the last 180 miles of Montana. The route took us through the Crow and Cheyenne Indian Reservations. The countryside was really rough and pretty isolated. Although it was a two-lane road, we averaged about 70 mph, simply because there are no towns and no other cars on the road. I think we'll probably go the same way on the way home. I enjoyed the countryside through the rest of Montana and the western half of South Dakota. While there are none of our forests, the hills are so rough that it's pretty intimidating country.

Today we really entered the prairie. Eastern South Dakota still has the rolling hills, but, boy, Minnesota is a booooorrrrrinng state. Southern Minnesota looks exactly like its neighbor, Iowa - very flat, with almost no trees. Corn fields followed by soybean fields followed by more corn fields. I did notice that the cows in Minnesota are mostly brown, whereas the cows (those that I saw, anyway) in Montana were Black Angus.

The biggest difference between yesterday and today are the roads. The roads in Montana were smooth, with no big problems. Cheez, the roads in Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota were horrendous. They have some kind of surface that causes the tires to give off this high-pitched whine. It made me crazy! After hour 6 I was ready to kill someone. Some social worker (I should suggest this to Becky) should do a study to see if the noise causes more aggression in drivers. Certainly I was more aggressive today!!

We've had hot weather the past two days. It was in the upper 80's yesterday and mid-80's today. It's good to be off the road for a couple of days.

Tomorrow we sit around and relax, then Sunday Becky is running the Chicago Half Marathon. We'll go and cheer, then pack up and get ready to take off on Sunday for Buffalo (whoo-hoo)

September 9

The dawn broke at 5:54 am, while we were entering Ellensburg. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I attempted to take a picture of it. Unfortunately, it is dark at 5:54am, and I couldn't make the darn camera stop flashing. Clearly, a short tutorial on the workings of our new camera are in order.

Today's travels took us the 690 miles from Bellevue to Bozeman, Montana. This is probably the prettiest part of our trip - at least until we get to the Northeast and/or Montreal. We went through the Cascades (of course, it was dark at that time of day), then the Palouse, beautiful Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and then the mountains of western Montana.

When I was a little girl I was a terrible tomboy (I'm not sure why it's "terrible"), and at the age of about 9 I was convinced that Montana would be the most wonderful place in the world to live. After all, they have real cowboys, Indians and horses! I wanted to be Roy Rogers, not Dale Evans! I still like western Montana - I can just picture the indian tribe, in their war paint on the war ponies, lined up on all these hills.......

Tomorrow we leave these beautiful hills and enter the prairies of South Dakota. We'll go another 736 miles to Mitchell, SD. And, no, I'm not going to visit the corn palace!

Here's a pictures from today's drive:

It's a long long road ahead!
iv>

Just outside of Missoula, Montana. Really rugged country.

Tuesday, September 8

It's finally here - The Grand Adventure! I love car trips, so I'm excited....I do remember, however, that I will probably not feel that way on Thursday, when we drive about 750 miles from Bozeman, Montana, to Mitchell, South Dakota (the home of the Corn Palace).

Today, we'll leave home around noon and head down to Bellevue, where we'll spend the night with Trina and her family. The girls, Paige and Maya, will earn a little cash by tending my plants while we are gone. Wednesday we'll drive from Bellevue to Bozeman. Maybe I'll see a cow.

September 3

After an evening of light rain, we arrived yesterday in bright sunshine at Roche Harbor Resort. We haven’t been here for a year or two, and it’s always nice to feel pampered. The dock crew even hooked up our power cord this time. I always feel like the poor relations when we come here, though. The conspicuous consumption here, with all the 60+-foot yachts with their private chefs, etc., and all the folks walking around in their yachting attire (while I’m in my ratty sweatshirt with weird hair) sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable. That said, I’m going to enjoy this couple of days while I’m here….we’ll hit the restaurant, go for coffee and those wonderful fresh-made donuts at 7:00am, and I’ll no doubt spend a little cash in the gift shop. Hey, somebody has to support the economy here on San Juan Island!

We had a lot of rain last night, giving us the opportunity to find a new leak in the hatch over our bed. One more thing that must be fixed before we take off for parts East. Fortunately, Bob has some instant sealant that can be used in damp weather, so we’ll get it sealed up before we leave.

Tomorrow we’re off to Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, where Stacy is working for a few weeks. Douglas will be coming up for the weekend, so we’ll get to visit with them for a couple of days. Steppe and Mary Williford will try and join us there. We’re hoping to find a spot to anchor and avoid the resort’s expensive moorage.

While we were coming from Lopez Island, passing Blakely Island, battling through the excessive wake of a 50-foot Bayliner who passed by going the usual 30 knots,(and, to quote Steppe, “Why is it ALWAYS a Bayliner?”) we realized that we often take this place for granted. There simply aren’t many places like the Northwest. (Maybe Maine, but I’m going to find that out for myself soon.)

I wanted to post pictures of Roche, but we forgot the disc with the drivers for the camera, so the pictures will have to wait for the next portion of this trip!

September 1, 2009

This is the first blog attempt......we're taking off for the San Juans, aiming for slack tide through Deception Pass at 3:19 this afternoon. We'll spend tomorrow and Thursday at Roche Harbor Resort, thanks to a lovely gift certificate the kids gave us for our anniversary. Then, we'll meet up with Douglas and Stacy in Deer Harbor on Friday or Saturday. Since the weather has turned, we'll stay close to home on Sunday, so that we can slip into the marina at the earliest we can on Monday.

Tuesday begins the Grand Adventure. A road trip through Chicago and Montreal to Maine. I hope to post pictures here along the way.