Day 1- We didn't leave my house until 9:30, since it was Father's Day we made my Dad breakfast. It was pretty nice to just relax a little before we had to head off on our crazy trip. Since we weren't sure if Susan was allowed to drive in America yet, I did all the driving this day. We did stop in Baroda at Sam's house to take a break. His Mom was so great and they even fed us! We like anyone who gives us food! Drove through Chicago and on into Iowa. We took I-80 because when you drive through Iowa for the first time you have to stop and see the biggest truck stop, a definite must! That first night we stayed in our car at a rest area that we found.
Day 2- I did most of the driving this day too. We drove to Sioux Falls, SD and saw the falls, Mitchell, SD and saw the corn palace. I am very blessed in a travel buddy who isn't too interested in stopping at all the tourist traps. We were able to just look at the outside of the corn palace and say, "That looks nice." Take a picture or two and be on our way.
Of course we had to stop at Mount Rushmore, and I have always wanted to try the ice cream they have there, so we did that too. Watched the video and walked through the museum pretty quickly. Next, we figured we should probably go to Keystone, SD and check it out. We just walked around a little bit to stretch our legs before continuing our driving.
Day 3- We woke up early, around 5 AM, which seemed to be pretty normal for this trip so far. Packed up the car and left for Yellowstone National Park. Susan loved Wyoming, definitely her favorite state thus far. She kept saying that she wanted to go visit some of the ranchers and hang out with them. We finally made it to Yellowstone and drove through it. It is a very pretty part of the country, so different than other places with the geysers, the mountains, the lakes, and the plains. Sadly, the only wildlife that we saw were elk and marmots. We didn't stop at many geysers except Old Faithful, the geyser had just gone off and it was going to take another hour and a half before anything cool was going to happen.
Day 4- It was so nice to sleep in an actual bed again! Thank you Anthony and Jenn for opening your home up to us! We decided to stop at Coldsmoke Coffee, in Bozeman before we headed north. Turns out I have a couple of friends who work there! It was so good to see Eli and Kelly again! And we even met up with Robert who happened to be in town from Washington! So good to catch up with old friends! We headed up to Montana Wilderness School of the Bible near Augusta, MT, next. I lived there as a staff kid for a few years growing up, and when I graduated high school I attended Mdub. Everything is so different there because all of the staff has changed in the last few years and they have remodeled some of the buildings. I'm not a very sentimental person, but that visit brought back so many great memories and a wish for the days of the past. Then we headed back into Augusta to visit Terry. She invited us to join her for some tea and we had a great talk, so nice to catch up with her too! Finally, we headed back to Helena where we were to stay with my family for the night. My Aunt Cathy had pizza and breadsticks waiting for us, and it was so nice to just watch a movie and relax for a bit. We had gotten peopled out and just wanted to not have to socialize. My family did come and talk to us for a while until it was an acceptable time for us to go to bed.
Day 5- After waking up at 5 and being on the road by 6 it was nice to sleep in until 7 and get going by 8:30. We had coffee and some breakfast and headed out to Missoula, MT. I have a friend who lives there so we went to see Olivia at work. We only stayed for a few minutes but it was so good to see her! Our ultimate goal for the day was to get to Walla Walla, WA to stay with Calvin. We finally got to his place and relaxed. Then he took us cherry picking, it was really fun! We picked 30 pounds of cherries, sweet cherries and Rainier cherries.
Day 6- This day was the day of our hiking trip with Calvin, so to prepare Susan and I went to Walmart to get some snacks for the road trip and some food for dinner that night. Also stopped at a laundromat and met the nicest lady. She asked us if we were traveling and why, we told her that we are coming from Michigan and are headed to Oregon for a wedding. Turns out she is from Illinois and came to Washington because of her husband, "The things we do for love," she said. There are worse things than moving to Washington. Back at Calvin's place, we made up the sandwiches and packed our backpacks for the hike. Calvin had invited a kid from his church to come with us and it was good that Levi came because he was our source of entertainment, not that it would've been boring without him, it was just a lot more funny with him there. When Calvin got home from work he packed his stuff and we headed off to the Eagle Cap Wilderness.
Our plan was to hike to Mirror Lake and stay the night there. The hike wasn't very long but it was a lot of climbing, and we didn't even make it all the way to the lake. There was a meadow that we stayed in about 4 miles from the lake, we think. There was still some snow on the trail, not much just patches here and there, but the view of the mountains was amazing! We set up our tents, Levi strung up his hammock, built a fire and ate our sandwiches, French dips for dinner was the best idea ever. Way to go, Calvin! It was a nice night, but pretty chilly. The stars weren't out until later because of the clouds, but it was still fun to sit by the fire and talk late into the night.
Day 7- I didn't sleep very well because my feet were freezing all night long. But I really shouldn't be complaining because poor Levi was so cold he had to crawl into Calvin's tent around 4 AM. Thankfully, Calvin had brought a 4 man tent and they had just enough room for the 2 of them. When we all decided it was acceptable to wake up we had breakfast and coffee by the fire. The guys decided to keep heading up the trail to see if they could find Mirror Lake, while Susan and I took our time going back to the truck.
It was so much easier going down than up and we made the 4 mile hike in an hour and 15 minutes, we even stopped along the way to take pictures. We waited for the guys for about an hour and a half when they finally showed up. Calvin told us about Wallowa Lake in Joseph, OR and we all decided to go there to check it out. The lake was beautiful, kinda chilly but great to skip rocks on, if you could find any good skipping rocks.
We were all pretty hungry and decided on Heavenly's Burger in Lostine, OR. After our burgers and shakes we dropped Levi off at home and we were glad to get back to Calvin's to take showers. We were all pretty tired but wanted to do something for our last night together, we decided to go see Finding Dory. I can't believe Finding Nemo came out 13 years ago, when I was only a little girl of 11. How crazy is that?
Day 8- Calvin made us biscuits and gravy before church this morning, so very sweet of him and they were really great! We met him at church, Calvary Chapel in Walla Walla, and were able to meet some of the people we had heard so much about. Really great to go to church, because between work and our road trip I hadn't been able to go for the last couple of weeks. I miss the fellowship of Christians when I don't go every week. After church we said our goodbyes and Susan and I were off again.
Currently we are sitting in a McDonalds about 3 hours from Walla Walla. The weekend traffic going over the Snoqualmie Pass is so bad, and there are accidents that make it even worse. We are waiting for the weather to cool down and hopefully the traffic will get a little bit better. We want to try to make it to Mount Rainier National Park tonight. So we shall see how that goes.
Thanks for sticking with me on this super long post. In the future I will try to post more often so they aren't this wordy.
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