Day 13: Whitefish, MT--Spokane, WA

Today at noon the trip was half over...which makes me feel a little melancholy to be coming down the other side of the hill. On the other hand, we aren't up to half way on mileage yet! We had the luxury of a slower start this morning: sleeping in and then playing on the very cool water slide at the hotel (and we had the pool and jacuzzis all to ourselves) We finally got under way at about 11:30 and headed back down to Rte. 90 to drive to Spokane. We stopped near Polson, MT at a cherry stand (according to Ann this is Hutterite territory and they are famous for their cherry orchards - the cherries were delicious!) And then we continued to the Idaho border. Even though Idaho is a new state for me (#47) I felt sad to be leaving Montana which I have come to love over the past four days. However, the spectacular drive from Outlook Pass, MT to Fourth of July Pass, Idaho took my mind off of it...still more unbelievable vistas and beauty. We stopped to eat in Couer d'Alene Idaho--another very scenic area--and drove down by the Lake to have lunch. We found a lovely little cafe and the owner is a vegetarian! So we had a great lunch there - but the true highlight came in leaving Couer d'Alene and driving back to Rte. 90 when I, at long last...SAW A CAR WITH A HAWAII LICENSE PLATE! Wheee!! The kids thought I was going to crash because I yelled so loudly when I saw it! (I know, I know, I'm a license plate nerd: but at least I'm a self-actualized one.) So now we've seen all the states except for pesky little Rhode Island and Delaware, which I think we will still see when we get back East. (We've also spotted license plates from seven of the Canadian provinces.) After that we were very shortly arriving at my Uncle and Aunt's home in Spokane, where we were treated to another unexpected event - My mom had flown out here and surprised us! So it was really nice to be able to fill her in on our travel adventures. My cousins Dan and Steve also live in Spokane and I've already seen them tonight. We are going to see the sights of Spokane tomorrow with Dan's family and then see Steve's family on Saturday. Uncle Dick and Aunt Kay are gracious hosts and have a nice big home for all of us to stay. Olga flies here on Saturday night and then we will leave for Oregon on Sunday morning.

I had an interesting experience tonight in the driveway. I decided that since we are going to see Olga soon that I should do something about the van which had become piled high with the detritus of the trip, or to be more descriptive: it looks like someone tossed a hand grenade into it. So I started trying to clean up and throw out and even though it was a giant quagmire, it provided a happy reminder of what a great two weeks it has been! Amongst all of the dirty clothes, big gulp cups, smashed cookies and wet swimming suits I found a treasure trail of a lot of happy memories: maps and guides to the various states and parks, rocks JD and I collected at Ann's ranch, Advantax tchotckes and propoganda, (Dave LeVan's company), the last chocolate chip cookie that Denise Foley packed for us (rats! I can't believe there had been one more buried all this time!), "Surviving a bear attack" brochure from the National Parks, Mall of America postcards we meant to send to Sabrina, and squashed cherries from this morning. Some people (like Olga!) would just think it was a disgusting disaster...but to me it was like the happy clutter on Christmas morning after the packages are opened - one of life's glorious messes! (I was however happy to be sure that we hadn't brought any rattlesnakes or other varmints with us from Ann's ranch...)