Monday, November 1

Eastern Washington seemed more like Big Sky country that Montana had. The mega farms with rare farmhouses and the distant mountains were dwarfed by the blushed cream, gray, and white sky of clouds. Once again, we crossed the magnificent Columbia River, this time at Vantage, and were treated to a glimpse of rainbow over the river. Threading through the Cascades, we finally got the rain. Sheets and torrents of it, in fact.

After 58 days, 32 different states, and 9,408 miles, it was marvelous to be home. Even in a gray-out of rain, Olympia looked LOVELY! And amazingly, we had beans, zucchini and corn just picked by Mike from the garden for our welcome home dinner. We have been incredibly blessed!

Sunday, October 31

Leaving Billings, we could see clouds bumping up against the mountains ahead. The white-topped dark peaks looked like there had been a good first snowfall. “Purple mountain majesties” kept running through my head. It was deeply satisfying scenery. Small rivers winding through fields of buff and red-tinged grasses edged with red twigged bushes, burgundy leafed bushes, and bright gold-leafed trees. All against the backdrop of mountains in all directions. The clouds began creeping over the mountains in foggy mists. We were thankful that the temperature continued in the 40s--no chance of snow.

Outside of Missoula, we were treated to a vivid rainbow. Some three hours later, we had cut across the Idaho panhandle and were driving towards Coeur d’Alene through a corridor of mountains draped in fabulous fall colors. Especially impressive were the tall bright yellow western tamarack/larch which glowed amongst the deep green pines as together they marched up and down the steep hillsides.

It was chilly but beautifully sunny in Coeur d’Alene and the sunlight danced across the lake. Enjoying a brisk walk along the lake’s shore, we were treated once again to the many colors of fall--reds, oranges, yellows, greens, browns. We somehow weren’t expecting such a beautiful display of colors in the west. So, ok, Mark’s idea to take I-90 was an excellent one!

Back at the truck, we slipped across the border back into Washington to spend the night in Spokane. Couldn’t quite face another 6 hours in the truck that night.

32. Idaho--Let it be perpetual/Gem State, Gem of the Mountains

Saturday, October 30

Early on Saturday morning, we drove up and out of Rapid City past the granary, which appeared to be the tallest building in town, and through heavy pine forests towards Mt. Rushmore. We had been here with the kids but many years ago. As advertised: Great Faces! We loved reading in the museum about the 14 year long ordeal as well as the process of carving (90% of the “carving“ was done by dynamite), more about Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor), and the reasons Borglum and others chose the four great presidents represented on the mountain.

Back to I-90 again.
--tawny colored grass covered hills, red exposed rocks, yellow-leafed trees
--blue skies with wispy strands of clouds, distant dark blue, tree-covered, low mountains sporting a small rim of snow

We entered Wyoming in sunny 50 degree weather. I-90 cuts through the upper northeast corner of Wyoming. We detoured off to go see Devil’s Tower. Great little museum at the start of the road--very hands’ on things for kids (as you can see from the big kid on the horse). We approached from the east and in the distance, the Devil’s Tower looked like a jolly…ho, ho, ho… blue giant’s thumb sticking up from the earth. Teddy Roosevelt made it the nation’s first national monument in 1906.
 

On entering the monument we drove through a flat grasslands area that was home to a large and active colony of plump little prairie dogs busily fattening up for winter even though they do not hibernate. We were surprised and delighted. Driving up towards the Tower we were once again impressed by its vertical streaked appearance which according to Indian legend was the result of an Indian boy turned giant bear who clawed the Tower trying to get at his seven sisters on top. (The sisters were magically turned into the stars of the Big Dipper--OK…) We much preferred the image of Richard Dreyfuss, in Close Encounters, frantically sculpting a mashed potato Tower with his fork. Remember that one? One of our favorites actually.

Back to I-90 we went through Gillette, Wyoming and found ourselves gaping at long trains full of coal. We whizzed by what looked like a huge, surface coal mine. After googling, we discovered that our guess was correct. The mines in the area produce 30% of our country’s coal used for electrical generation. Fun facts to know and tell: Gillette is called the Energy Capital of the Nation since it has natural gas and oil reserves as well.

Just ahead we caught our first glimpse of glistening, snow-topped solid blue mountains against a white and steel gray sky--the Rockies…well, actually, the Big Horn Mountains which are considered part of the Rockies. For some time we had been passing giant gates on the highway’s on-and-off ramps along with large signs equipped with lights capable of flashing if activated. Made us realize that we were happy to be heading home BEFORE the snows came. We cruised through the 8500 mile mark. We spent the night in Billings, Montana at an RV park that was not yet closed for the winter as many increasingly were.

Montana trivia: there are 3 cows for every person in the state, the name comes from the Spanish word meaning mountain, it would take 12.9 hours at 60 mph to drive diagonally across the state from the upper northwest corner to the lower southeast corner (from Yaak to Alzada). Actually google maps says it would take 13 hours and 27 minutes. Any way you look at it, a long state!

30. Wyoming--Equal Rights/Equality State
31. Montana--Gold and Silver/Treasure State

Hmmm, not overly creative besides I thought Montana was called Big Sky country..